[23x03] June 12th, 2016

[23x03] June 12th, 2016


  • Total voters
    106
Couldn't sleep, nothing on TV, so decided to re-watch episodes 1-3; Sound off when CE is on screen, skip SIARPC, in fact skip all studio, great camera work, some stunning scenery, impressed by Matt, Rory & Chris H., plus Jenson for TG, although even if he quit F1, don't think this would be his thing.
 
Apparently the Brits dont know what a four wheel drive vehicle is. I had hoped that it was just an old term that the last presenters were accustomed to but its happened again on this most recent episode while driving the new ford focus RS the presenter called it a four wheel drive car several times. Its always bugged me tremendously so i guess i need to clarify.. A four wheel drive vehicle is a vehicle that in regular driving conditions is just two wheel drive (typically rear wheel drive aside from a select few such as the honda ridgeline) but it has the capability of switching to four wheel by putting it in park and locking up the front hubs or in today's vehicles its just a button. The Focus RS for example is ALL WHEEL DRIVE which means that you have no control over how the power is distributed amongst the front and rear axles its "four wheel drive" as the blokes across the pond would say but all the time. I dont know maybe its just one if those things that that we have different words for but is the same thing but its always got to me so if anyone has any explanation for this please reply.
 
Apparently the Brits dont know what a four wheel drive vehicle is. I had hoped that it was just an old term that the last presenters were accustomed to but its happened again on this most recent episode while driving the new ford focus RS the presenter called it a four wheel drive car several times. Its always bugged me tremendously so i guess i need to clarify.. A four wheel drive vehicle is a vehicle that in regular driving conditions is just two wheel drive (typically rear wheel drive aside from a select few such as the honda ridgeline) but it has the capability of switching to four wheel by putting it in park and locking up the front hubs or in today's vehicles its just a button. The Focus RS for example is ALL WHEEL DRIVE which means that you have no control over how the power is distributed amongst the front and rear axles its "four wheel drive" as the blokes across the pond would say but all the time. I dont know maybe its just one if those things that that we have different words for but is the same thing but its always got to me so if anyone has any explanation for this please reply.

says who?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four-wheel_drive
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All-wheel_drive
 
This episode was waaaaaaay better than previous two.

SIARC was too long (this segment is just as pointless as it was before ... but it is even longer now). But I really enjoyed all other stuff. Matt was funny in Hoonigan Mustang. That was classic TG stuff.
 
Apparently the Brits dont know what a four wheel drive vehicle is.....

As the Wiki article says linked to by bone, it's only the Americans that have this very narrow definition of All-wheel drive, almost everyone else uses Four wheel drive because that's what it is, drive is capable of being sent to all 4 wheels, the clue is in the name really...

This is a british car show so british phrases are being used and not phrases specific to the US only, or do you want the British presenters to start saying "aluminum" now as well? :p

The people that voted 10 or 9, clearly this cannot be improved at all and is a brilliant show???
Its still pretty cack, I will likely forget the last 3 episodes exist and wait for CHM.
(lucky this is only a 6 episode waste of licence fee money and then hopefully they can at least save some by sacking the annoying ginger tw@t..)

I think these polls are getting a bit skewed, a lot of people are now skipping over or not watching the crappy bits they don't like, such as SIARC or stuff with evans in it etc, then rating the stuff they do actually watch, thus giving a higher score. Really people should vote on the show as a complete show, the full 60 minutes, including all the good and bad parts, then vote based on that. ;)
 
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Hm. Word of mouth is a lot better with this episode.

Stories like "TG loses audience share 3 times running" happen because WOM was pretty bad for the first two episodes.

The media spin seems to be that the viewing audience seems to be down to the core petrolhead viewing public that was around in TGCHM's second year, according to the Guardian.

https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2016/jun/13/top-gear-viewing-figures-fall-to-new-low

So the question is, will the improved opinion of Ep 3 result in a high viewing audience for Ep 4?

If the answer is "yes," then Series 24 will get some minor tweaks.

If the ratings continue to decline, despite the positive feedback, then TGCE will get a major overhaul if it's not cancelled altogether. And if the latter happens, it won't be just CE who gets the blame, but the BBC for mishandling the disciplining of Clarkson. (A year-long suspension of the series with Clarkson not getting contracts for any BBC appearances for a year, would have satisfied everyone but the most rabid anti-JCers.)


