[14x06] December 27th, 2009 [South America Special]

[14x06] December 27th, 2009 [South America Special]

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Golly, we've sure got a lot of armchair television production directors in this forum.

I sure hope I never meet some of you at a party!
 
SchumacherM said:
THIS kind of BS is what pisses me of the most on these forums...************.
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You're not exactly Mr Constructive criticism either mate. Your every other post is to dismiss someone and his/her opinion on something you don't agree on.
E-ve-ry-time someone has something unflattering to say about the show or its presenters then it reads like that someone doesn't know what he/she is talking about, that it is inadmissible and he/she should be punished for that.
We all have opinions about TG and everything isn't perfect otherwise we might as well re-name this forum the "PatonthebackFinalGearwhere everythingsfantastic.com".
Respect your fellow posters, that'd be a good start.

On that particular post, what or who are you to declare these are BS? An eagle-eyed expert on road accidents of the world? Did you get an MBE on tv show production?
I do not know more than you or others here about the veracity of this encounter BUT I feel I should like others freely express my reservations without being dissed, "BS" or not. I know it is much to ask to a 17 year old, but grow up! As much as you can anyway for now.

For one reason alone I couldn't see that scene being that spontaneous. The word's insurance. He's on a ?2 M a year, he's a massive earner. That'd he'd be put in a position where an accident or loss of life could be a strong possibility is hard to believe. Same goes for the jungle with its admittedly dangerous insects and snakes, I am adamant they chose the least insect populated location, that there always an helicopter at hand in less than say 30 minutes, that they were not that remote and so on.... For those who needs to wake up like you Schum, it is not a real adventure, it is a rolling tv studio with security measures taken.
Marco Polo, Magellan, Jacques Cartier, Vasco De Gama, Captain Cook they sure ain't. They're more like middle aged entertainers having a larf on location. That we like. :D
 
Mineworksfine said:
One curious thing to speculate about - they were still working on the final edit mid-afternoon on Christmas Eve. It does force me to speculate whether the point James made about "you've been crashing into me for the last three series and it just isn't funny any more" would have been in there had so many people not been expressing their views about the predictable tone lately.
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x2

Also, writing on the side of the cars ain't funny any longer. You've done it, think of something new. Compared to the last special I don't think the music was very good nor the cinematography.

Simply not as good as other specials. 6.
 
Cucciolotto said:
You're not exactly Mr Constructive criticism either mate. Your every other post is to dismiss someone and his/her opinion on something you don't agree on.
E-ve-ry-time someone has something unflattering to say about the show or its presenters then it reads like that someone doesn't know what he/she is talking about, that it is inadmissible and he/she should be punished for that.
We all have opinions about TG and everything isn't perfect otherwise we might as well re-name this forum the "PatonthebackFinalGearwhere everythingsfantastic.com".
Respect your fellow posters, that'd be a good start.

On that particular post, what or who are you to declare these are BS? An eagle-eyed expert on road accidents of the world? Did you get an MBE on tv show production?
I do not know more than you or others here about the veracity of this encounter BUT I feel I should like others freely express my reservations without being dissed, "BS" or not. I know it is much to ask to a 17 year old, but grow up! As much as you can anyway for now.
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Jeez, dude. Did SchumacherM run over your cat or something?

I agree with the writing on the cars, it wasn't terribly clever the first time in America and now it just seemed lame. And they couldn't find any way to interact with the locals? If I was traveling to the other side of the planet I'd like to at least see if the residents leave their toilet seats up.
 
