[11x10] July 2nd, 2007

[SL65]

Episode discussion only. Please don't discuss torrents....

[otispunkmeyer]

pretty rubbish... infact i turned off halfway through

[nismohks]

pretty bad episode. not one part was interesting.

[vRS]

Originally Posted by otispunkmeyer

pretty rubbish... infact i turned off halfway through

Yep I agree, I turned of after that awful pothole segment. Before that it was all crap, motorbike stunts, a pointless shootout and a crappy review.

Fifth Gear should now go and die, if that's the best they can come up with then they can fuck off. 80% of the series was pure shite, the rest was OK but not great. I feel pain that I pay the TV licence and have to watch this shit.

They can copy Top Gear all they like but they will never beta their quality.

[awdrifter]

Fairlady in a FairladyZ, that was great. The RX-8 races was alright. But other than that, it's pretty boring.

[Cobol74]

Oh - well just oh!

[Hugh Peters]

Originally Posted by vRS

Yep I agree, I turned of after that awful pothole segment. Before that it was all crap, motorbike stunts, a pointless shootout and a crappy review.

Fifth Gear should now go and die, if that's the best they can come up with then they can fuck off. 80% of the series was pure shite, the rest was OK but not great. I feel pain that I pay the TV licence and have to watch this shit.

They can copy Top Gear all they like but they will never beta their quality.

Your TV licence pays for the BBC only.

[wikkedsnaab]

hmmm... that's odd, I actually thought it was a half-decent episode... nothing mind blowing but nothing painful to watch either. Mind you, I was doing three other things at the same time, so I probably wasn't my irritable fast-forwarding self

Tiff looked bored shitless in the econoboxes, but the Focus looked good around the track.

Tom was wasted with the wheel clamping thing... it was interesting, but the kind of thing a lesser presenter could be utilised on... like that old bloke... all I can say is thank christ we don't have the things here, I'd carry around bolt cutters and throw the things through their office windows. Mind you, good luck chaining up my 4Runner's wheels... mawhwhwhwhahr!

Vicki gushing over the 350Z.... after Top Gear more or less hung shit on it. Amazing how sponsoring the car giveaway comp gets you a great review eh?

Johnny and the pot hole repair thing.... ok, there's 'borrowing heavily' from Top Gear, and then there's plain copying. This was the latter, just lower budget, wasting a very promising host's time, and my own.

The guys vs girls comp was mildly interesting, as was the trials bike stuff... always had a soft spot for trials.

Hmmm.... now I'm confused as to why I didn't mind the ep, because the way I just described it makes it sound bloody horrible! Oh that's right - the torrential burst of laughter when Vicki said that with this being the last episode in the series until September all we'd have left to amuse ourselves was the Fifth Gear website... four words and a hyphen for you baby

TOP GEAR - BACK SOON

(thank fucking christ!)

[nomix]

Originally Posted by Hugh Peters

Your TV licence pays for the BBC only.

But you pay it to own a television, and Channel Five is funded by commercials, so you get it for free with the telly, right?

That means, that to legally watch Channel Five, you must pay the licence fee, right?

[october]

Hi guys,
The first three quarters of the show was just about OK & the rest was rubbish. I'm open to all your opinions as to when it (this episode) all went south....and why it did.....

I'm not a hater of Fifth Gear but this wasn't great . It was the worst of the season in my view anyways.

Opinions anyone??

[Donington]

Pretty crap, I'll enter the competition though!

What was the hire car bit about? Everyone knows the Focus is better made and waaay more fun to drive than an Astra, I wouldn't prefer the Astra because it's 0.0001second faster round some track.

The hollyoaks bit was annoying. It's a show for chavs...

[october]

Donington,
Focus is brilliant. Hollyoaks sucks. Hows that for a summary of the last episode of fifth gear

[Eye-Q]

Well, I think like wikkedsnaab - maybe a bit too "slow" but fortunately not so hounded like the first episodes of this series. I don't like shows which try too hard to entertain, which was the case in this series.

Vicki's bit was better than every other review she did this series, much less annoying because she didn't squeal so much. The downside of this review - what good is another review of a car which is almost the same but just 13 bhp up?

The pothole thing - well, another aspect of roadworks (not an entire road but fixing potholes) but clearly heavily inspired by TG's roardwork-thing. Johnny is so wasted with these kind of bits...

The boys vs. girls thing was quite amusing, I think it was the only time I really laughed in this episode...



Conclusion to this series: Series 8 and 9 were very good, series 10 was horrible, this series it got better almost every episode, I hope after the break they will be theirself again and don't try to copy from TG.
In TG the chemistry between the presenters is very good, it's more natural petrolhead than in FG. FG should bethink to their old strenghts, then it will be a very much better programme.

[RichW]

Good Shit
Tom is now openly mocking VBH which shes too thick to pick up on.
Station Wagon. Shows Toms got a real passion for mods which is nice.

Halfway Shit
Strangely the Trials bit actually. But AGAIN VBH gurning and being "exciteable" is irritating. Would of been nice to cut in a vid clip of Lynch actually driving. Hes pretty handy. (The clip was Tiff)
Clamping - Different take on an old subject. Those clampers seemed a better bunch than the steroetype.
Potholes - As above, influenced heavily by TG, but Johnny was good and it didnt drag on for too long

Bad Shit
Rentals - Why?
350Z review. - Strange that numerous other reviews (print and TV) dont seem to like it. But as above offer one as a prize and well sing its praises.
Hollyoaks - Why






Series Conclusion.
Watching the end 2 min recap of events for this season reminded me there were several things that I enjoyed. 612 Trip for example. But there wasnt enough to fill 10 episodes at 1 hour each. Overall it was a step in the right direction over S10.

