[23x01] May 29th, 2016 -- First Episode With New Cast

[23x01] May 29th, 2016 -- First Episode With New Cast

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While I understand this is a first episode and it takes time to develop a formula and cast chemistry, my first impression of the show is still YECH! All the technical aspects of the show are still top notch, but the rest are pitiful at best. This feels like one of the old favorite sitcoms that went on a few years too long and most of the original cast that made the show worth watching in the first place have left, and they are trying to keep the thing alive with supporting characters. I'd say it wasn't fair to compare the new Top Gear to the old, but the way they've produced it, that comparison can't be helped. Its feels like they were to leery to change the format very much and are hoping the new hosts can be adapted to it. That isn't going to work. The old show evolved around the personalities of the old hosts. People tuned in to see three odd blokes cocking about and talking about cars. Being a motoring show became a second priority to the comical camaraderie Clarkson. May, and Hammond delivered. Right now the chemistry between the new hosts is bad to down right nonexistent.
 
Evans: Tried to sound like Clarkson in the intro, sounded like an even more annoying Hammond for the rest

leBlanc: Should be hosting

Sabine: Should be hosting


I wonder how much of this episode was originally written for CHM.
 
fasterplease said:
says the idiot....obviously the non funny jokes suit your wooden personality
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Mind your manners. A different opinion does not an idiot make. If you want to start a flame war then there are places on the internet where keyboard warriors will argue with you all night long. Keep it civil.
 
It was every bit as bad as I thought it would be.
This will be the only episode of New Top Gear I watch.
Chris Evans is probably the most annoying person on the planet.
Matt LeBlanc, allthough a bit mellow, is an american, and would be fine for Top Gear USA, but I don't like him as a presenter in a british show.
The odd british ways, humour and bickering of CHM was part of the appeal of Top Gear for me.

So, bring on Grand Tour!
 
It's not going to be easy for New Coke New TG to succeed. There are still good elements brought over from the old version, and Matt LeBlanc brings a nice Matt Farah style flow to his work. But as far as I can see, it feels like a combination of doing things by autopilot, counting on the formula to carry itself, with some fatal flaws imminent from the beginning. The best way for Grand Tour to become a hit is for BBC to show how little they understood what made "Classic TG" work. "You do it to yourself, you do."

Where was the proper introduction with all the hosts, explaining how things were going to be run from now on? There was a feeling of "Let's get on with it", with barely any time left for people to catch up with the new version's style. Granted, I skipped the shit bits, but I used to do that with the old TG as well. Evans just makes it too easy to dislike him. Maybe by the end of the season I will have found one thing to like about him.
 
MWF said:
Mind your manners. A different opinion does not an idiot make. If you want to start a flame war then there are places on the internet where keyboard warriors will argue with you all night long. Keep it civil.
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so who called who an idiot first judge judy??
 
Having watched it again and watched Extra Gear I think what it really suffered from was a lack of a strong producer who could reign Evans in.

If they'd cut part of the Blackpool segment, cut Evans waffling down and had a much shorter star segment, then included the news and a few bits from Extra Gear it would have been a much better show.
 
5 out of 10 for me. MLB definitely seems to have found a good trajectory from the off, he seems to have a better feel for it than CE. Grafting the TFI Friday format over to TG was my biggest fear and it's what he's done sprinkled with JCisms, then turned his own volume up to 11 to hide the joins. Didn't work, nothing felt fresh when he was on camera and it was al too transparent. He needs to relax and just tone it down. He can be an entertaining presenter, he just needs to show his passion for cars and stop thinking 'format' every damn second.

Still, early days. It's on a par with anything up to season 3 of old new TG, so I'll be tuning in for a while yet. However he won't have the luxury of 3 seasons to get in his groove.
 
Like a lot of fans, I chose to enter the era of New-Gear with an open mind and positive outlook. We'll have 2 car shows with high production values!

The first episode of New-Gear introduced me to an absolutely obnoxious main presenter, who did little to sooth the all-too-human tendency to be change-averse when confronted with a new studio setup which seems to use the audience itself as the background instead of the cool car-stuff of the last show, and a painfully awkward SIARPC change-up. I don't mind the rally-cross, since it adds a new visual, and the possibility of some crazy driving in the future when people who've perhaps never been on a gravel road, let alone mud with jumps, make the attempt.

The problem was the guest-vs-guest atmosphere. Chris Evans was utterly terrible at getting either one to talk about anything interesting, and came off as rude (in my opinion). What's worse, they seemed to intentionally set the segment up in such a way so that one guest would be made to have the other's greater level of wealth/fame/popularity thrown in their face in an unpleasant way. The whole affair was just... tactless... and not in an amusing way.

Matt Leblanc's Nomad segment was GREAT! Which makes me excited for future episodes. The Top Gun segment was cheesy in just the right amounts, with movie quotes and music overplayed just enough to tickle my nerdy-bone, and great driving cinematography to boot.

All-in-all, it wasn't very good, but it retained enough entertainment value to be worth watching.

