[01x01] September 29th, 2008

[01x01] September 29th, 2008

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flyingfridge said:
Yeah funny how it only took them 2 weeks to give in to the biggest overblown bogan cliche in motoring. Sad really.
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It's an Australian car show - of course they're not going to ignore the Holden vs Ford thing. Provided they don't over-do it it'll be fine. And hell, leaving aside the Red vs Blue factor, look at it as a test of two of the best value for money performance sedans anywhere on the planet that also happen to compete in our market and are unique to it.
 
Production was good, set was good.

I think the guys were trying just a bit too hard - too much ocker thrown in. Cox really bugs me.

The segments though felt underdone - the softroader 'challenge' - what was the point? It lacked structure - even when the TGUK guys do a challenge you feel involved - didn't get that this time. The Maybach - I would've actually liked Brown to spend more time talking about it. The Moke - not bad but would have been better later in the series. The Porsche review - confusing.

I know it's the first series and it's up against the very polished TGUK but it just felt to me like they took the production style but not the challenge/review style across.

Maybe they should've done the Holden v Ford first, just to help them ease into it. Then you'd have those two cars on the Power lap board (no need to 'pad it out') and a benchmark we can all relate to would have been set.

I was a bit disappointed with it - and I don't know how much of that is expectation from TGUK. My wife actually started reading a book and she's a big TG fan - just didn't appeal to her she said. But we'll give it time.
 
jonez said:
p.s. either way its better than 90210 that my gf 'accidentally' flicked onto.
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There's not much that would be *worse* than that show. :)
I wonder what the viewer numbers for TGA for?

The advertisers bet a lot on this one, I think.
 
fbc said:
Yeah, so far this thread is exactly what I was expecting...

It's lucky some of you guys aren't parents - your kids would be suicidal...
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I don't think its crap compared to tguk, i think its awful outright.
 
I thought they did very well. I delberately didn't say "they did very well for their first episode" because it was a good solid effort. Think of it this way, the most popular Australian car show before this was Channel 9's "The Car Show" - and that was really crap. IMHO this was better the season 1 episode 1 of TGUK! There aren'''t any fat lards in this either.

Overall a solid effort. 8/10.
 
fbc said:
It's an Australian car show - of course they're not going to ignore the Holden vs Ford thing. Provided they don't over-do it it'll be fine. And hell, leaving aside the Red vs Blue factor, look at it as a test of two of the best value for money performance sedans anywhere on the planet that also happen to compete in our market and are unique to it.
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agreed. it is the australian version of topgear after all, and a good review of two v8 muscle cars that define true blue aussie cars (despite having american engines, goddamn im sick of people whining about that. WHO CARES? they go like stink and i love them both)
 
Cold Fussion said:
I don't think its crap compared to tguk, i think its awful outright.
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And it's their first episode - as Viper said look back at series 1 of TG and you'll see how far that show came. Give it some time - don't be hasty to write it off - you could try and be positive about it...

xsirhc said:
agreed. it is the australian version of topgear after all, and a good review of two v8 muscle cars that define true blue aussie cars (despite having american engines, goddamn im sick of people whining about that. WHO CARES? they go like stink and i love them both)
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Just one correction - it's only the HSV running an American motor.
 
Thinking about it a bit more, they tried to put way too much into the first episode. Should have held the maybach thing over maybe, dunno but it was too squashy.
 
you'd think they could of got a better Star to come on. A almost fell asleep during that. And I also agree that they needed to introduce the track... it did look like a carpark with cones on it.
 
Cold Fussion said:
I don't think its crap compared to tguk, i think its awful outright.
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Yeah, this show manages to be horrible on it's own two feet.

Yes, it's the first episode, yes it has a lot to live up to, but if so, why did they manage to make so many horrible mistakes in just the first episode?

"The nerds on the internet are not geeks".
 
all they needed for the track was a set of fixed camera angles at each corner rather than trying to make a shaky camera promotional film. Less is more.
 
Well I would prefer to watch this than the early early seasons of TGUK.
They have some hard work ahead of them to bring it to EPIC top gear standards but I'm pretty sure that this first season will be pretty good.

And with the host thing..
I think Charlie has to work on it a bit more, especially when talking to the camera in the studio.