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Why not a Jeep (though that's Jeep's problem for not propogating as well as Land Rover around the world)
Telling me Hammond letting his Land Cruiser roll down the mountain was anything less than a pratfall?
Could Hammond (no) and May (possibly) have done the work to bypass the Land Cruiser's transfer case?
Obviously they didn't do their own lifts, make their own roll cages, fix the broken leaf spring, etc. by themselves. I'm actually curious to know how they fixed the diff and fixed the leafspring. Part of the fun is the field ingenuity.
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do you think they really do anything? I've figured that they don't even buy their own cars, and in other shows where they have to modify cars they just send them for someone else to do badly...

and with hammonds landcruiser rolling down the hill, they realised that he wasn't gonna make it so they thought they'd hve a good laugh
 
This was a pretty good special, although I enjoyed the Polar Special and the Botswana episode more. Needed some sort of challenge to see which was the best car (Bolivian Stig?) but apart from that pretty interesting countryside from the mountain road to having the same problems as mountain climbers (the thin air is what what makes climbing Everest, which is almost twice that altitude, so dangerous).
It was funny seeing Hammond in a rubbish car and Clarkson in the best car for a change, and James May proved that those small 4WDs (which is probably what I would get) can take on pretty much any terrain except deep water.

Interesting fact about Bolivia, most of the world's Lithium comes from there.
 
When Jeremy was on the mountain road trying to get past that white 4WD, I was thinking of The Simpsons and how Homer turned the radio knob which moved the err, line thingy across the display and righted the car :D. You could see the genuine fear on his face and that for me was better than anything they'd done earlier this season with its lame scripted jokes. Watching the presenters in situations outside of their own personal comfort levels and how they banded together was what made this film compelling for me.
 
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janstett said:
But in this case there's an opportunity to use new cars in harsh environments like this. I'd really like to see some poseur SUV on performance tires like an X5 try to make it through the jungle.
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Top Gear Australia came closest in 01x06 when they drove a Range Rover Sport, Audi Q7 and Lexus LX570 across the Outback from Alice Springs to Daintree.
 
Burlz said:
The bit on death road was completely set-up and the other Toyota was almost certainly a production car. This is TV, there's no way theyed get all those shots on something that happened spontaneously. But it worked, great dramatic effect.
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im sorry, have you ever watched top gear before? im going to assume your not that smart when it comes to production. first of all, Mr Wilmon has made it pretty clear in the past that, after a shoot like this, they go back and get passing shots and view shots and close ups of things to make the film work better in post-production. second, they have one of the best crews in the world just so they can make sure they get all that they need to make a film like this so epic, third, they have 3 of the best presenters in the whole of TV that are NOT afraid to take the challenge they are given seriously. Jezza DID drive that car on the edge, and, if you look at some of the shots taken during that incident its clear that the crew was at an angle that gave them the ability to zoom in on his wheel. the falling rock shot may have been filmed later for effect, but, YES Jezza was hanging on the edge. yes, the Toyota thing looked staged, but, it was funny!

as far as risking thier lives? like someone said before, remember Hammond almost dying? did you see James May on the edge of space? these guys drove to the north pole, they drove across Botswana, they drove through rural alabama and almost got killed. almost every show one of them is doing close to 200 mph, one tire blowout at 200 and your DONE! i worry almost every series that one of them may end up getting hurt or even killed during a filming, thats why they are so good, they have found that edge that nobody else in the world will even come close to.

so, my point is, if you think this was "staged" then tell me, how did the cars get from the river to the ocean? who REALLY drove them down the side of the hill/dune? if they werent at the 17000 foot mark of a volcano then where were they?

on that point, i gave it a 10. what a great film. i bet they could have filled 2 hours with the footage. wilmon was correct, as he promised this one was unreal. classic TG!
 
Last night I was wracking my brains trying to work out what long-lost memory the programme was attempting to dredge up.

This morning, I remembered.

Here is a picture of my little sister at Christmas at some point back in the 80s.

4933_116692299814_687084814_2874681.jpg


Jeremy more or less had Sindy's tow-car :mrgreen:

(mind you, Sindy's Range Rover was pretty good, for a girl's toy. I used to set car thief!Action Man on it and take him joyriding...)
 
ahpadt said:
x2

Also, writing on the side of the cars ain't funny any longer. You've done it, think of something new. Compared to the last special I don't think the music was very good nor the cinematography.

