Season 14 slid off track

if its that bad stop watching it and go back to world of warcraft or whatever.i have watched all the shows and yes things change but everything does.id rather watch old episodes of tg over other first run programs on tv its entertaining.thats what its all about entertainment,if you base watching off of anything else its an analysis and my living room isnt a lab so im going to keep watching along with a bunch of people.really whats the issue?
 
indeed, its rather poor content wise...looks like its more focused on filling a certain gap that was left (thank god) empty since the beginning. and its not actually the filling, but the way it was filled...if you catch my wind :)
 
Ironlord said:
Incidentally, if anyone's wondering why there's been those occasions where I've deserted this board for months at a time, it wasn't because I was killed by my own 36-rasher bacon sandwich (as someone postulated), it's been because of those times when it's really started to grate that I've had to sit up defending my words at two in the morning when I'd rather be in bed.
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Sorry, it was just too obvious.
 
d798 said:
indeed, its rather poor content wise...looks like its more focused on filling a certain gap that was left (thank god) empty since the beginning. and its not actually the filling, but the way it was filled...if you catch my wind :)
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You mean like a couple of slices of bread is edible, but a sandwich is better? Unless the sandwich is filled with broken glass and dead flies or something...
 
janstett said:
It's obvious the producers and crew and cast put their souls into this production. I cannot take that away from them.

But if I stop and take a look at how grueling it must be for Andy & Jezza and the nameless footsoldiers... Well, how many of you have worked a "death march" schedule for long periods of time? Even if you have the highest personal work ethic standards and you love what you are doing, pushing at 100% all the time eventually sucks the life out of you and burns you out. Eventually you are holding things still to a high standard, but going through the motions and your mind is wandering to either (a) do other things or (b) rest.

I submit this may be what's going on.

I don't know what the answer is. Take a short break. Don't do TG Live for a while. Change things up, work on a side project or create something new in the format. Get out of the office.
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^^^^^ this x100.

TG (including Wilman, the trio, crews and staff) just need to step back and look at what they have. The production quality is there and is evident each week. But, as you've said, janstett, they're doing so much work with TG Live on top of filiming/editing for TG, that it's getting to be too much.

At this point I think they're just knackered and need a break. Even Clarkson alluded to it in the News (being away from home for a month and a half; that certainly has to affect the three in some way).

I honestly can see the guys righting the ship and at least bringing back some of the characteristics of S3-S7 TG while keeping some recent films/challenges. They realise it and I have confidence they'll get back on track.

(P.S. curse your Yankees for beating the Phillies in the World Series this year :thumbsdown: :( ;))
 
So why not test some other great cars they didn't had on the show yet?
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Perhaps it's just me, but has anyone noticed that basically every episode has a Lamborgini in it? I'm getting a bit of sick of seeing them over and over.

Edit: Also, that Lancia that Jeremy loved, that he said was absolutely beautiful....is there anyone here who actually agrees with him? I thought it was hideous.
 
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I did not even finish watching one of the episode. This season just seems to be suck-ish, I really hope it would get better.
 
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It might be that the "You're all idiots, Top Gear is still good!" folk might not understand this, but Top Gear as it is pains me on more than one level.

I remember coming home from work on a monday, downloading the latest episode of Top Gear, making myself dinner and almost having a "crisis" at the moment I shoved the first piece of food in my mouth, accompanied by the swelling guitar riff opening the show we all love. Then, as soon as Jeremy announced "On tonights episode of Top Gear, ...", I just forgot to eat. The happenings on the screen just fully absorbed me. It was like waking up from a sweet dream when a segment ended, and finding the meanwhile cold plate of food in front of me like I never knew it had been there. Watching Top Gear was like leaving this world for an hour, diving deep into a dream world of cars and fooling around. Real life just disappeared for a while.

