[01x01] September 29th, 2008

[mn07]

ITS CRAP..... Thats all i can say about it

[cpd]

Originally Posted by Hidden_Hunter

I'd rather see cars that are unlikely to ever appear on normal Top Gear than just see the same cars that they get on normal Top Gear 12 months later. You might not like locally built cars but i'm sure some of the demographic does

Spot on. It's almost inevitable that TGUK will be the first to get their hands on, and do a better job with, the European exotica. It's part of TG DNA to feature supercars so I don't see how TGAU can avoid doing the odd Porsche, Ferrari, Lambo review. But...

I would like to see some coverage of the quirky Australasian stuff.

For example, a 3 minute film of Cox driving a Lightburn Zeta and relaying the trivia he merely delivered to camera in the studio would have been much more entertaining, and TGish. I realise it's probably difficult to source a Zeta that's good enough for TV use, but I'm hopeful they'll include this type of stuff in the future and not just a season of Red vs Blue, powersliding and paddock bashing.

The same can be said for the Moke piece - spend a few more minutes at the start of the film (before the car is modded) talking about the car, driving it around town and giving us a 2 minute history lesson on why it's interesting (and fitting to take fishing - since it's a cult beach car in Australia). Then fit the cage and feed it to the sharks.

Hammond and May are very good at this type of thing. The Bentley T2, Rover P5, Triumph TR6, Jag Mk II & XJS, Countach, Bora... the list goes on (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Top_Gea...gnificant_cars). Disappointingly, TGUK do it less and less with the ever present power tests and the rise of the "How hard can it be" and cheap car challenges, which doesn't leave much airtime for anything else. This is a niche that TGAU could fill nicely.

EDIT: The Gvang Steam Car (WTF!) is exactly the kind of thing I'm talking about.

http://www.steamautomobile.com/ForuM/read.php?1,5526
http://www.supercars.net/PitLane?vie...D=0&tID=130862

I'd love to see this being driven.

A short Goggomobil (youtube) film might be fun.

[thompo]

Forgive me if this has already been said before (I couldn't be arsed reading through 28 pages) but I think it was poor, very poor. Trying too hard to be the UK version. I stopped watching after 20mins. The humour isn't particularly intelligent and my best guess says its aimed at slow minded people. Coming from NZ I was hoping this would be good and relevant-ish, but no, it just sucked.

[the Interceptor]

IT WAS THE F***ING FIRST EPISODE FOR GOD'S SAKE!

I think I'm gonna give out neg reps for you ignorant bunch.

[Icedvovo]

Originally Posted by bolly

Your Einstein Award has just been revoked.

Okay, I want the award back. But I'm going to have go a bit deeper. Feel free to slap me if I get a bit nuts.

To my knowledge, this is the first time an Aussie TV show has ever been put under such scrutiny. Passionate viewers with a benchmark to compare it to. And that makes for a pretty harsh light.

What this light has exposed is the fundamental flaw in Australian television and film production culture, and how it differs between here and the UK and the USA.

The main difference in Oz to overseas, is that we revere the Director above the Writer. 'Frinstance, Tropfest, the biggest short film comp in this nation, honours the Director but not the Writer.

It's the other way around in Hollywood and in the UK. Look at all the best British comedies. Beautifully written, every one. Even in the USA, the script revision budget on a common Hollywood stinker is bigger than most Aussie feature budgets. They had a writer's strike and the place fell apart. If we had one here it wouldn't make a ripple.

The latest Aussie success, Kenny, wasn't scripted in the traditional sense, they just grabbed a camera and went for it, because no-one here will even look at a script these days. So they had devise another way, and a new genre.

The problem with Top Gear Australia is that no-one has taken the time (or been given the budget) to write the STORIES before they grabbed a camera and started shooting. The STORIES that make TGUK so fantastic.

Soft Roaders - No story.
Porsche - No Story
Moke - No Story (What was the ending?)
Maybach - No Story

Sure, the Director may have set a Shot List, and maybe there was a loose script for the presenter, but they never got a STORY working on paper before they set off.

It's just the way things are done here and it sucks. And who in the process is going to challenge it? Not the crew. They all want the work so it's in their interest to shut up and point the mic boom.

That said, the other interesting thing I noticed is that's there's no-one Driving The Bus.

Clarkson and Wilman are undoubtedly the visionaries on TGUK. But who's the leading light on TGAU? No-one. It's put together but a loose collection of production entities. A committee. And it shows.

/rant

(Hey, who slapped me?)

[cpd]

Originally Posted by Icedvovo

Soft Roaders - No story.
Porsche - No Story
Moke - No Story (What was the ending?)
Maybach - No Story

I have to disagree with you here.

