[01x03] October 13th, 2008

[01x03] October 13th, 2008


  • Total voters
    183
They are improving each week. To use the phrase 'One week at a time'. The one thing that is starting to work is their 'cocking' about, they are starting to be irreverant. I am starting to change my tune but I will wait till the first season ends and see if they improve each week.

Charlie Cox is still the weak link for me.
 
1st Top Gear show in history I actually thought about turning it off and taking a nap... I'm sorry but I didn't see an improvement from last week
 
Well, considering that they've had a bit of feedback about their efforts so far, you'd expect to see some improvement. I liked the cinematography at the start of the Black episode, but then they did a snap back and forth at the end of it and I reckon that the editor should have been slapped for that. Too many environment shots during the X6 review.
Not enough tasks to do with their junkers really.

It has promise. Lets see them develop a bit more..
 
1st Top Gear show in history I actually thought about turning it off and taking a nap... I'm sorry but I didn't see an improvement from last week

I thought I was the only one. I had to force myself to watch the episode and it just got worse and worse every second I watched. By the time SIARPC came up I was completely disinterested and wanted to turn it off.

I know its not really fair to compare to TGUK, but the hosts of the original are genuinely having fun on camera, Clarkson, Hammond and May give the show a soul. TGA just feels lifeless and cold, reminds me of any other car show on speed channel :(

Cox is annoying as all hell, Brown should continue being a cartoonist and Pizzati ...... actually Pizzati is ok he just needs to hit puberty, his voice drives me off the wall.

The prior two episodes, I gave a fairly decent score; this week however I am being very honest. 3/10 is being very generous.
 
Warren's X6 review was really good. He feels confident in front of the camera and I think even TG UK would have problems beating that. I mean when did we saw a good car review from tg UK!?? I think it was a jag XK review from season 8. The challenge bit was too short, just a drag race and a lap race!? I mean, come on. But its going good. They need to constantly keep on improving the show. i m not loosing the faith in their potential but by the second season I m looking for some improvements!! ;)
 
I just have to add one big gripe about the show so far, the massive abuse of Australian slang in every show so far, seriously for the people outside Australia, we do not talk like that, maybe if you wander into the middle of nowhere here, you will maybe find people still talking like that, but everywhere else it's just not done.

In fact I'm really not sure why they are talking that way constantly, it's like a parody of Australians of old, tune into anything else on AU TV, and it's nothing like that, well maybe Kath and Kim...

Wait, I do know why, I guess it's because in the UK version they do all the 'oh cock' brit stuff all the time, but really it's coming off as seriously unatural in Top Gear AU...
 
meh, they really need to work on their in studio dialogues. The jokes are pathetic.
 
Sorry for putting probably too much more than my 2 cents worth here but I believe if they just scrap the forced comedy or at least make the requirement for the particular script line much more vague (therefore allowing the presenters to have more input into their lines, almost the only way any such production could ever work) and do their best to relax and not use the fake ecstatics so much (though this may just be something that will improve over time) I think they'd almost have it, the rest are mainly just rough edges that wont be so obvious (except perhaps a need to revise a whole segment or set of segments) and can just be refined over time. Not just with the lines but the presenters should have more of a say in the production as a whole because personality is so important in a show such as this therefore they MUST potray a distinctive and love it or hate it personality each of their own, I am also not too sure about the chemistry between the hosts however I guess we'll just need to see if the host line-up will need to be changed later on.
 
Steve's voice gets to me. His natural persona is great (as per the taxi driver, the smart hearse & the soft roader challenge), but anything scripted or his voice-overs are paint peelingly painful. And his voice over script for the black review could have been written for Glen Ridge...

Warren was good & I can almost stomach Charlie now, but they need to lose the wooden gags.

And they need 2(?) more cameras for the test track.

Oh, & Julia Zemiro goving over the line on the limiter in 2nd was gold.
 
I may have said this in another thread, but the script writer/producers really need to let the guys off the leash a bit. Give Cox, Brown and Pizzati a bit more control over the scripts and let them ad-lib a bit more in the studio.

After all, the 3 got their jobs off the back of their individual personalities and senses of humour. They obviously wrote their own scripts and said their own things in their audition tapes, why not harness this better?

If there is one thing holding TGA back, it?s their current script writer.
 
Watched it again, like you do.

And I've decided the Paddock Basher Challenge was possibly the worst thing I've ever seen on TG, EVER!

Steve's car wasn't really a taxi. It was a white S-Pack.
Why was Wazza tailgate up?
Why was Steve's car mis-firing?
Why was Charlie's roll cage not mentioned?
Why couldn't they get Wazza's wagon going? (absolute Cardinal Sin!)
And really, what was the challenge?

