[23x02] June 5th, 2016

[23x02] June 5th, 2016


  • Total voters
    118
You actually believe that CMH sleeped in those tents on those trips. That is so cute.

Show us proof they didn't. Where would they find a luxury 5 star resort in Botswana? Or above the polar circle? Or in the Bolivian rain forest? Or are you saying the production crew followed along in a luxury RV? Because that's a pretty big claim.
 
You actually believe that CMH sleeped in those tents on those trips. That is so cute.

Point me at a five-star hotel in the Bolivian jungle or near the North Pole please. Or maybe they dragged a huge, luxurious camper van behind on their way through the wilderness, hm? Is that what you're insinuating?

Seriously, saying they didn't go there, that everything is faked and only made to look that way on TV, is a bit too much conspiracy theory for me. What's next? Americans weren't really on the moon?

Surely not everything on Top Gear was exactly the way it was later edited for TV -- and noboday is denying that -- but they did drive on Death Road, they did drive to the North Pole, they did drive through Burma and feasted with rebels, they did drive through Botswana and got the dust in their lungs, they really were threatened in Argentina for the ill-fated Porsche number plate, James May really did hurt his head in the Syrian desert, Richard Hammond really did rollover in a jet-propelled dragster and Clarkson really did hurt his arm when falling from his scooter in Vietnam. I'm sure I could come up with a dozen more examples, if I put my mind to it.

Some may call that reckless and childish, I call it dedication and spirit. They have a sense for adventure. And that's what makes them special and thankfully we will see more of that on amazon Prime. It's true, though, that CHM had grown out of the Top Gear format, no doubt about that, they turned a former car review program into an entertainment adventure that featured cars. Currently the BBC is turning the knob back to "Car Review Show" again, with some small remnants of the former adventure spirit sprinkled on it but not enough to make it convincingly entertaining.
 
Point me at a five-star hotel in the Bolivian jungle or near the North Pole please. Or maybe they dragged a huge, luxurious camper van behind on their way through the wilderness, hm? Is that what you're insinuating?

Seriously, saying they didn't go there, that everything is faked and only made to look that way on TV, is a bit too much conspiracy theory for me. What's next? Americans weren't really on the moon?

Surely not everything on Top Gear was exactly the way it was later edited for TV -- and noboday is denying that -- but they did drive on Death Road, they did drive to the North Pole, they did drive through Burma and feasted with rebels, they did drive through Botswana and got the dust in their lungs, they really were threatened in Argentina for the ill-fated Porsche number plate, James May really did hurt his head in the Syrian desert, Richard Hammond really did rollover in a jet-propelled dragster and Clarkson really did hurt his arm when falling from his scooter in Vietnam. I'm sure I could come up with a dozen more examples, if I put my mind to it.

Some may call that reckless and childish, I call it dedication and spirit. They have a sense for adventure. And that's what makes them special and thankfully we will see more of that on amazon Prime. It's true, though, that CHM had grown out of the Top Gear format, no doubt about that, they turned a former car review program into an entertainment adventure that featured cars. Currently the BBC is turning the knob back to "Car Review Show" again, with some small remnants of the former adventure spirit sprinkled on it but not enough to make it convincingly entertaining.

without a doubt they really did sleep in tents on that North Pole - adventure. But otherwise, I'm sure they were lifted away in helicopters or by other means to nice comfy hotel (Note, Bear Grylls)
Not sure why you had to mention those accidents but sure type away.
 
Ah, okay... so you don't know, you just think.

Come back to us when you stopped believing and started knowng -- for instance by posting some proof :rolleyes:
 
It will always be shit because none of them have the kind of leverage that Clarkson had, so none of them will risk losing their jobs for trying anything funny.
 
It will always be shit because none of them have the kind of leverage that Clarkson had, so none of them will risk losing their jobs for trying anything funny.

Clarkson didn't have any kind of leverage, those controversies for the most part were really just stupid enough that the BBC could pay lip service and ignore them, that's why it annoys me when every time you saw or see a Clarkson story they have a timeline of his "Gaffes" as if they are the same thing as punching a colleague because the chef went home.
Evans etc will aim for their own humour it's not a risk thing.