Soft Roaders - Has a middle.

... so we went to the beach... then the snow and... btw, Wazza is slow and has no sense of direction...

Porsche - Has kind of a cliffsnotes thing.

Porsche is good. It has a fancy gearbox. Here's the exhaust note.

Moke - Has an ending.

... so I went fishing and a shark nearly ate me. And then I woke up and it was all a dream.

Maybach - Has a bullet point.

z0mg! Those ca-razy Germans put monogrammed headphones in their limo! Lolz0rrzz!

[bolly]

I'd quote Icedvovo's whole post (#545) here but it's long. I'd say you hit the jackpot yet again VoVo, so that's no criticism. The two observations that really got you the award back (after I did a popular public vote) are:

Originally Posted by Icedvovo

The problem with Top Gear Australia is that no-one has taken the time (or been given the budget) to write the STORIES before they grabbed a camera and started shooting. The STORIES that make TGUK so fantastic.

(and)

That said, the other interesting thing I noticed is that's there's no-one Driving The Bus.

Clarkson and Wilman are undoubtedly the visionaries on TGUK. But who's the leading light on TGAU? No-one. It's put together but a loose collection of production entities. A committee. And it shows.

Andy Wilman said in his blog recently that JC is always right there at the coalface working away with his spade. He writes what he says on camera – and that's what gives it the real ring of authenticity. He actually means what he says and says what he means... really cleverly.

So he's not just on the show as a vanity gig.

His words aren't written by some other "clever bastard". He's the clever bastard.


So are you Icedvovo. Perceptive analysis. Very perceptive.

[Icedvovo]

Originally Posted by cpd

I have to disagree with you here.

SNIP funny stuff.

Hahahahaa. I really like this forum! Nice peeps.

[Icedvovo]

Originally Posted by bolly

Perceptive analysis.

Thankyou. I hope the producers also read this thread use what we all say here to tune the show. It is fixable.

[cpd]

Originally Posted by cpd

Moke - Has an ending.

... so I went fishing and a shark nearly ate me. And then I woke up and it was all a dream.

Actually, the Moke has a beginning and an ending with no middle.

I got sent fishing, because I don't understand fishing. ... so I went fishing in a car and a shark nearly ate me.

[bolly]

Originally Posted by cpd

Actually, the Moke has a beginning and an ending with no middle.

I got sent fishing, because I don't understand fishing. ... so I went fishing in a car and a shark nearly ate me.

He didn't like the taste so he spat me out again

[Elvis313]

I actually liked it but had to give it a 7.
Much of the criticism here is well-founded but as far as car shows go, it was still very entertaining and (in parts) even informative

Don't like the test-track though, I hope they'll change it sooner or later

[thebishop74]

I'm sorry, but the show was bad, really bad, track sucked, format kind of blew, not sure what you can take away from it that was good?, the studio audience at times looked uncomfortable to be there.

You may say "judge it on it's own merits", and don't compare it, but how is that possible when the show was trying to 'be' the UK version?, all the hosts were trying to copy/emulate their UK originals, which did not work real well because none of them are actors, if all the people involved had just tried to be themselves, maybe it would not have felt like 100% failure.

You can copy a format, and make it work, as long as you just copy the format, and not the show, what we had here was Australia trying to copy the UK show in full, with maybe some overly deliberate efforts to inject Au slang into it.

If I were to totally judge it without any reference to Top Gear UK, I'm afraid it would score even worse on my scale, because everything came off as scripted and forced, possibly more so than any show I have ever seen, every word, fake laugh, off the cuff remark just seemed painfully like a one take soap opera.

I find it hard to say where they could improve anything, while I'm well aware the original is scripted etc, I don't know how you could fix the AU issues, other than to possibly just write in front of every line "be yourself", in the scripts.
Don't fake a dynamic that is not yours, react to people how you would react normally, work on bring who you are to the screen, and not who you think people want to see.

The show will fail as it stands, I also won't be watching another episode, I was ready to give it all sorts of chances before I watched it, but they set a tone in the first show that makes it clear nothing is new or original about it, thus where is the reason to watch it?.

[P5138]

Originally Posted by sparks50

Top Gear UK doesn't have to spend resources on a soundtrack, because the BBC has a agreement with a bunch of record companies.

Well, that makes sense. No wonder the UK show can choose such good music when they have a huge library to choose from. I guess TGAU has to make due with only royalty-free music? (That is a sad thought)

Originally Posted by Icedvovo

Soft Roaders - No story.
Porsche - No Story
Moke - No Story (What was the ending?)
Maybach - No Story

I watched it again last night, to make sure what I said in my previous post was true. And then I realized, at the end, that I still didn't know what the hell the Toyota SUV was, I only know that it was a Forrester because I know Subarus, and I still don't know what a Moke is, except that it's made by British Leyland. And I really liked that car! It was quirky and the lack of any introduction or information struck out at me. I don't want a full spec sheet on the car, but some bullet points would be nice.

