[15x06] August 1st, 2010

[15x06] August 1st, 2010

  • 10

    Votes: 54 14.1%
  • 9

    Votes: 113 29.5%
  • 8

    Votes: 117 30.5%
  • 7

    Votes: 55 14.4%
  • 6

    Votes: 24 6.3%
  • 5

    Votes: 9 2.3%
  • 4

    Votes: 5 1.3%
  • 3

    Votes: 1 0.3%
  • 2

    Votes: 2 0.5%
  • 1

    Votes: 3 0.8%

  • Total voters
    383
2. When Richard was ranting on about how the Elan wasn't as good as the MX-5 was better than the MX-5... I looked out my room window at the MX-5 sitting in my porch.
It's supposed to be sarcasm/joke.
 
I'm surprised so many of you liked the British sports car segment so much. In my mind it was the same drawn out, overly silly nonsense that plagued Season 14 (Geoff, anyone?). The "challenges" were completely uninteresting and the gags were unbelievably stupid, especially the carwash. I get that the gang likes those old bangers, but come on, the film was lame and way too long. I understand that it's sad in a way that those completely outdated factories don't make stuff anymore, but Clarkson himself made a much more intelligent piece about why that is a few years ago.

On a positive note, Clarkson's handy metric conversions were pure gold.
 
I liked the episode overall. The Ferrari review was great and while the main challenge was a little too silly/repetitive in places, it had a wonderful story to tell. Also, I'm a bit of a TVR fan and I worked in a place connected to a brakes plant that was in the process of being discontinued so it was quite gut wrenching and familiar to see that factory in the state it was in. Seeing the shot of Jeremy in front of the Sagaris in particular was one that brought it all home.

At least TVR may survive in some capacity if that German mob follow through with their promise.
 
I'm surprised so many of you liked the British sports car segment so much. In my mind it was the same drawn out, overly silly nonsense that plagued Season 14 (Geoff, anyone?). The "challenges" were completely uninteresting and the gags were unbelievably stupid, especially the carwash. I get that the gang likes those old bangers, but come on, the film was lame and way too long. I understand that it's sad in a way that those completely outdated factories don't make stuff anymore, but Clarkson himself made a much more intelligent piece about why that is a few years ago.

On a positive note, Clarkson's handy metric conversions were pure gold.

I completely agree. None of it interested me in the slightest. Usually I would enjoy the challenges etc, but as the presenters were handed the next challenge each time, I could not have cared less about what it was going to be, as I knew it'd be rubbish. The car exploding was just silly. They moan about having their budget cut and having to slash the amount of episodes, and yet spend money on things like that which actually make the programme worse.
 
When TG gets serious, people complain it's too serious. When TG does new stuff, people complain the old stuff was better. When TG does stuff with a tint of the past, people complain it's been done before.

I don't know about you chronic complainers, but I rather have a slightly silly, recycled, or serious Top Gear than none at all. Cos if you guys don't stop complaining EVERY DAMN EPISODE then they're gonna cancel it.
Get this thing inside your little heads ok?
There are many Top Gear viewers. The casual ones who only saw from series 13 onwards and much of the stuff you say "uh huh has been done before derp" they haven't seen and will love. The hardcore ones who've seen every episode at least 5 times and will complain if any of the presenters even wears a pair of shoes that's been worn before. The shallow ones who want more goofing around and explosions, supercars in every show, a Lamborghini racing a cheeta for a challenge. By contrast, the deep ones, who want every segment to have a deeper meaning, a learning experience and full of metaphors.

From all these groups, many understand that... Top Gear can't please only them, and there are other people out there that want other things. So they overlook, sit back, and try to enjoy, when bits that dont suit their taste come along. They might not be their favourites, but they won't die of boredom.

And then there's the last group of TG fans. The kind that complains when ANYTHING happens that doesn't please them. It's not a "I didn't enjoy x and y". It's right down "X AND Y WERE RUBBISH AND SHIT AND THE PRODUCERS SHOULD BE KILLED WITH FIRE, TOP GEAR IS SHIT NOW AND IT WILL NEVER BE THE SAME RAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGEEE" (and they love the word cringeworthy)

If you include yourself in this last group, I have a very sharp knife I'll be willing to lend you. Please drive it through your keyboard.
 
