[16x05] February 20th, 2011

[16x05] February 20th, 2011

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I gave it a 7. Having read all the negativity here I expected it to be awful. It wasn't, certainly wasn't the worst episode ever, wasn't ever the worst episode of the season (1 and 2 were worse, no real direction, no Collins, Tiff popping up everywhere).

The plow bit was pretty funny. I agree with the prior poster, if the first bit was left out the overall score would be much higher. If they had replaced the first part with the cool wall, it'd have been a 10. Jeremy jumping in the snow, the ice cracking, A-HA, and Captain Slow driving a rear wheel steer vehicle were hysterical. Plus the second half was right out of the polar special.

The news was really funny. The bit about vanity plates was humorous, but all the jokes about "Daniel" both the driver of the Datsun POS, and the guy in the song were priceless. Then them revealing it as James's middle name put it over the top. You knew a big joke was coming, but you had no idea what it was gonna be. Yes it was scripted, but who the hell cares? It always was, always will be.

Didn't watch SIARPC, but the road test was quite good, great someone came out and mentioned how you can't generally improve an improvement. Stig stopping to clean the hood had me in stitches.
 
I found the first part of the challenge mildy entertaining, and most of the city segment a bit cringeworthy (although unlike EVERYONE IN THE ENTIRE WORLD I actually liked the man catching on fire - it was so over the top and obvious it was like Wilman was saying "This bit is a joke. We lit a man on fire. Let's just get on with it." If nothing else it was a fun play on Norwegian grit as the man just kept trudging on.) However, it was nearly completely redeemed by the last section where for once we genuinely saw them plugging away at a very tough challenge rather than wandering in endearing failure. Clarkson's snow dives were also fantastic; interesting to see how it's got the forum divided, that one.

What else... The news was a warming bit of fluff as per usual, Clarkson's review was solid as per usual (Stig scrubbing away at his bonnet like an complete May was excellent though) and the guest was a guest as per usual.

So, a 7/10! Looking forward to the next episode. It's been a good series.
 
Where are they going with this series, so far it has been pretty weak all round. They started off with 2 x great episodes back in December where Jeremy announced welcome back to a new series. It then disappeared until near the end of January, where it just all got very silly and made for 12 year olds. This episode is by far the worst of the bad bunch so far and as far as content goes, is pretty much nothing worth mentioning. Please restore my faith!
 
I enjoyed bits of the challenge. Accidentally pelting the BMW had me on the floor, and watching May drive it like a rally car was great. Plowing the pond was pretty cool, a slight bit of cocking about but with a good amount of seriousness. The town, however, had its moments. I cringed (in a good way) when the car was hit, laughed when the man was on fire, but burning the sign and killing the house was just a bit too planned. The last bit of opening the road really won it for me, a slight bit of cocking about when able to but a loaded grit hopper of determination, bravo to the boys.

SIARPC seemed to play on stereotypes too much, wasn't really a fan.

BMW vs. Audi was great, good to see some go-fast wizbang stuff doesn't actually work.

All in all was a decent episode.
 
abczyx said:
I bet if they hadn't included that (short) bit with the snowplough in town the average score would be up a point.
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I gave that part an EXTRA point just to hear James call Jeremy a moron.
 
Given how good a couple episodes have been thus far this season, I gave this one a 7/10.

I think a full point was due simply for how unbelievably hot Amber Heard is.

However, one point was subtracted for obvious humor being a little too obvious. I like the Top Gear jokes that sneak up on you, like the one about James oiling up in bovril. That had me rolling.
 
This episode was rather Okay, mostly because I wasn't expecting much. 5/10.

I miss the old times when I used to watch old TG episodes over and over again, however I am not going to do it for this series.

RH tested the 911 Turbo S , JM tested the Atom, that's ALL for the series?!?!
 
RH tested the 911 Turbo S ,
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Tested? More like "used it in two silly drag-races against old Beetles" .. yawn! Why, oh why didn't they review the new GT2 RS? That thing is even quicker round the Nordschleife than a Carrera GT...

In all fairness: Don't forget the M3 vs. Audi RS5-review, the Yeti, the "hot hatches nobody can buy"-test, the 599 GTO and the Pagani Zonda R. They *did* test some cars so far. Sadly, most of the cars weren't really relevant.
 