Originally Posted by MattD1zzl3

Did you enjoy it?

Thats the only benchmark that matters.

After a second viewing while showing a friend of mine, I can't say it's all that bad. The music is pretty appalling at times, the writing is missing quite a bit of exposition, and the studio work and studio presentation could use a bit of polishing, but it still is: Top Gear with funny accents... um... funnier accents...

EDIT: And next time I'll wait 24 hours before responding so that I don't jump to opinions so soon.

[Nanny]

Ok, so this isnt just my opinion its the same of my dad and my 2 mates that watched the show with me, the fact that im Australian also has a huge impact on this. But the amount of cringing that was done was rediculas. Im surprised to be honest but Cox is easily the best, but this does not mean his good.

The young guy who is ment to be hampster is a joke, he is a bigger wanker than that new 5th gear guy! when he was making those 50 cent jokes and those bust a cap in yo ass jokes, it was so bad i wanted to turn it off!

The Maybach review was SOOOOOOOOOO poor its a joke!!! he has a huge intro and he gets in and tells us about the headphones .. then back to the studio and it ends????

The rest of the show was just mediocre ...

P.S id like to know if anyone agrees with me, because i know most people were not happy but no one has raised the issues i have.

[Nismo-R]

Hey guys just joined today, Viper I don't know if you remember but I'm the guy who sent you the link of Adam talking about Clarkson on radio and the link of them at the salt flats although you had already seen that one.

I just want to say I'm a Top Gear fanatic just like the rest of you and I figured why not make my first post about the new show.

I can't tell you how extatic I was to hear that theme song run again but I've been watching Top Gear for a long time now and it became what it is by maturing and constantly molding itself. If you watch Episode 1, an episode in Season 5 and the last episode of season 11 you'll see what I'm on about. They said this is going to be a Top Gear for Australia but it isn't... Its not their own show that will mature and mold into its own being. It starts in the format that the UK show is now(the popular one with a billion million viewers) and doesn't know how it got there. When James says permission to say Oh! Cock on BBC2 you remember how it started and you laugh even more but if one of these guys says something funny it just feels empty and manufactured, and on that note the Chemistry is flat. I know its the first episode but that is what a pilot is for its supposed to draw the viewer in and make him want to be there next Sunday at 8. If they want to run that format you have to come better than that. The only reason TGUK can save the better stuff for later episodes is cause the show is already established so you're tuning in no matter what, it makes good TV. This show can't do that cause its new.

The show has wonderful camera work and good editing which makes me wonder if Andy Wilman didn't have a hand in on the cutting room floor but Jimmy Carr once said any one can go out and do Jeremy's job you get a car and say whether you like it or not, its the way he does it that makes the show and makes you love them. I saw one guy go for a drive in a Maybach and another one go for a drive in 911. I sincerely think the challenges are gonna be this show's redeeming feature but they have to break away from the mold of TGUK and do it their own way. After a season of TGUK I could carry on a conversation with someone from the UK about politics and current affairs just from watching the News and Star interview and I've never been there I don't think I'll be able to say the same for TGAU.

At the end of it all its a show about cars so like Fifth Gear you're gonna tune in to get your fix until November 2nd. I have to say I'm making an attempt to try to like it so I set my standards nice and low which is why I haven't dismissed the show entirely cause TGUK isn't going to be around forever (bite my tongue) and I'm gonna have to find something to attach my grief to.

[BUSA]

Common it wasn't as bad, you can't compare it to the UK one.

[Twerp128]

So Fifth Gear Australia was alright. I'll give them time to work out the bugs, not real fond of the test track, Warren just annoys me for some reason, it all seems very scripted and unnatural. But when I compare it to the little other Australian TV I've seen it's bleedin' great!

So well see, the writing and acting needs work, and they need to be, er, less dry. But the basics are sure there.

[Redliner]

It was good!
Of course it wasn't as good as "the original", and we shouldn't expect it to be! Common, it's just the FIRST. Let's give some time to the guys, or better yet, try to imagine yourselves in their place and I bet you would be at least nervous.

[Rhitick]

Long time reader, first time poster.

I actually liked it, they have their own personalities, they were pretty funny to boot. Yeah, the Porsche review was kinda useless but other then that it all went well for the first episode. Though some of the dialogue seemed rehearsed.

Sure, they are a tad loud, but they are probably not used to talking at a camera :p

Give 'em time to work things out, should be great after they warm up!