And now, that is gone. Completely. Now I just sit there, watching three blokes trying to outdo each other by acting along a character they've developed over time. Just hollow shells with no own thinking, almost like robots. I find myself letting the video run windowed, doing other stuff. Sometimes I miss some bits, and I jump back to watch them again. And usually, I discover that I didn't miss anything. And that hurts, big time. I just feel like "Ok, they did that ... moving on ...". There is no sparkle anymore, just doing their duty.
The only laugh I had during the art show segment of 14x05 was when the art critic said about Richards painting that it's more compost than art. And that is painful, really painful. When a guy as dry as James Bond's Martinis sparks a laugh, but one of the arguably funniest bunch on television doesn't.

Similarly painful, may it be on another level, is that I have to read on this forum that I am "overly sensible", that I am "clearly an idiot" and that I "should stop watching Top Gear if I don't like it". Most painful probably that I'm "not a true fan, because I don't support the show like I should". That hurts as well, maybe even just as much.
The thing is: I don't want Top Gear to be bad. I don't enjoy having to say not so nice things about it. I don't like sitting in front of a screen being left cold by what used to be the best thing that ever happened to automotive television. Quite the contrary is true: I'd love to see Top Gear back on its old form again. Andy says that it's impossible to get there again, because you inevitably lose your innocence over time, and once you've crossed a mark, you can only leave burned soil behind. But I don't think so, because I don't think that this is the actual problem. I think it's more of a chemistry thing. They need to forget that they are overly popular, come to a rest, take a break and just do again what they were good at in the first place. But as far as I understood Andy, that's not going to happen. There may be some shifts in the heading of Top Gear, but they will continue to walk this way.

I will continue to watch Top Gear, and I will keep up hope. But I do see it fading inside me, and that probably hurts the most.
 
I actually agree with Top Gear trying to move away from being a 'car' show.

Let's face it, cars are boring. Essentially they are tin cans with four wheels, and after close to a decade of looking at cars you're bound to run out of ways to make them interesting. A lot of people say Jeremy and James really shine when making documentaries, and truly they do. But then they are helped by having something interesting to talk about.
 
Dr.Kamiya said:
I actually agree with Top Gear trying to move away from being a 'car' show.

Let's face it, cars are boring. Essentially they are tin cans with four wheels, and after close to a decade of looking at cars you're bound to run out of ways to make them interesting. A lot of people say Jeremy and James really shine when making documentaries, and truly they do. But then they are helped by having something interesting to talk about.
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You have a fair point. Cars are boring. But not so boring that you have to stop making Top Gear about them anymore. And let's face it - we still love them, even if they are boring.

Right now, I don't think it's the cars that are boring, but it's Jeremy - making them look boring. Case in point - the Lamborghini Countach.It has been featured on Top Gear more than five times and Jeremy never says anything new about it.
It's always the same - heavy clutch, small windows, no rear visibility, girl sunbathing naked on the engine cover routine. Why don't show us how fast it goes, or how it handles on the track?

There are new things to say/show about every car, and yet Jeremy just sticks to his old cliches. Well, newsflash - it's not funny anymore. It's getting tired and boring.
 
(Ok - first of all, be gentle since this is my first post...but I thought I'd register because I felt the sudden urge to contribute... :)

Like pretty much everyone here (I'm guessing, anyway), I've been a fan season after season after season. Like The Interceptor put it above, when that "swelling guitar riff" came on screen, I was watching, no matter what.

And I also have to concur, when it comes to S14 (there was evidence of it in S13 as well, imo), I have to say the criticism seems about right.

There's too much of what makes TG "dull"...
- I'm glad that Andy Wilman agrees (on his blog) that the guys have been playing too much into their "characters" and not just being their smart, witty themselves they used to be.
- The lack of spontaneity (at least that's how it appears on screen to me, scripted or not), especially in the News segment with the tired "jokes"
- The "build this, build that" challenges (like the electric car) that sometimes have their moments, but seem to be just rehashing something that was done better in the past. The problem with these is again the tired "characters"...you know, Jeremy is always breaking things, using the blow torch and sledgehammer on everything and so on.
- In all its ridiculousness, the airship one was mildly enjoyable, but still felt like too much of an effort, trying too hard to be the outlandish TG at least I hate.
- Actual car tests have been either few in between or on cars that aren't interesting, no matter what.
- The first "road trip" (Romania) was ok, but like earlier by others, a sort of a reboot of the "best roads" bit from earlier series.