You could speculate there was already some annoyance at mr tymon brewing long before that as nobody really stuck up for him apart from bbc bosses, you didnt really hear of anybody else on show really coming to his defence did you (aside from clarkson telling people to back off when he was getting death threats).. really Tymon was the architect of his own demise, show was gone, he is shuffling papers somewhere in a bbc backroom and in the end had to resort to a money grab to pay the bills... never mind

In any case, the show being on in the middle of Euros probably didnt help them but most people just watched the first episode to see what is was like and then turned off... It cannot be fixed by being some more interesting as Evans will still be there being a wanker as he has for his whole existence on this earth
 
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Its amazing how much better Rory and Harris are than CE - but then again a random audience member would be better so that isn't saying much.

Less Evans = better show, its really that simple.
 
https://twitter.com/achrisevans/status/742644264698580992


keep dreaming chris...nobody likes you.stick to radio where we dont have to look at ur aging ginger features

Quite interesting that he keeps quoting these large viewing figures and somebody else tweeted a reply and shot his figures down. He's including iPlayer stats but that's actual requests to iPlayer, that could be anything between a 1 second view and a 60 minute view. After some maths somebody came up with an average view time on iPlayer of 3 minutes for episode 1.:blink:
 
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God that Stars segment was annoying and waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too long. Everything outside the studio was really good.
 
Really good television. This show is shaping up to be something good actually. The hosts simply need to find themselves and get comfortable.

Also, Sabine <3 Chris Harris <3 <3
 
Better than the first two eps, but still not good. This time though, Evans wasn't the worst part of the show - Schmitz was. Her affectedness is horrible and her tries to deliver funny lines fall completely flat.
 
Overall gave it an 8 as I felt it the reviews and "hooniganism" were very reminiscent of CHM Top Gear in style and tone.

Chris Evans: Still shouts far too much for my tastes.
Matt LeBlanc: Reminds me of James May in demeanor - calm and collected. I believe he's overall a positive presence even if his studio bits at times sound like he's bored.
Sabine Schmitz: No real issue with her accent - I find her understandable. But like Evans, she shouts all her words (then again, she did it on her appearances with Jeremy and Richard, as well, so perhaps it is her nature).
Ferrari f12 tdf: I won't say "proper" Top Gear, but definitely reminds me of how CHM's Top Gear would have filmed and presented such a segment.
SSIARC: If nothing else, drop having the guests talk about each other. It's painful to watch them lean forward to read the teleprompter like a bored newsreader. Let the guests talk about their own projects - perhaps will get some more energy / excitement. I can deal with "First Car / Best Car", but overall the segment just feels like it drags because of how long it is.
Ford Focus RS: Another "classic" Top Gear review.
Matt and Ken Hooning Around London: Really enjoyed it. The sound of the car exhaust echoing off London was amazing.
 
a nice improvement, variety of presenters helped to have less of Evans which is good. would definitely be a better show without Evans, or Evans only taking a very minor role, he definitely ruined the R8 Review and shouldn't be reviewing such cars.
 
4/10.
"your organs will apologize to each other quite often" (paraphrasing) was very funny in Chris' segment. Nice job, writers. Otherwise I am left indifferent after the R8 Review. The german stig intro - why? At least she could have said something funny in german but - what?! Is her english that bad that they made her speak german on the show? -1 point
The ferrari segment was beautiful. 2 points.
I skipped the star segment, as usual. That one actor is tiny in real life! 0 points.
Hatchbacks were done very well but where is the Golf, come on! 1 point.
Matt's sightseeing tour was fun to watch. 2 points.
 
Pretty poor really. Some of the segments on their own were OK, but don't add up to a cohesive whole.

I guess what needs to happen going forward on the presenter front is simple. Keep Matt, keep Chris Harris, keep Rory. Dump Chris Evans, dump Eddie Jordan.

Then dump the stig. Why do we need him to drive the track when we now have Sabine. The thing is at the moment 6 is a crowd. Take it down to 3, and have Sabine as the racing driver, and involved in some of the challenges.
 
It was mildy better. But I still can't get past that, to me, it feels like I'm watching barbarians rape, pillage and destroy a village after first having slaughtered the previous inhabitants.

I want to like it because it's Top Gear. But it all seems very BBC and Guardian friendly. That's not inherently a bad thing. But I liked that Top Gear was one of the few things on T.V. that didn't seem to give a flying what the papers or overly sensitive folks thought of it. Those days, I think, are over.
 
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