Heres my pointers for the producers (if they care what I think anyway ) There will be comparison with TG unfortuantly

Loose the celebrities.
Even on TG SIARPC is the weakest section. So having people on who have no real connection to car enthusiasts is just filler to me. Jay Kay, Jodie Kidd, even Shane Lynch etc are fine. Yvette Fielding and the guy from Blur are too abstract. And Hollyoaks?

Slim down the presenter line up.
Keep Tom and Johnny. Loose VBH (bet you dont though) And make a decision on how to deal with Tiff and Jason. Both are racing drivers. So both can do the same things. Both can do the shootouts and both can do performance car roads test (of which there were very few this series!) Jasons not such a good reviewer as Tiff, but hes younger crucially and maybe Tiffs retirement will help give the show a more youthful feel than the late 30s early 40s of TG. Tiffs a great bloke dont get me wrong but you only need 3 presenters not 5. Whoever you keep please tone down the hyperbole Tiff was given at the start of EVERY section. Also try putting them together a bit more. Theres a sense sometimes that they all go off and film an item individually. Part of the reason TG works is the 3 guys get together at times. Dont go overboard it doesnt need to be every week. And although some of the challenges work really well on TG I dont want 5G to be a clone. Though 3 or 4 presenters together works REALLY well on multi car comparisons. Think of TG at IOM roadsters/GT's or the Milau Bridge trip.

Car reviews.
These have been much better this series. But on several occasions the test finished too abruptly and with no real conclusion. Just jump cut back to Ace Cafe. Have you not got a Fade button on your editor! Music is improved and so is actual direction. So keep it going. Try to stay on real roads as much as poss. TG gets flak (quite rightly IMO) for virtually never leaving Dunsfold. Also the Hot Hatch reivew felt rushed and a bit flimsy. I cant think of another review that actually pitched 2 competitors cars against each other as well. M5 Touring should of been back2backed against E55 and RS6 for comparison

Ace Cafe.
Nice to have a base to work from. But aside from the car park its not being utilised really. I wonder if it could be arranged to be filmed at a different location each week. Would require it to be tied to items in the show but would feel better. i.e If Tiffs racing a GT at Silverstone. Do the links from the Paddock area. Maybe not entirely practical mind.

Originality.
Ultimately 5G will always be compared to TG. Thats fine. But you HAVE to think up more original ideas. Too much was lifted wholesale from TG and its showed. You had a massive advantage this series as you were running in free airtime. Example. You could of undercut TG's (forthcoming) review of the M5 touring so that TG had to reshoot or do something unusual so as not to look like they were copying you. But you didnt.

Oh and STOP plugging the website. Its just not good enough for people to look at much. Make it "edgy" and less fact orientated and you might need to plug it once or twice a series.

[october]

Hey Eye-Q,
You nailed it on the head when you said about the chemistry between the presenters....there is NONE! There is no studio anymore just a cafe (very famous one too in fairness) but they never meet up...I mean Tiff & Vicks & Tom etc. It's all just segments that are just edited together to form an episode of 'Fifth Gear'.

Now the last series wasn't all bad but on Top Gear everything takes place (or took place) in a studio / aircraft hanger & everyone including the crowd could see them all debating the cars they had tested etc & testing them on a track. I know Fifth Gear has their shoot-outs between two cars but somehow it's not quite the same....

All in all I guess Fifth Gear have a different approach to Top Gear (naturally to be different) but I just prefer the whole Top Gear presentation. It works better for me & many like me & it is, in my opinion, the best approach.

I hope & pray when TG comes back that it blows FG out of the water...BOOM! Like I said I'm not an FG hater but I thought TG was always so much more 'complete'....

Here's to the summer to come (though you wouldn't think it was summer with this weather)...

[Handonam]

just...wow.





i hope tiff or jason takes on the bugatti someday. they mentioned the car, they have to test it!


but then again, probably not.

edit: nevermind that bugatti quote, hahaha

[Smurfen]

meh, no comment

[october]

Originally Posted by Smurfen

meh, no comment

What are you doing posting here then?

Don't just post to bump up your post count & then say nothing.

Everyones comments good or bad can be put down here. I'm biting my lip with this guy.....

[gregster]

Well said, shame the last episode sucked so much, would have good to end on a high.
* That shoot out of rentals was the most useless excuse for motoring journalism I've ever seen.
* The Nissan 350 hasn't changed enough to bother reviewing it, did anybody else notice the tape deck?, does anybody own a cassette tape anymore?
I could go on but I coudn't be bothered, as J.C would say 'get it out of my face I never want to see it again'
Thankyou to everybody who makes our little community possible, stay safe enjoy summer.

Gregster

[october]

Originally Posted by gregster

* The Nissan 350 hasn't changed enough to bother reviewing it, did anybody else notice the tape deck?, does anybody own a cassette tape anymore?
I could go on but I coudn't be bothered, as J.C would say 'get it out of my face I never want to see it again'

LOL