NOTHING!!!

How hard would have it been to make a simple motorkana circuit with a few cones? A couple of cut-out plywood kangaroos to dodge? A taxi rank for Steve? A circle-work pad? A drive-through bottleshop? Anything!!!

What a bloody disgrace! What a total waste of three cars to set up one gag with Warren's door open.

/rant

The door was knocked open on the previous lap when whoever it was sheared off Warren's door mirror. Other than that, I have to agree with you. If they're going to do goofy stuff, Oz style, they might as well go full out.

Only really bad part for me was the first half of the SIABSC segment -- though the traction control button in the Black review was a bit of a face palm moment. Charlie just didn't seem to know what he was doing in the interview and the guest was incredibly uncomfortable. Maybe Warren should be doing that bit instead, or they should get a talk show host to teach Charlie how to do interviews. Charlie just seems starstruck all the time.
 
Charlie, on the other hand, was a tad forgettable, and I felt their Junker clip spent too much time on the "picking and fixing" part, with not enough emphasis on the cars themselves. They just felt like props in the segment. I also didn't like the blatant scripting of the race, where Warrens passenger side door magically opened so that Charlie could hit it.

I thought Cox's side-swipe on the previous lap caused the door to open?
 
I agree with the general consensus that this week's was an improvement. I found the X6 review to be pretty good (dealing with a lot of criticism from previous episodes about segments being too short, I thought this one would've almost worked on TGUK) and the general flow of the episode was much nicer.

The star in a "bog standard" car was still a crap feature though -- in fact, I fell asleep during it (really)

Fortunately, I woke up again about 2 minutes after it finished. They really need to do something about that segment.. as SL65 said at the start, if Charlie is given a guest who isn't as 'lively' as they have been so far, that segment is going to be torture.
 
The music is royalty free. Says everything about it really.
 
The reviews need a format.. this is evident in TGUK

First impressions of the presenter (while car goes sideways)
The specks... 0-100, torque, Kw/Horses, any electronic stuff (while car goes really fast in a straight line)
It's market, competition, price, interior (arty pass-bys, interior shots, some more sideways stuff)
More considered thoughts of the presenter (more sideways, presenter losing it, circle work)
Final impressions the presenter wants you to go away with, why they would or wouldn't buy one or what they would buy instead of it (often with car driving into the distance... fast, or car disappearing into a cloud of tyre smoke)

This format works for non-performance cars too... just replace sideways with car driving through town, presenter losing it with presenter lost in town trying to do a U turn(why James get to do most the sensible cars, lost again James?!?!)

Bog standard car bit needs to be short (unless the star is actually interesting) just comes down to interviewing style... may improve with practice.

Needs three challenges, in TGUK it would have most likely been drag race all at once (no need to time it), lap by stig on track, and the final paddock bash. There wasn't enough of the presenters getting to know their car, in TGUK the presenters love their cars by the end and you believe it. Also the presenters are actually surprised by the next challenge... in TGOZ they already know what the challenges are.

They need some cheap small mounted cameras on the track, make us feel closer to the action, it also makes the cars look like they are going faster.

Still the show is improving... hopefully they get it perfect in the next 5 and we see them next year.
 
The music is royalty free. Says everything about it really.

I thought as much.

Considering how time an assistant editor is currently spending hunting down the library music, they may have been better off actually commissioning a musician to score the entire series.
 
^ You mean they should ad-lib a bit of their lines?

I think that'd be a good idea.


I may have said this in another thread, but the script writer/producers really need to let the guys off the leash a bit. Give Cox, Brown and Pizzati a bit more control over the scripts and let them ad-lib a bit more in the studio..

While I agree that a looser script will work better, I think that will only work well when the guys are more relaxed in front of the camera, more comfortable around each other & bouncing comments off one another, & they know what sort of material each of them is best able to deliver. In short, they still need more time to settle in.
 
The reviews need a format.. this is evident in TGUK

First impressions of the presenter (while car goes sideways)
The specks... 0-100, torque, Kw/Horses, any electronic stuff (while car goes really fast in a straight line)
It's market, competition, price, interior (arty pass-bys, interior shots, some more sideways stuff)
More considered thoughts of the presenter (more sideways, presenter losing it, circle work)
Final impressions the presenter wants you to go away with, why they would or wouldn't buy one or what they would buy instead of it (often with car driving into the distance... fast, or car disappearing into a cloud of tyre smoke)

This format works for non-performance cars too... just replace sideways with car driving through town, presenter losing it with presenter lost in town trying to do a U turn(why James get to do most the sensible cars, lost again James?!?!)

It might not be such a bad idea to send that to the script writer, perhaps they missed the memo?
 
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