[04x03] September 13th, 2011

[04x03] September 13th, 2011


  • Total voters
    21
As light entertainment, I think it worked well. The guest segment was great -an animated guest, very little chat and brief bits of their driving and given just the right amount of airtime. (Wendell was pretty funny at the studio taping).
 
Poor Shane... nobody deserves to be subjected to Warwick Capper.
 
I know some of you guys from Oz have a thing about the cultural bits. I'm in Canada and like another fellow from here I can say TGAus is really not that bad. It's actually entertaining in the way TGUK was. It is different enough that things are fresh or at least have a local slant on them. I'm sure the UK guys have the odd groan or two about their version as well. Unlike TGUS these two will push things and are not so PC they don't have a sense of humour.

The Cherry test was interesting as I know one of the people who funded the car was from here and tried to bring it in. It failed the crash test so miserably they went away rather quickly. Basically on the one test the front bumper was pretty much touching the rear bumper so the squishy pink bits in the seats would not have been happy campers. This was about 6 years ago. Not having had the chance to see any in person it was interesting to see if they were as bad as I had thought. Seemed a bit worse actually if the fit and finish was typical.

The two rugby guys were entertaining. No idea who they were but still interesting.

The V8 thing is sort of a bit too predictable to be used this much.

I actually rather like and enjoy TGAUS quite a bit. it is fresh and different enough that it is fun to watch even with some rehashed TGUK ideas. However if they ever do a friggin COOL WALL I will take a chainsaw to the tv. That is when they have jumped the shark.
 
I thought this was the best of the series so far (and apparently, ever). The extended test of the Chery was interesting, as its been threatening America's shores for several years now (as Wragie wrote above). Another dull 'V8 to the Rescue' was about the only blemish on the episode. Pizzati in the Dragster was fun, the guests were not bad (I hate SIARPC in all its forms), all in all a pretty darn good episode.

And serious consumer advice on Top Gear?! Child safety seats and value cars for money?! The End Times are nigh!

And for this show they are. Too bad.
 
It's actually annoying, because last night's Chery test was actually quite an enjoyable segment with some proper car stuff. Thanks Channel Nien, now to go rewatch SBS Series Two... :/
 
Another dull 'V8 to the Rescue' was about the only blemish on the episode.

The V8 segment was only redeemed by their choice of see-saw cowboy - an Australian shock-jock 'media personality' with apparently zero personality and allegedly no redeeming features - and it was brief.

The Cherry review was good. Steve's dragster segment was... tantalizing. It would have been nice to see a bit more.

Maybe it was a condition when they secured the rights, but it's a pity they don't schedule it at a decent time on their "light-entertainment channel" GO! rather than burden it with the high-expectations of a prime-time flagship channel slot. A couple of seasons would get the hosts and crew settled in, and who knows, perhaps build up a good following. Even real Top Gear is shown on BBC's 'less-mainstream less-popular' BBC Two.
 
Post mortem. Bugger.

Irony is a cruel mistress. The last prime time Top Gear Australia was also the best.

The dragster bit was really good. As was the Chery challenge. I laughed out loud at Capper flap-jawing in the car. It was, um, entertaining and well thought out.

(Curiously, earlier this year I spoke to one of the NCAP guys and he said the Western Aussie Chery distributer had been quite actively avoiding official crash testing. I wouldn't buy one in a pink Chinese fit.)

Anyway, it was a good episode. So what went wrong?

Well, seeing as they had a good episode up their sleeve all along, they didn't lead with their trump card from the beginning? Dumb move.

Also, because all the studio bits were recorded ages ago, so no amount of input from 'us' could change the outcome. They were locked into the content, for better or for worse.

Now, aside from the Ch 9 grassy knoll assassination claims (partly true, I'll admit), I reckon there was one crucial but intangible element missing from the show.

Heart.

Aside from the presenters, no-one else involved with the show gave a flying fuck about cars. And that was always obvious from day one, even on SBS.

I'll wager the entire production team, from producer down, will all move on to others projects that won't have diddly to do with cars. Because it was just a job.

If you want to see car shows with heart (but admittedly no production values worth a damn) head to Channel 31. There's heaps on them, made by people who love cars, all on a buck-fifty and free beer. And they're good to watch, even though they're as rough as guts.

In the end, 'heart' means the crappy Channel 31 car shows live on and TGA is dead. Why? Mainly because Freehand put production values over content. And content trumps production every single time.

That's enough for now. Ewen, Shane and Steve did the best they could with the tools they had. I applaud you guys for giving it your best. And I'd like to be a fly on the wall the next time Clay and Shane have a beer together.

In the end, it's a shame. Bugger.
 
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What do I know.....I'm an American. I enjoyed both this season and Season 3. Solid 7's from me all this season. The weakest link is/was the V-8 to the rescue but very few shows are perfect. The Chery test was all-in-one. Informative, funny, witty and just enough slapstick to do the TG brand justice. Steve in the dragster was great.......as enjoyable as Ewen in the Ford from last season.
 
It is interesting to say the least that this was a brilliant episode the host are starting to show their inner side and come out of their shells a bit and band down drops the AXE, I'm not supprised the numbers were down, Nein barely advertised it, and before we got to see how good this episode had made the series its gone.

My personel recomendation is this episode was a good 8 1/2 heading to a 9 sorry dumbasses at Nine you stuffed it from the word go!
 
I only just got around to watching this episode. I recorded it and watched something else instead at the time, and really wasn't in a hurry to see it considering the quality of the first episode (I outright missed the second).

And what do I find? The best episode of TGA ever. They finally seemed to get the balance of silliness and seriousness right. The dragster segment was great, it felt natural and Steve came across as a great presenter. There was no slapstick stupidity, it just worked. It shows that entertainment does not have to mean "LOLOLOL HE FELL ON HIS ARSE AND IS ON FIRE.. again" in the traditional Channel 9 sense.

The Chery segment was a breath of fresh air also. I found it genuinely interesting and entertaining. It had the right amount of humour and was nowhere near as try hard as the previous episodes. Again, it just worked. It was an original idea that wasn't stupid, which is what TGA has been lacking. The presenters worked well together and again it felt natural and not like the scripted unfunnyness that I came to expect from TGA.

V8 to the rescue? Meh. Good thing they left it until the end.

I'm truly disappointed that this is the final episode after seeing it. If the following ones were of this quality, Nine could finally have a good show on their hands. It seemed that this was the first episode where everything started to fall into place, just in time for them to axe it. Had I not watched this episode, I wouldn't have given a flying fuck of TGAs death. I rate it a genuine 8, it's a shame to see it die just when it got into its stride.

Of course this episode could have been a fluke and the others could have been as equally shit as the first of the season. In which case, at least they ended on a high.
 
The real test will be to see how TGUS rates in Australia. Anyone know how long before it airs here?
 
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