Your Einstein Award has just been revoked.
Okay, I want the award back. But I'm going to have go a bit deeper. Feel free to slap me if I get a bit nuts.
To my knowledge, this is the first time an Aussie TV show has ever been put under such scrutiny. Passionate viewers with a benchmark to compare it to. And that makes for a pretty harsh light.
What this light has exposed is the fundamental flaw in Australian television and film production culture, and how it differs between here and the UK and the USA.
The main difference in Oz to overseas, is that we revere the Director above the Writer. 'Frinstance, Tropfest, the biggest short film comp in this nation, honours the Director but not the Writer.
It's the other way around in Hollywood and in the UK. Look at all the best British comedies. Beautifully written, every one. Even in the USA, the script revision budget on a common Hollywood stinker is bigger than most Aussie feature budgets. They had a writer's strike and the place fell apart. If we had one here it wouldn't make a ripple.
The latest Aussie success, Kenny, wasn't scripted in the traditional sense, they just grabbed a camera and went for it, because no-one here will even look at a script these days. So they had devise another way, and a new genre.
The problem with Top Gear Australia is that no-one has taken the time (or been given the budget) to write the STORIES before they grabbed a camera and started shooting. The STORIES that make TGUK so fantastic.
Soft Roaders - No story.
Porsche - No Story
Moke - No Story (What was the ending?)
Maybach - No Story
Sure, the Director may have set a Shot List, and maybe there was a loose script for the presenter, but they never got a STORY working on paper before they set off.
It's just the way things are done here and it sucks. And who in the process is going to challenge it? Not the crew. They all want the work so it's in their interest to shut up and point the mic boom.
That said, the other interesting thing I noticed is that's there's no-one Driving The Bus.
Clarkson and Wilman are undoubtedly the visionaries on TGUK. But who's the leading light on TGAU? No-one. It's put together but a loose collection of production entities. A committee. And it shows.
/rant
(Hey, who slapped me?)