It will get better.. I'm sure of it :D
 
Hmmm...I smell negativity. This and TG are two different things. And you should know that by now.

Okay there are some things that need patching up like the script for example, but it's the showmanship (if that's a word) is there. The chemisty is starting to bubble and that's not bad for just one episode. This show is about relevance to the Australian Car Market, which is completely different to the one in Europe. They test cars that people would comtemplate buying, even if it's half a million dollars (a la Lambo 560).

This is not a carbon copy of Top Gear. I do not see Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May cocking about in daft challenges and supercars. I see Charlie Cox, Steve Pizzati and Warren Brown driving in softop 4wds in places that not many people would know about it or have seen before on the Telly. This show reflects what we are: True Blue and Ocker. Bring on Episode 2.
 
Not a bad effort, but the track angles were awful, the 911 road test was just dreadful. The Maybach test could have been longer, as the opening was quite good. The soft-roader test should have had more purpose. The news was fairly, interesting.

They really need to improve everything.
 
Well I have mixed opinions, as in one way it was good but in other ways it wasnt. Firstly you have to give credit to the effort put in as obviously they put in a lot of effort and did a good job trying to emulate Top Gear UK. But as others have said there are numerous issues.

The thing that got me the most was the segments which were way too short and incomplete. Every segment they showed felt rushed, sparse or ended so quick you wonder why they even did it. (Merc Maybach, Porsche etc) The whole taking the 3 cars for a test was done pretty badly as they never really properly set the scene or the main point of what they were doing and they never came a a proper conclusion to it at the end. The Porsche segment was horribely short and useless with no real opinions while the the Mercedes Maybach felt utterly wasted as they put all this effort in introducing it and that was it. While the shark segement was alright but also felt kinda pointless and rushed.

Overall I think they were trying to shove too much into one episode as the amount of content they put into that episode could of was enough for 3 episodes if properly fleshed out.

Another thing I found annoying was the track which not only had horrendous camera angles where we couldnt see anything but was boring overall. It really needs to be longer and also have more extended parts to really go flat out on the car and more defined corners and areas.

Anyway I'm complaining too much for the first episode and as others have mentioned in comparison to first season TG UK it was pretty good I reckon. But by itself without comparing it I have to say it wasnt great at all.
 
To be honest wasn't expecting much, Cox was annoying as the host almost like he was trying too hard.

Some of the segments were ok but they need to extend on them more.

Is it me or does the test track look like a sprint course?

Anyway I can only hope that it gets better<_<
 
As I said in the other thread, had I never seen the original TG, this would probably be the best car show I've ever seen. A good effort for what it is - basically it's the equivalent of TG 1x01, which was also a bit rough and ready. During the soft roader piece, I actually found myself enjoying it on its own merits and stopped subconsciously comparing TGA to TG.

I've warmed to Warren and Steve. Charlie ... not so much. Maybe I'll get used to him, I dunno. That, and what's the deal with that test track? It doesn't look like a circuit so much as a runway with a few 44 gallon drums plonked on it to make a couple of chicanes. The production values are also extremely good, and the crew/camera people/editors have some world class skills and should be very proud of themselves. There were a couple of rough edges, but I suspect they will be fast learners.

Overall, a good effort, and I'll be watching again.
 
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On TG UK the track is familiarised by the fact they use the same camera angles each time, and show us the whole track. TG Aus has completely missed this.

Steve needs to yell into the camera less - maybe it's just first time nerves.

There was no crowd involvement. I've always found the bits the TG UK crew do with the crowd (especially in the Cool Wall section) to be very funny.

The feature film was OK, but a good point has been brought up there. Shouldn't the point of the films be to have three different cars which each have their pros and cons? (for example, TG 10x10 where they test the three German cars at the private Spanish track, each car has its differences).

The bit with Warren at the end was alright. His car-making films are promising but firstly, the Maybach thing was probably a bit short, and of course, he didn't get to drive it (no fault of his own though, really).

Was nice to see a bit of chemistry between the three when Charlie got bogged in the snow and Warren nearly took the shortcut back down the mountain.

The show has an awful lot to live up to, and would no doubt have been significantly better than Two and a Half Men, Australian Idol or the 7:30 Report.

I guess what matters most is that I'll be watching again next week. There's some things that need to be improved on, but at least SBS are making watchable television for once.
 
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