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this episode just goes to show how stupid and staged top gear has gotten. <_<

who else noticed at 5:40 james' ferrari is registered YN55 NEO, then the stig gets in it at 5:55 and its now registered as RX55 FTZ

and then there was jeremys bitching that the 458 cant show a GPS and speedo at the same time, even tho its pretty clear it does at 6:52

3/10, cut the crap already
 
this episode just goes to show how stupid and staged top gear has gotten. <_<

who else noticed at 5:40 james' ferrari is registered YN55 NEO, then the stig gets in it at 5:55 and its now registered as RX55 FTZ

and then there was jeremys bitching that the 458 cant show a GPS and speedo at the same time, even tho its pretty clear it does at 6:52

3/10, cut the crap already

The plates are almost always fake, to protect identities of the owners, or for whatever reason, and Clarkson said earlier "On the left hand screen, it shows me a bunch of things I don't really care about" and he's right, the speed is there on the bottom drowned in countless other numbers and info he doesn't understand. What he was looking for is the traditional speedo, the "clock" format, which is much easier to read.

If cars really want to go digital, what they should do is what they do in Jets already. You should be able to put which ever screen you wanted on whichever position you'd like. I'd have the rev counter at the left, the speedo at the middle and satnav at the right, but then someone else might prefer the satnav in the middle. It's not too hard of a technicality as far as computers and screens go...
 
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The plates are almost always fake, to protect identities of the owners, or for whatever reason

I dont have anything about protecting privacy, but when they change around during the show it makes me question what other things are being edited in/out for whatever reason. There's really no reason to switch the plates around during filming.

Even if they unintentionally made a mistake, to borrow the Clarkson quote from the other week, "Even if it shows no symptoms, the disease is still there, and it sort of spoils the relationship."

and Clarkson said earlier "On the left hand screen, it shows me a bunch of things I don't really care about" and he's right, the speed is there on the bottom drowned in countless other numbers and info he doesn't understand. What he was looking for is the traditional speedo, the "clock" format, which is much easier to read.

The way it was phrased during the show it sounded like he meant no speedo whatsoever. That really should've been clarified IMO if thats what he really meant.

If cars really want to go digital, what they should do is what they do in Jets already. You should be able to put which ever screen you wanted on whichever position you'd like. I'd have the rev counter at the left, the speedo at the middle and satnav at the right, but then someone else might prefer the satnav in the middle. It's not too hard of a technicality as far as computers and screens go...

I'd really like to see this too. The 2 cars I drive now are alright but I've seen some really atrocious layouts in the past.
 
I don't know about you chronic complainers, but I rather have a slightly silly, recycled, or serious Top Gear than none at all. Cos if you guys don't stop complaining EVERY DAMN EPISODE then they're gonna cancel it.
Get this thing inside your little heads ok?

If you include yourself in this last group, I have a very sharp knife I'll be willing to lend you. Please drive it through your keyboard.

This is a FORUM for people to give their opinion on the programme. Do you not think it would be slightly pointless if people only posted here with good comments on the programme? Yes, it does annoy me when people say 'THAT WAS SHIT' etc without being constructive and explaining why, however people are fully entitled to their opinion and if I were the producer of the show, I'd much prefer to see a true indication of what the whole audience thought. I for one am certainly not going to hold back my opinion through fear of it being cancelled, nor do I think it would be axed unless the viewing figures dropped considerably. From what I've seen, Andy Wilman doesn't seem like the kind of person who would mind reading constructive critacism about the show. There are even clips of him calling certain parts 'shit'.

If all you're going to do is come on here and tell other people not to express their honest opinion (which is the idea of a forum, after all) then I suggest you should be the one to destroy your keyboard.

and then there was jeremys bitching that the 458 cant show a GPS and speedo at the same time, even tho its pretty clear it does at 6:52

3/10, cut the crap already

Yeah I noticed that, but Clarkson has always said things like that. Remember the BMW M5 review in one of the earlier series when was talking about the annoying talking satnav and said "and she... she CANNOT be turned off" when obviously she could.
 
Liam I'm not saying people should hold their opinions back, but when it's obvious that some sketches/bits are targeted to some part of the audience and other parts wouldn't enjoy them much... if you're part of the latter, start trying to understand it's not possible to please everyone! It's like trying to compose a song everybody likes... It's just not going to happen.
Luckily Top Gear is an hour long and has different segments. There's bound to be one that you like. It'd be a very rare thing to find an episode where everything pissed you off, right? So why are there so many votes for less than 5? That's like awful programming. Less than 5 is what makes me change the channel. So if something makes me change the channel why would I even bother coming to the internets and commenting how much it sucked on a forum dedicated to it?

My main point is when people point out what they don't like it's not in the form of an opinion, it's in the form of a statement. "THIS SUCKS" instead of "I think the show would be better with a little bit of...."
It's to those people I offer my knife.
 