At least it wasn't bad enough to require a rechristening as, "Top-CVT". But that Chris Evans guy could still pull it off.
 
Runs_And_Drives said:
At least it wasn't bad enough to require a rechristening as, "Top-CVT". But that Chris Evans guy could still pull it off.
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:lol:

You found the perfect name for this show.

"Top CVT! Not as bad as you expected, but still not as exciting as proper Top Gear!"
 
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Wrote my opinion down during the episode in the 'spoilers' thread yesterday, during SIARPC (always skip that bit) after seeing the last bit of the episode just after posting, it remains unchanged (although Leblancs Nomad segment was passable):

[yesterday]

Here's a spoiler: It's as bad as we predicted.

The good : Photography and production values still seem to be on point, on a personal note, I loved TopGun as a kid, al the references made that segment, and it made my inner 5 year old really happy.

The bad : everything else, mostly Evans....even during his introduction talk, 5 seconds in I wanted to punch him in the face, the voice, the mannurisms, the 'youthfull' clothing choices, the desperatly trying to be like Clarkson, this man does not belong on television.
They are trying so hard to be like previous TopGear it's ridiculous....'we got custody' oh just fuck off.
Leblanc has shown no signs of having a personality other than 'flat vapid American celeb', and as a result the robin segment was horrid.
as for Evans and Leblanc combined? They clearly have no rapport, it's fake, flat, and has all the flavor of an unsalted cracker.

It's like watching a bad coverband of your favourite band, sure you still get exited when they play your favorite song, the Topgun thing comes to mind, but the lead singer is a cunt, the guitarist is missing half his notes, and they are not fooling anybody.

[end yesterday]

After sleeping on it a night, I still think it's a bad, watered down copy, they might improve, but it doubt Evan's ego will allow this, if anything I see this imploding very fast.
It's very clear Evan's has a massive head, him trying to give himself a persona as 'a cheater that makes the rules' is much closer to reality then 'captain slow', 'angry short bloke', and 'orangutang' have ever been I think....
 
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My opinion?

Driving Reliants to Blackpool? Bad idea. TG road trips need to have a point. When the Old Boys drove to Blackpool, it was to prove it could be done on one tank of fuel. Their American road trips (not specials) needed to show (a) which car was best and (b) aspects of car culture in the land they were in.

SIARCC? Now you have the problem of CE trying to be Jonathan Ross or Graham Norton. The angle CE apparently took, it's only going to work if your guest is a proper petrolhead (Jay Leno), driver enthusiast (Michael McIntyre) or guest who knows how to entertain. A shallow flake for a guest is going to foozle it unless they do really, *really* horrible on the track. (Margot Robbie's appearance was saved by her (a) apologizing for nearly killing the cameraman and (b) beating Will Smith.)

Finally? CE has got to learn to be nasty. The Boys being mean to caravanners, cyclists, crossovers, etc., isn't just them being blowhardy and blustery. It's needed to add sharpness and acidity to their general narrative, something that gets people talking about the show afterwards (something the Boys were good at, but has to be learned).
 
Runs_And_Drives said:
.

The problem was the guest-vs-guest atmosphere. Chris Evans was utterly terrible at getting either one to talk about anything interesting, and came off as rude (in my opinion). What's worse, they seemed to intentionally set the segment up in such a way so that one guest would be made to have the other's greater level of wealth/fame/popularity thrown in their face in an unpleasant way. The whole affair was just... tactless... and not in an amusing way.
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To be fair it wasn't supposed to be so one sided as it was supposed to be Ramsay and Brad Pitt apparently
 
Due to the fact that I don?t live in the UK, I don?t know how Evans is (as I didn?t know how Clarkson was when I first started to watch TG), So I?m not in a position to hate the gay in advance.

For the show itself, I give it a 6 out of 10. I did like the Viper-Vet and Nomad?s segments, but I think that the studio segments needs to improve a lot. I didn?t like Le Blank in the studio, but it was better in the Nomad segment, same goes to Evans.

Siarpac, please only one at a time, it could be better.

For challenges, I think it would be better car to car challenge that nation to nation challenge.

Just my opinion.

Cheers.
 
I think we can all agree that LeBlanc's Nomad segment was good.
But that's not enough.
2/10

I'll dig up an episode from series 8 or 10 to wash this bitter taste down.
 
Well, eight seconds in I was already thoroughly annoyed and feeling like I was watching one of those godawful variety shows. I'm sure there's some part of the population that will like it. But for me, I'll probably skip all the episodes until the series finale and check if they've taken some of the feedback here (which seems to be alarmingly consistent) into account.
 
New Top Gear is feeling like the Total Recall remake

The name is the same and the main plot is somewhat similar, but the main char is a wuss, it's not on Mars and there's no midget stripper with a uzi.
 
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Red Falcon said:
New Top Gear is feeling like the Total Recall remake

The name is the same and the main plot is somewhat similar, but the main char is a wuss, it's not on Mars and there's no midget stripper with a uzi.
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Richard Hammond doesn't have an Uzi.
 
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