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The Top Gear Megathread! Mark II

mfacey said:
I don't quite understand why Top Gear is having these short seasons. 6 shows really is a bit silly. Sure, we don't need a full 18 shows but this is just silly.
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I imagine it's a reflection of all the other projects the presenters have, in addition to things like Top Gear Live, which takes them out of the country for extended periods.

They've admitted that they have been pressed for time to get Series 13 and 14 together, and I think it's showed. With Series 15, they seem to have spent more time to do it right with less episodes, and that has showed, as well, IMO.
 
CWallace said:
I imagine it's a reflection of all the other projects the presenters have, in addition to things like Top Gear Live, which takes them out of the country for extended periods.

They've admitted that they have been pressed for time to get Series 13 and 14 together, and I think it's showed. With Series 15, they seem to have spent more time to do it right with less episodes, and that has showed, as well, IMO.
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Hopefully we'll get that on iTunes soon.
 
It's also a budget issue. Their budget got trimmed down - so they said 'Fine - we'll just make less shows. We're not compromising on quality' - basically.

IMHO - Series 15 was a total justification of that policy.
 
mfacey said:
I don't quite understand why Top Gear is having these short seasons. 6 shows really is a bit silly. Sure, we don't need a full 18 shows but this is just silly.
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They've never had 18 shows in a series, and over the last 9 seasons the average has only been 7 shows per series, but there's been more series with only 6 shows in the last 9 than any other number.

The series before 7 had more episodes, but generally I suspect that is largely because the content was less elaborate than in later seasons as it focused less on cars and more on attracting a mainstream audience.

Series 7 - 6
Series 8 - 8
Series 9 - 6
Series 10 - 10
Series 11 - 6
Series 12 - 8
Series 13 - 7
Series 14 - 7
Series 15 - 6

mfacey said:
There's plenty of fun cars to review!:mad:
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Which of course begs the obvious question... why don't they actually review them then? But to be honest, I think I've answered that myself above, and certainly when you compare the content of all the seasons over the years, there's certainly an argument to be made that as the show has become more popular, it's become less of a car show.
 
iGav said:
There's certainly an argument to be made that as the show has become more popular, it's become less of a car show.
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I know that's why more people watch it, but for me that's why I watch it. A bit of a shame really :(
 
djellison said:
If you want just car reviews, go watch Fifth Gear.
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I'm certainly not suggesting that it should become 'What Gear?' ;) but I'd argue that there could be a better balance struck between the chat & the action, and I think it's arguable that the balance was better in some of the the earlier series.
 
That's the point I was making. If you want ordinary reviews of ordinary cars - go pick up a magazine or something. It's not what Top Gear is for.
 
djellison said:
If you want just car reviews, go watch Fifth Gear.
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robbieduncan said:
The downside to that is that Fifth Gear is utterly terrible.
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Five cutting their time-slot in half (from 60 minutes to 30 minutes) has improved the latest series (17) a good bit, in my eyes, though they now tend to feel rushed. If they'd drop the "cocking about" bits (which have never been to the level of Top Gear's) and gave those 3 to 4 minutes to extend the car reviews, I think.
 
combatcolin said:
Fifth Gear is what Top Gear used to be.

Which is to say, extremely watchable for any car fan.
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I'm a car fan. I find fifth gear tedious beyond belief. I can't stand it.

But the point you make - Fifth Gear being what Top Gear used to be... you know that is quite literally true, right? The production team of Fifth Gear is the production team of old Top Gear. They took the format to 5 after the BBC dropped it, and 5 took it onboard.

Clarkson and Andy Willman (who was Exec.Prod on many other Clarkson Projects) formulated the new format and that's the new Top Gear.
 
Fifth gear presenters are annoying either so dull it hurts or trying to be down with the kids its as embarrassing as watching your uncle swing his jacket at a wedding.
 
djellison said:
I'm a car fan. I find fifth gear tedious beyond belief. I can't stand it.

But the point you make - Fifth Gear being what Top Gear used to be... you know that is quite literally true, right? The production team of Fifth Gear is the production team of old Top Gear. They took the format to 5 after the BBC dropped it, and 5 took it onboard.

Clarkson and Andy Willman (who was Exec.Prod on many other Clarkson Projects) formulated the new format and that's the new Top Gear.
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Top Gear was quite an ensemble piece, they had a HUGE amount of presenters over the years, however Clarkson slowly became the most popular (or loudest - take your pick!).

At the end Top Gear and Clarkson were so intertwined that when he threw his toys out the the pram about having to review "normal" cars Top Gear folded.

This is why Top Gear rarely does "normal" cars, and why Channel Five cleverly spotted a gap in the market and created Fifth Gear as the flip Side to the new Top Gear.

Clarkson himself makes no apologies for how he acted - he simply became bored of his job (like we all do) but in a 1 in a Million chance forced his Job to bend to his will and not the other way round.

Another way to look at it is that the market is big enough for both shows to exist - it dosn't have to be one or the other.