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I think the main problem is that it should never have become a programme with two different audiences watching for odd bits that please them in the first place. You're never going to get away from people complaining, because different people are now looking for different things in the programme.

It's like a really good band having a string of amazing albums that stick to their routes, and then selling out with a poppy 'please em all' album that blasts straight into the mainstream charts. The original fans of the band are never going to stop complaining, because they loved the first albums so much. And the newer fans are going to moan if they write anything non-poppy in future.

That's just life, and it's the route Top Gear have chosen.

And yes, as I said, it does annoy me when people make bold statements about disliking something without explaining why, and how it could be improved.
 
I think the main problem is that it should never have become a programme with two different audiences watching for odd bits that please them in the first place. You're never going to get away from people complaining, because different people are now looking for different things in the programme.

Except for the fact that TG would probably be dead by now if it remained too informative and less entertaining, staying with the enthusiast crowd rather than the mainstream one. I'm willing to bet that a lot of viewers, both those watching legally in the UK and those not doing so, would not be interested in the show at all if it did not contain the humour that everyone on this forum seems to hate with a passion. A good example of this is something I read in a thread a bit back about the ratings for 15x04 (upyourego, I think?). While all the haters on this forum moaned and groaned about how cringeworthy and dreadful the motorhome segment was, the viewer numbers seem to disagree - it increases throughout the hour rather than decreases. TG needs the ratings in order to survive as a show; while I'm sure the TG team do give a damn about what people on here think, the fact remains that you (or most of you, anyway) are illegally downloading their show, and are not paying for its development and funding; if the show had remained as it was, but using up more money, I think there would be some public outcry about how they were wasting taxpayers' money, and therefore subsequently would be gone. TG does not exist to craft a show based around the comments and criticisms of the members on a fansite, but to reach whatever targets they have in mind - which generally involves higher viewer rates. And just a bit of background info; I have a friend, who is definitely more into TG for the entertainment value; she loved 15x04, which everyone on here seemed to hate for some reason or another, but disliked 15x05, which she found boring with the exception of the Veyron SS. I think that's more like the person who makes up the 6 mil or so 'official' viewers of TG, whereas the TG anoraks (dunno if I'm using this word correctly, just remember JC using it before o_O) on this site appear to exist solely to piss on everything that TG does nowadays. I'm pretty sure there are less than 6 mil people on this forum who are (so-called) fans of TG. You are the minority. It's the truth. Deal with it. As I said, the TG team, while unlikely to completely disregard the comments on this site, are even more unlikely to model the show on what a tiny fraction of the total viewers want. It's logic, not ignorance. BTW LiamC this isn't directed to you personally, just that I thought it'd be a starting point.

I dont have anything about protecting privacy, but when they change around during the show it makes me question what other things are being edited in/out for whatever reason. There's really no reason to switch the plates around during filming.

Even if they unintentionally made a mistake, to borrow the Clarkson quote from the other week, "Even if it shows no symptoms, the disease is still there, and it sort of spoils the relationship."

Is a license plate really that much of an issue meaning that you have to dedicate two short paragraphs to it? While I'm sure most people noticed it, I doubt many were actually troubled by it to the extent that you appear to be. If anything, you seem to be "making a mountain out of a molehill" (I think that's the saying...or something like that). No offense intended.
 
Except for the fact that TG would probably be dead by now if it remained too informative and less entertaining, staying with the enthusiast crowd rather than the mainstream one.
False. The show was already a cult phenomenon by Series 6 (2005), and they even mentioned that a quarter of a billion people watched it and the waiting list for tickets was 19 years. And back then all they did pretty much was car reviews, or some sort of restrained challenge specifically designed to aid in the main purpose of the film, which was to review the car at hand.
 
I dont have anything about protecting privacy, but when they change around during the show it makes me question what other things are being edited in/out for whatever reason. There's really no reason to switch the plates around during filming.

Even if they unintentionally made a mistake, to borrow the Clarkson quote from the other week, "Even if it shows no symptoms, the disease is still there, and it sort of spoils the relationship."

I will explain this. Let's assume that it is James' Ferrari, and let's assume that the plates are being changed for privacy reasons. If that is the case, TG likely has many fake number plates lying around for switching out.

Now, following that line of logic, remember that TG uses a lot of film for a short segment. Now, if the segment was filmed over two days, in the intervening night James would have likely wanted to drive home that evening, necessitating a plate switch. In the next day's shoot, it is probable that someone forgot to switch the plate, or that the plate switch was wrong.