In fact, I'd rather see entire episodes dedicated to JUST car tests instead of these paratrooper vs Hammond-in-a-car type deals. And PLEASE no more Gallardos!!!!

I've found myself too often having it on while cooking or doing something around the house, or even fast forwarding over the "oh, one of these again" parts - when in previous seasons I was pretty much always hooked from the get go.

And I do agree with braintumor with the fact that there are a ton of interesting cars that have yet to appear on the show properly, I would've especially wanted to see a VW Scirocco, not to mention the super cars that have been tested for the magazine, but not on the show.

Personally, some of my favorites (as far as my memory goes, anyway) in no particular order throughout the whole Top Gear have been:

- all the "?1000 sports cars" type challenges
- the Japan challenge (and Jeremy's review of the GT-R in a previous ep)
- the Vietnam road trip
- the U.S. road trip
- the Polar HD special (looked absolutely gorgeous, too)
- around N?rburgring in 10 minutes in a diesel Jag
- the amphibious challenge was hilarious in all its ridiculous idiocy
- DB9 vs train race to Monaco
- 612 Scaglietti vs plane to Verbier race
- SLR vs ferry
- the one with the three super cars (in France?) when May couldn't get his car out of the parking garage
 
Dr.Kamiya said:
I actually agree with Top Gear trying to move away from being a 'car' show.

Let's face it, cars are boring. Essentially they are tin cans with four wheels, and after close to a decade of looking at cars you're bound to run out of ways to make them interesting. A lot of people say Jeremy and James really shine when making documentaries, and truly they do. But then they are helped by having something interesting to talk about.
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So let's put away the hype and the emotion for a second and see what we've got. Top Gear started out to be a quite dreary car show many years ago. Now, the car-nuts are a loyal bunch, but their number is limited. So naturally, the amount of viewers of such a show will be limited as well. With Wilman, Clarkson and the likes at the rudder, the team actually managed to lift a mere car show beyond that group of viewers. They made a car show so good that the average viewer, despite knowing nothing of and not caring about cars, got hooked - a one-off in the history of automotive television, and an impressive achievement at that. Once started, this trend however meant that Top Gear would slowly, but steadily move away from being a factual car show towards being an entertainment programme that involves cars.

So this is where we come into play. With "we", I mean the FinalGear regulars. Of course, every individual has his and her very own standpoint on the matter, as well as an own reason for liking Top Gear. I for one like car shows. And since most car shows are terribly boring, the entertaining nature of Top Gear was a welcome change. Naturally, with Top Gear slowly shifting its weight onto the other foot, it would come across a peak where I would deem the show to be absolutely perfect in every way. But once it has crossed said peak, it would start to move away from cars too far for my personal liking, and too close to giving up being factual and informing for the sake of being funny.

If you started to watch Top Gear because it was funny however, the show might head just in your very direction and be on the way to your personal peak. For me as a car-nut, I feel them getting away from me. It's not that I couldn't understand why they do it though. Like I said, the number of car-nuts is limited. If your choice is either pleasing 500,000 car-nuts or 5,000,000 viewers that just want to have a laugh, which crowd would you, as a producer, aim for? On that basis, I understand what they're doing, very much in fact. Nonetheless, noone is in a position to tell me that the show is still exactly the same as it was a few seasons ago, and that I should stop whining. I love cars. They're moving away from cars. That's what it boils down to in the end, and despite some bagatelles, that is the reason why I feel Top Gear moves away from me.
 