Ah, okay... so you don't know, you just think.

Come back to us when you stopped believing and started knowing -- for instance by posting some proof :rolleyes:

Why don't you post your proof before mouthing off, they won't do this, they won't do that based on nothing. You don't know what they will or will not do.
 
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I already said before that I will eat my words if I am wrong and it turns out that they are worthy successors after all. I also added a number of arguments why that won't happen, though. Nobody who disagrees has so far tried to rebut them on the same intellectual level, so why don't you give it a try? :dunno:
 
I already said before that I will eat my words if I am wrong and it turns out that they are worthy successors after all. I also added a number of arguments why that won't happen, though. Nobody who disagrees has so far tried to rebut them on the same intellectual level, so why don't you give it a try? :dunno:

Intellectual level? Your collection of smug insults is what you consider intellectual? You'll disregard anything that you read so what's the point? I've already disputed you're ridiculous Radio DJ attack but you didn't notice. Not to mention it's easy for you to say you'll eat your words when you've likely set yourself an unrealistic bar to pass. Your expectation is that the new Top Gear crew will do everything that the old crew would do, my only expectation is that they'll try and do their own show. Besides most of the stuff you listed did't happen until well into the run of their show. Point out all of your "They wouldn't do this" of the original crew in series 1 and then you can come back to me with a semblance of an intellectual level.
Is the show perfect? No, will the show get better? Maybe however I'm not making my speculations on that subject on a lot of bullshit assumptions.
 
my only expectation is that they'll try and do their own show.
Unfortunately I think most of the "problem" to me (and I think to many others as well), is that they are not trying to do their own show. The BBC forced them to keep most of the format/spirit of the previous ones.
Although it was certainly better than last week's, I voted 3/10 because:
1- I did not learn anything on any of the cars
2- Too much shouting
3- I did not find the jokes very funny (or even funny at all). Where is the self depreciation? People are also much too nice to each other (we've seen more hugging in 2 episodes than in the 22 prior series). Also apparently they do not intend to criticize the cars they test?
4- There was no "emotion" in the challenge. Using 3 brand new cars did not help I guess.


I think sorting points 1 and 2 would be a good start. As mentioned previously the fact that they have no prior experience as motoring journalists is going to be a challenge (but Rory anc Chris H can assist there).

Extra gear was ok, liked the guest interview. However I struggled with CE crying twice, I don't understand why driving this F1 reminds him so vividly about his first car? he's got plenty supercars (and it seems he even owned an F1 in the past), is he having memory triger points every time? Too me it seemed a contrived (fake?) attempt at building sympathy.

I understand many people did not enjoy CHM that much in the later series, but some found them still pretty good, I am one of them and TG is (was?) the single only TV show I watch.
 
Unfortunately I think most of the "problem" to me (and I think to many others as well), is that they are not trying to do their own show. The BBC forced them to keep most of the format/spirit of the previous ones.
Although it was certainly better than last week's, I voted 3/10 because:
1- I did not learn anything on any of the cars
2- Too much shouting
3- I did not find the jokes very funny (or even funny at all). Where is the self depreciation? People are also much too nice to each other (we've seen more hugging in 2 episodes than in the 22 prior series). Also apparently they do not intend to criticize the cars they test?
4- There was no "emotion" in the challenge. Using 3 brand new cars did not help I guess.


I think sorting points 1 and 2 would be a good start. As mentioned previously the fact that they have no prior experience as motoring journalists is going to be a challenge (but Rory anc Chris H can assist there).

Extra gear was ok, liked the guest interview. However I struggled with CE crying twice, I don't understand why driving this F1 reminds him so vividly about his first car? he's got plenty supercars (and it seems he even owned an F1 in the past), is he having memory triger points every time? Too me it seemed a contrived (fake?) attempt at building sympathy.