Simply not as good as other specials. 6.
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sorry, i just disagree. i think the music is just there for effect in a case like this film. it filed its role in my opinion

Mineworksfine said:
An 10 for sure. Yes, there may have been slightly contrived moments but I'm not going to analyse them simply because when the credits rolled I felt like I always want to feel after any episode of TG and that feeling has been missing for a while now.

One curious thing to speculate about - they were still working on the final edit mid-afternoon on Christmas Eve. It does force me to speculate whether the point James made about "you've been crashing into me for the last three series and it just isn't funny any more" would have been in there had so many people not been expressing their views about the predictable tone lately.

Other than that I was able simply to sit back and enjoy a spectacular piece of entertaining and utterly awesome television. If they can keep that level of quality for the more run of the mill episodes in future then Top Gear's own future is secured for as long as they want it.
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totally agree, excelent jog on this one. there may have been some "produced" moments, but, as with any TG film like this, there are going to be. its just part of the game.

janstett said:
I'd also like to add -- the cheap car challenges are always fun.

But in this case there's an opportunity to use new cars in harsh environments like this. I'd really like to see some poseur SUV on performance tires like an X5 try to make it through the jungle.
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agree again, great point, but, these, IMO, are about making a crappy car work in a place it shouldnt. the producers almost WANT these cars to die, thats the appeal of this kinda film. i think that testing new cars is more along the lines of times like when jezza drove the one up the mountain or something like that.
 
This, in my opinion, was the most gripping of all the TG specials, and yet it still falls (slightly) behind Vietnam for me, mainly because it lacked the human interaction that was prevelant in the Vietnam special. Interacting with the locals, focusing on some of the culture and history made it far more interesting and would've done the same for Bolivia had they gone that route. But that's just my opinion.

That minor critique aside, it still ranks up there with the best TG has ever done. There were thrills and spills, laughs and cocking about, and genuine fear and sphinctor clenching terror at my end. Not to mention an assload of some of the most spectacular cinematography available on television today.

Sure, a few bits were contrived -- the Land Cruiser, for example. I honestly doubt they would've sent Hammond in it down that dune, as that would've been pre-meditated murder, or the intial hacking through the jungle sequence. But it was no more prevelant than in previous specials, and I think the abundance of real situations more than made up for it.

What surprised me most, was how exhausted and "run through the mill" I felt after watching the show. I haven't felt that way since the Artic special. That's a true testament to the dedication of everyone at TG when they genuinely put their heart and souls into something and don't try to force the tone. In future series, I hope they allow more of this organic process to come though, as that seems to be when they do their best work.

Anyway, enough of that.

Jeremy, James, Richard, Andy, and everyone else at Top Gear -- sterling work, guys!! Here's to a great series 15!!
 
ahpadt said:
x2

Also, writing on the side of the cars ain't funny any longer. You've done it, think of something new. Compared to the last special I don't think the music was very good nor the cinematography.

Simply not as good as other specials. 6.
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Dude, have you ever given a good rating before? Every single episode for like two seasons its all "Meh, seen it before"

your negative waves are killing the vibe man.

ANYHOO

10/10 for me. one of the greatest things ive seen on television since the Vietnam special.
 
I rated it 9.. It would have been 10 had it not just seemed so heavily edited. I'd love to see a 2 hour version of it.
 
totally agree, they cut to much out and rushed some of the things, could have easily been 2 hours long
 
Jon said:
I rated it 9.. It would have been 10 had it not just seemed so heavily edited. I'd love to see a 2 hour version of it.
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Which is why I am waiting with baited breath for the DVD :w00t:
 
As a previous owner of an '88 Samurai all I can say is "Fuck Yeah!" They are little tanks and can do anything the big boys can do!

As for the episode, I give it a 9. I think if they would've made it a 2 hr special it would've been much better.
 
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