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Hello everyone,
I guess it's the right time for me to express my opinion in this thread. First of all, I'm a huge TG fan and I've seen most of TG episodes from the past (around 85%, I don't keep track of it though). So far, there's only one thing in S14 that's bothering me, and that's the acting. Why can't the guys just be themselves? Who's stupid enough to believe, that Jeremy is really that unpractical and Richard is such a show off (well, maybe...) and that James has a fizzing sensation, everytime he drives a Porsche? Can't the guys just be funny as themselves, instead of being in character all the time? I know, I know, it's not that simple, but after reading one or two blog entries by James May, it's obvious that he's actually a clever serious man, who probably (not sure though) has a good sense of direction. Knowing this, it's also obvious, that him getting lost in Romania was definitely scripted. Same goes for JC. I don't even like the way he constantly has his own weird opinion on everything. He used to support his theories by (usually funny, but generally acceptable) arguments, but now he just says "I think it's this way, and that's it". Is that entertaining? I don't think so. The way he explained, that the V8 Volvo estate was actually a good car (don't remeber the episode, but it went something like this "You look like you're not interested in cars, while you own quite a good and fast one. That is cool.") was brilliant. There were many much better explanations of his theories I can't recall now, but the fact is, that nowadays, he would just say "It's in the cool section and that's where it belongs," and while trying to get it to the top for Hammond not to reach it, he would slip, fall down, people would laugh, he would laugh, because supposedly he's a clumsy and that would be the end of the Cool Wall segment...
To make a point out this mess I just wrote, the only thing I wish for, is JC, JM and RH to return in their own character and not the one the producers have written for them. This would probably fix most of the shows problems...
 
I'm going to disagree and say that I am enjoying Season 14. It's obvious that they haven't been able to put as much time / effort / whatever into this season so far, but think about it like this:

If you've never seen an episode of Top Gear, and you watch Season 14, compared to other car shows, what would you think?
 
ShawnJooste said:
If you've never seen an episode of Top Gear, and you watch Season 14, compared to other car shows, what would you think?
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"This isn't a car program".

:lol:

I'd do a lot to see The Tiff powerslide some new Porsche on Fifth Gear now.
 
the Interceptor said:
If you started to watch Top Gear because it was funny however, the show might head just in your very direction and be on the way to your personal peak.
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The ironic thing is, since my first exposure to it was when BBC America started broadcasting it (which was Series 8, I believe), I started to watch it for this exact reason - I found it hilarious.

I wasn't until last year that I downloaded the torrents of all the Series broadcast to date and started from 01x01 onwards. And I cringed at Series 1 (to this day I've never gone back to re-watch it - when I get in the mood to watch the whole series again, I always start with Series 2). Series 2 and 3 did not overly impress me either at first because they just talked about cars and the challenges were uninteresting ("fastest faith / political party", "which professor can do the best burnout").

There were some gems: Jeremy's review of the Rolls-Royce Phantom and James' advice on the "joys" of owning an old Bentley; Jeremy and Damon Hill thrashing about in an Aston Martin Vanquish and a Ferrari 575M. But overall, it just struck me as kind of dull compared to the "flash" of the later Series I had seen on BBC America.

And then I started Series 4, and it all came together. DB9 vs. TGV; ?100 Car Challenge; Pendine Sands Performance Coupe Shoot-Out; Audi A8 TDI Endurance Challenge. A proper mix of silliness and seriousness. Real cars tested in the real world. And for me, it "stayed together" right up until the end of Series 12 with what I felt was their best Special ever - Vietnam.

And then, for me, it started to power-slide off the track in a great cloud of smoke making a massive noise. It became a parody of itself, the dial cranked up to not 11, but 12. The personalities of the people came to replace the people themselves. Things happened because they were expected to happen and therefore lost any sense of spontaneity. The News stopped being about current events - we get that now in the second part of the Stig's Introduction.

I'm not still watching Top Gear out of morbid curiosity. It takes hours to download it so if I felt I had better things to do with my time, I'd be doing them, instead. It still makes me laugh, even if it's mostly now because I've heard the joke before and thought it funny the first time.

But for different reasons, Series 13 and 14 have joined Series 1 - a series I was glad to have watched once, but not one I desire to watch a second time.
 
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