It is also possible that James' car wasn't available for part of the shoot, and was replaced by a similar looking Ferrari in order to get the shots in and the filming complete. It's a bit of light fakery, for a purpose - shoots have to be done in a timely manner, and sometimes that means making substitutions.

Being shocked and appalled at such a minor continuity error is showing a fair bit of ignorance about TV production.
 
this episode just goes to show how stupid and staged top gear has gotten. <_<

who else noticed at 5:40 james' ferrari is registered YN55 NEO, then the stig gets in it at 5:55 and its now registered as RX55 FTZ

and then there was jeremys bitching that the 458 cant show a GPS and speedo at the same time, even tho its pretty clear it does at 6:52

3/10, cut the crap already

stupid and staged? where have you been all these years? its always been mostly staged. based on this last post you made i must ask why you still watch. pointing out number places, IMO, its pretty stupid unless you are just making an observation and your not. stop watching the show to find things to pick on and start watching it to enjoy. you would be surprised how you will feel about it then. i dont like to take anything away from peoples ratings on here but in this case it seems you based yours on a screw up by the crew. go back a few shows to the out takes when they were worried about the if anyone knew if the window was up on a car during a reshoot. its called film, its never perfect. they dont hide it but they also wont go out of thier way to show it.

to many people on here seem to question the truth of a race for example because they seem to have shots of the car driving by in the film "how could they have that?" and "it must be staged". its not, when you edit a film sometimes you want a shot that you dont have or you couldnt shoot the first day so you go back and shoot it. like the old woman watching the Bugatti drive by. one of the hazzards would be something like if there were clouds that day or even if the window was up or down the first day of shooting. things go wrong and in this case the number plate got missed. its no reason to cuss the whole series because some here are just to anal to really appreciate a fun film on a good show. it makes me sad.

Sorry for the rant...again
 
I will explain this. Let's assume that it is James' Ferrari, and let's assume that the plates are being changed for privacy reasons. If that is the case, TG likely has many fake number plates lying around for switching out.

Now, following that line of logic, remember that TG uses a lot of film for a short segment. Now, if the segment was filmed over two days, in the intervening night James would have likely wanted to drive home that evening, necessitating a plate switch. In the next day's shoot, it is probable that someone forgot to switch the plate, or that the plate switch was wrong.

It is also possible that James' car wasn't available for part of the shoot, and was replaced by a similar looking Ferrari in order to get the shots in and the filming complete. It's a bit of light fakery, for a purpose - shoots have to be done in a timely manner, and sometimes that means making substitutions.

Being shocked and appalled at such a minor continuity error is showing a fair bit of ignorance about TV production.

With the explanation you gave, it would make sense. I was always under the assumption the track reviews usually only lasted one day. The other reason I gave this episode such a low score was because of how long and drawn out the British cars challenge was. This was the first episode of TG that I've actually stopped watching midway thru. That being said, I'm a 20 year old American living in Sweden so that film was probably a lot more interesting to other people. Either way I dont think its really worth arguing over 1 review anyways, especially considering how many other ratings there are.

stupid and staged? where have you been all these years? its always been mostly staged. based on this last post you made i must ask why you still watch.

The staging wasnt that painfully obvious until the past 2 or 3 seasons. I still enjoy watching the show, just not as much as I did watching seasons 1-10.

to many people on here seem to question the truth of a race for example because they seem to have shots of the car driving by in the film "how could they have that?" and "it must be staged"

I wasnt questioning the outcome of the race. Anyone with 2 brain cells would know that the 458 should humiliate the 430. My only question was regarding the number plates, but Sik Pony clarified that.
 
almost all the replies here are people whinging, to which there is only one solution

IF YOU DON'T LIKE IT, DON'T WATCH IT - its very simple
 
Yeah, I think a lot of people complaining about the cinematography of Top Gear are not really familiar with making films...?
I am not familiar either, but using a little bit of logic, I deduced that sometimes during races they do a couple of spectacular shots and then film the race with the inside-car cameras.
Let's take the snowbikes vs Dakar Tuareg in episode 5... They can't have a camera car constantly going in front of them cos that'd slow them down, or place cameras all over the place just to have some external shots. So they do the external shots first for the show, and then go back and start the race. Most of the footage of the actual race was from inside of the car, with some helicopter shots. It's not fake and staged, its just shot in parts... at least that's what I think happens.

Now, before you call me naive and stupid, I know some stuff is actually staged and rigged to happen a certain way, but come on. Top Gear was never a reality show, and I dont know if I'd watch it if it was...
 
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