Television Top Gear

I thought last weeks episode was awful, even more so when I watched the repeat the other night.

So far tonight, the McLaren with Jenson was entertaining. The 4x4 road trip thing is a bit naff and I really don't like the new format for the star in a rally cross car.
 
About 100 replies last week... 4 replies this week,

Let us know if its any good
 
Christ I completely forgot about it :confused:

Guess it'll be onto Twitter to see people's thoughts
 
Well it was definitely better tonight compared to last weeks episode, although that's still not saying much. Evans toned it down a bit but I'm still not sold on MLB and Eddie Jordan was just horrible to watch. The challenges were a bit stupid but no more then the old show, star in a rally cross car is too long and I don't like the whole "so tell us what so and so is up to?" format.

Good news is that Chris Harris and that other guy are on next weeks show so maybe there might be further improvement.
 
They should hire Button! He basically showed them how to drive and talk on camera and it was good, helped by the McLaren obviously. After that part it went down hill though it was better than last week (not saying much).

I just found it really boring, the challenge (poor man's sketch of the previous Top Gear) and interview (an awkward toned down TFI style) sections especially so. I actually liked Evans on TFI and Jordan in F1 but it doesn't flow naturally for them.
 
It was better than last week, I think and there are certainly positives in there. I think Matt le Blanc has been way, way better than I expected, however Chris Evans has been much poorer than I thought he would be, so that's sort of balanced out, I guess. The McLaren segment was excellent and the SUV bit was decent enough - pretty standard Top Gear stuff. Eddie Jordan was pretty crap though.

The worst part by a mile is the format of the new 'Star in a Rally Cross Car' part. The audience cheer-vote-thing is awful and unnecessary and I hate when the guests read off the autocue to tell us why the other guest is on the show. So cringe and not needed. Also, the 'jokes' about old haircuts is shite, get rid of that.

It remains a decent watch on a Sunday night and I think it shall continue to get better.
 
I'll give it a watch later or tomorrow. Seems like those who were determined to hate the show have turned away.

Hopefully now it will continue to improve bit by bit. I don't think they will ever turn it into peak Top Gear but they can produce something decent enough and eventually people will grow accustom to it.
 
Again the Extra Gear programme on BBC Three was the better show.
 
When people say it was better which best sums up the show?

Actually kinda watchable, worth checking out on iPlayer

or

Better, but still pretty bad and worth avoiding for a few more episodes in the hope it improves more
 
ZIDANE said:
They should hire Button! He basically showed them how to drive and talk on camera and it was good, helped by the McLaren obviously. After that part it went down hill though it was better than last week (not saying much).
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Button was really great, he looked and sounded really good on camera, would like to see him regularly.
 
Watching it now. Beginning intro is till that bad.

Edit: Jenson in the McLaren was good. The studio exchange between the 2 host is still bad. Then came the offroader piece and they all started talking about their cars. Edie Jordan opened his mouth and I stopped watching.
I ain't watching the show anymore.
 
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McClaren bit at the start was really good I thought - Evans did fine in that part.

South Africa segment was sort of OK but I'm already tired of them trying to turn every little piece into a special. Last week it fell extra flat because it was just London to Blackpool. This week they were at least somewhere a bit more adventurous but I was turned off by the blatant attempt to manufacture jeopardy when there wasn't any. It was a good enough piece without the drama.

Is Eddie Jordan a permanent feature? I have no idea who he is but he felt like a guest host and did a terrible job of it. Worse than Evans last week for me... significantly.

I think it's showing signs of being something watchable at some point in the future but at the moment it's very much going through its awkward teenage years.

P.S. Star in a reasonably priced car interview section was terrible - laps are more fun than before, though.
 
Better than last week but if theres one thing I hate it's blatantly faked reactions. I.e. the fake banter about Eddies small engine, and Chris spitting out his water at the guys comment about rhinos.. unbearable to watch.
 
pauldyson1uk said:
I do want to like it, but last week it was just dreadful, the Reliant film was just pointless.
I will give it another chance, I actually quite like Eddie Jordan.
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It's like Richard Porter was saying in that long article someone posted last week, they always had a challenge or some vague purpose for what they were doing with their stupid shitty car bits. Like 'can you buy an Italian sports car for less than a grand' or 'can you buy a 4x4' for £100?' etc and then there would be a series of daft road tests.

Obviously they were still stupid and ultimately pointless but there was a sense of them competing against each other and they sometimes ended up surprisingly liking their cars.

The reliant thing they were given the cars rather than choosing them themselves and there was no real underlying question to it other than 'let's put them in shit cars and we'll figure the rest out as we go'. The challenges they came up with were nothing to really do with the cars and even brought in old jeeps for some random reason.
 
I dont know who chris evans is but there has to be someone in england who can host a show and not be as annoying as him.
 
I tried to watch it i really did. After 10 minutes or so i started skipping bits and by the time it got to the celebrity interviews i gave up. Matt Le Blanc is just fine but the rest suck. They really, really suck.

They can throw all the money they want at it. It's a car show after all and parts of it are actually quite dull. What we're realising now is the camaraderie between the previous three kept the dull bits watchable and made the good bits outstanding.
 
Just watched the second episode. To be honest, not so bad. First one was horrendous, but some of the segments in the second one were decent, especially the Mercedes bit. The Rally car segment is sooo long, they really need to cut it short. Just need to remove Chris Evans and the show could be half decent.
 
Ijazz17 said:
Just watched the second episode. To be honest, not so bad. First one was horrendous, but some of the segments in the second one were decent, especially the Mercedes bit. The Rally car segment is sooo long, they really need to cut it short. Just need to remove Chris Evans and the show could be half decent.
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Bang on the money, Mark Webber for me would be a better choice.
 
Evans posted this about 2 hours ago.

The way Top Gear is being viewed is repositioning the way television is consumed. Last week 9 millions viewers. This week we shall see.

9m ??? where did that come from.
 
pauldyson1uk said:
Evans posted this about 2 hours ago.

The way Top Gear is being viewed is repositioning the way television is consumed. Last week 9 millions viewers. This week we shall see.

9m ??? where did that come from.
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Presumably iPlayer views? I guess its believable enough. If its true though I doubt it will get to half that this week.
 
Jordon is such a natural presenter, you can hardly tell its all scripted.


Oh, and Matt Le Blanc, he's american then is he?
 
The only positive for me is Chris Harris, and he's barely been involved so far although he's meant to be on the main show next week. The rest are just a horrible mishmash that don't really work well together.
 
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