I understand many people did not enjoy CHM that much in the later series, but some found them still pretty good, I am one of them and TG is (was?) the single only TV show I watch.

I think they are making their own show, and I do mean their own show as opposed to a different show. Maybe you didn't find the jokes funny but there was self deprecative humour in there even if you didn't spot it. I don't know about criticising the cars but they've only really done cars they like so far just because they didn't slam the american cars like Clarkson would have doesn't mean they won't do so in the future but who knows maybe that's not what they want to do in a review. From what I can tell they've decided to make the show purely an entertainment show and branch out all the car bore content into Extra Gear because if you watched Extra Gear that's where the emotion went. Who know what they'll do in the future.
 
Who know what they'll do in the future.

Clearly we have different opinions - and that's fine.
As you say we don't know how they will evolve. Two things have been pretty much unanimously criticized (CE shouting too much and the format of the SIARXC), I am curious to see how they adjust in the 3rd episode (being first one filmed after the critics came out).
However I have to say CE's tweets are not very reassuring on his capacity to listen to feedback and critics...
 
However I have to say CE's tweets are not very reassuring on his capacity to listen to feedback and critics...

I don't agree with that either, you see his tweets haven't been about the criticism of the show they've been about the viewing figures. He's not saying "You're wrong the show is brilliant" he's saying "You're wrong the viewing figures are better then the papers say they are because..."
This to me is understandable because viewing habits have changed a lot, more people watch on iPlayer then they used to and it's more of a global show etc. etc.
 
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Hold on, he came up with a self-inflicted target of 5 million overnight viewers ("If we had to guess about the number of viewers we are going to get on Sunday night, you have got to say you would be disappointed if it was under 5 million").
Then, when episode 1 on Sunday night had an average of 4.4 million viewers, his reaction was "The new Top Gear is a hit, OFFICIALLY"
Sorry but the FACT (!) is that they did not achieve that target.

Now, everybody will miss their targets now and then, but his boasting on Twitter doesn't exactly give an image of honesty and integrity.
 
Hold on, he came up with a self-inflicted target of 5 million overnight viewers ("If we had to guess about the number of viewers we are going to get on Sunday night, you have got to say you would be disappointed if it was under 5 million").
Then, when episode 1 on Sunday night had an average of 4.4 million viewers, his reaction was "The new Top Gear is a hit, OFFICIALLY"
Sorry but the FACT (!) is that they did not achieve that target.

Now, everybody will miss their targets now and then, but his boasting on Twitter doesn't exactly give an image of honesty and integrity.

First, that's not what you said and second turns out he was right. 4.4 million is the average overnight figures not the total. In the end the UK viewing figures were 6.42 million which is reasonably competitive compared to previous series of Top Gear over the years.
 
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The first episode was like the car crash on the highway. You can't help but look.
 
Better than the first episode (Offroader part was good), but not by much. SIARPC I completely skip now.
 
First, that's not what you said and second turns out he was right. 4.4 million is the average overnight figures not the total. In the end the UK viewing figures were 6.42 million which is reasonably competitive compared to previous series of Top Gear over the years.
Good to see that Chris Evans is right to be happy about viewing figures then.
As for myself I will wait until we get the 7-day consolidated numbers for episode 2.
Top gear wikipedia is usually quite up-to-date https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Top_Gear_episodes
Or we can also check directly on http://www.barb.co.uk/viewing-data/weekly-top-30/
 
Wasn't it only at the end of last year that BARB started incorporating online viewing from iplayer and suchlike?
 
All in all, not bad for only the 2nd ep in the new series. Go back and look at Top Gear S1EP02 before rushing to harsh judgement.

Random thoughts:

The stretcher bit was a nice introductory gag, and in the McLaren review it appeared Chris was trying to be shouty in a Clarksonesque way with some success (although without Jezza's facial expressions, it can't be the same...).

Matt was much better than in the fist ep.

Major upside: The South Africa scenery was outstanding and possibly deserving of a special ep.

Major downside: Too many guest celebs in the studio at once, IMHO.
 
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