As you can guess - i like both. :p
 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pzBcQ93e6Ns

As an American without BBC America, I've only seen bits and pieces of the British version. But seeing the trailer for this POS makes me want to start buying episodes of the British version on iTunes. If they ever want to make a successful version in the US, I think the best guys to get would be Jay Leno, Adam Carolla, and Alex Albrecht. Adam and Alex actually auditioned but were snubbed, and Jay thinks the show won't work here because giving such harsh reviews that the UK version is able to get away with could get sponsors to pull out quick. What do you guys think?
 
djellison said:
That's the point I was making. If you want ordinary reviews of ordinary cars - go pick up a magazine or something. It's not what Top Gear is for.
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But in the process, you appear to be missing the point that no one is really suggesting that Top Gear should be "ordinary reviews of ordinary cars", having more cars on the show doesn't mean they should be dusting off Woollard & Goffey... and reviewing a car doesn't mean measuring the size of the boot for heaven's sake. :rolleyes: :p

Why not an extraordinary review of an ordinary car like they used to do?

But in some recent shows you almost literally got 5 minutes of a car being thrashed at the beginning, and the rest is then essentially the 'Clarkson' show revisited, and that is where the balance has shifted in recent seasons, from having a solid balance of content to essentially being a 45 minute chat show, which is most certainly not what Top Gear is for, at all.

robbieduncan said:
How could I forget the squeal of VBH. She started off seeming quite genuine but the noises soon seemed scripted and forced...
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I rather like Miss Vicki Butler… not really sure if you can script involuntary "noises" though, :p but I find her impish squeals and mischievous grins rather endearing myself.

I still think the banter between Tiff & Plato is much more natural than say that of Hammond & May, which really is often forced and appears entirely contrived (Hammond is particularly guilty of this), a problem that is also readily apparent in the Top Gear studio, where they often appear to succumb to the temptations of pre-recording a show, the double-humour killer of over rehearsing & re-takes.

They should go out at 9pm... maybe 10, they should go out live… they won't of course, but it'd be fantastic if they did.
 
Dr Tetromino said:
As an American without BBC America, I've only seen bits and pieces of the British version. But seeing the trailer for this POS makes me want to start buying episodes of the British version on iTunes. If they ever want to make a successful version in the US, I think the best guys to get would be Jay Leno, Adam Carolla, and Alex Albrecht. Adam and Alex actually auditioned but were snubbed, and Jay thinks the show won't work here because giving such harsh reviews that the UK version is able to get away with could get sponsors to pull out quick.
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Adam Carolla, Tanner Foust, and Eric Stromer were part of the original attempt, which NBC commissioned and then dropped after filming the pilot a couple of years back. NBC asked Leno to be a part of it, but be turned it down.

I don't believe Carolla was interested in being part of the History Channel version and Faust is effectively a carry-over from the NBC pilot. So that makes Ferrara and Wood the "new guys".
 
iGav said:
B
Why not an extraordinary review of an ordinary car like they used to do?
.
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Wwhat was wrong with Clarksons reviews of the Fiesta and the Twingo. :confused:

(the actual answer to your question, is because it'd be boring. I don't want to relax on a Sunday evening watching sensible review of a sensible car. I want to watch 3 guys dicking about, having a laugh, and sticking two joyfull motoring fingers up at the establishment )
 
djellison said:
Wwhat was wrong with Clarksons reviews of the Fiesta and the Twingo. :confused:
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errr… nothing... what do you think I was hinting at. ;)

djellison said:
the actual answer to your question, is because it'd be boring.
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Given what I wrote, you do realise that this makes absolutely no sense whatsoever, to the point where I'm wondering whether you actually read what I said. :confused:

djellison said:
I don't want to relax on a Sunday evening watching sensible review of a sensible car.
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I wonder no more, this just confirms it. ;) :p :p :p

I thought episode 5 of this series was almost the absolute perfect balance of content, I really did thoroughly enjoy it, you had the silliness of the Touareg piece, the utterly pointless but still enjoyable attempt (and subsequent failure) at maxing the new Veyron, proper stars in a reasonably priced car, and though glaring with mistakes, a reflective sequence on Senna… the only thing that could've arguably made it any better is if they'd have managed to squeeze the 458 piece in, but then of course they'd have been no point to watching the final show then. ;)

Contrast that to the utterly dreadful and dismal first show of the series… or the general filler material of some of the other episodes, the wedding piece was terminally dull, I freely admit to chuckling at the camping episode, though I think they dragged it out a little, and the ending was a bit… blah. And after show 5, 6 just /\/\_/\__/\_______________________________________________________ flatlined for me.

But I'll also stick to my general view that it's "Amazing what difference having solid content can make, the rest of the series has suffered dreadfully in that respect. I've always thought that Top Gear has enough decent content to make 2 maybe 3 excellent shows per series rather than cobbling together some dreadful dross in an attempt to fill out 6 shows." and I think that episode 5 demonstrated that perfectly.
 
Show 6 was superb to the end. The piece about British sportscars was fantastic. Claiming it flatlined is just wrong. wrong wrong wrong wrong wrong...how long do I have to keep saying wrong for. Just once more... WRONG.

As for banter - Fifth gear to me looks utterly totally fake. It's the banter between Hammond, Clarkson and Slow that seems real to me...infact, it very very obviously is real. It's why the format has blossomed and grown such a following. You can see it at Top Gear Live as well. It's three mates dicking about in cars.

Watch the bits you like, skip the rest. Personally, I enjoyed every part of every episode this season.
 
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