Sascha77 said:
Tested? More like "used it in two silly drag-races against old Beetles" .. yawn! Why, oh why didn't they review the new GT2 RS? That thing is even quicker round the Nordschleife than a Carrera GT...
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It would have been more of the old tired cliches, Clarkson bashing everything he could about the car and Hammond gushing all over it. :/

Oh, if only JC could drive a 911 on Top Gear and provide the kind of review he gave to the GT3 in his latest DVD. Not just complain about absolutely everything about it and keep calling it a Beetle.
 
Wallio said:
It wasn't, certainly wasn't the worst episode ever, wasn't ever the worst episode of the season (1 and 2 were worse, no real direction, no Collins, Tiff popping up everywhere).
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lol this is weird. I thought the first 2/3 episodes were fantastic, as they actually resembled Top Gear. Episodes 4 and 5 were largely awful. You do realise that every Top Gear episode used to be like episode 1/2, only even better. The stuff that happens in episode 4/5 is to me still amongst the most boring television there is. It's not what Top Gear was invented for, that's for sure. It's just completely stupid. You weren't around in the glory days of Series 2-6 were you? Probably not... I take it you don't like cars much.

Lets have a look at a random episode I just picked, 06x01

It contains:
A great, enthusuastic, informative test of the Mercedes CLS AMG
A hilarious news segment full of good natured news about cars (you remember cars?), without controversy or the type of thing that makes it awkward to watch with your family.
James' famous Honda Element test, again fresh and funny and informative all at the same time
SIARPC... pretty much as it is today I suppose
A brief but informative test of the Toyota Yaris followed by the original car football match
The Cool Wall, which is brilliant, and I will never understand why it was dropped.
Another informative test (4th of this episode you know) of the Ranger Rover Sport, followed by some silliness with a Tank but still far more informative than what we get these days.

Now lets look at 16x05:
14 minutes of utter boredom with a snowplow
A news segment where not a single thing is mentioned about the car, just the name of the car. And some various other irrelevance and toilet humour.
The M3 vs RS5 test, which was actually pretty good. All 7 minutes of it.
SIARPC... same old
18 minutes of utter boredom with a snow plow

The first leaves me feeling well fed. The 2nd leaves me feeling completely empty. It's hard to imagine that each episode is the same length of time. The Top Gear I love is dead.
 
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Now lets look at 16x05:
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etc ...

Yup. Older TG = shorter films, more ideas, much less elaborate presentation. Newer TG = less ideas, longer, in some cases drawn-out, films - culminating in the horrible E-car-episode. I don't need spectacular production-values, huge explosions or forced jokes to be entertained. We have Michael-Bay-movies for that.

Ignoring their specials (North Pole, S. America, etc.) almost all of my favorite TG-clips were those that offered substance over style and that had some kind of original or interesting idea. Lately, the opposite seems true of most TG-clips.

The Cool Wall, which is brilliant, and I will never understand why it was dropped.
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Same here. As long as they don't try to end it on increasingly sillier notes (cherry-picker anyone?).
 
CTFlyer said:
The Cool Wall, which is brilliant, and I will never understand why it was dropped.
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But wait--There's more! From http://www.topgear.com./uk/photos/series-16-episode-6-pictures-from-rehearsals-filming:
"And. The Cool Wall's back! More info on Sunday's episode here, and click the handy 'next' button to see just how we went about preparing such a show."

Fingers crossed that it doesn't get unnecessarily ridiculous.

Everything else you said, righty-o. I have old TGs on semi-random rotation, listening and only sometimes watching while I do other things in the house, and shows from series in the teens frequently get skipped. Somebody mentioned 03x02 earlier in this thread, and when it came on I rewound, finished cooking, and sat down with beer to watch it like a new show.
 
Didn't mine the snowplow segment, but it was too long.

Audi vs BMW was....forgettable.

Guest was quite good looking. Not very interesting though.

Anyone else notice the multiple Hans Zimmer tracks this season? I heard some Inception, Transformers and Dark Knight in this episode. It feels like I'm watching some amateur youtube video half the time.
 
I rate it a 7. Not a terrible episode imo, but could have been much better.
 
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