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[11x02] June 29th, 2008

[11x02] June 29th, 2008

  • Total voters
    431
One of the best episodes of Top Gear ever. A 10 in my book.

The Black Series review was beautiful. After getting to opportunity to sit in one last week, I can tell you that just sitting in it and gripping the wheel gets your adrenaline pumping. It was torture..
 
A huge improvement over ep 01. It gets an 8 from me this time.

Evo vs STI - good bit, better editing
News - haven't we heard some of that before?
Audi - good bit, still a little staged but Richard was good
SIARPC - don't know the actors but much better than last week
Stunt guy - could have been cool if taken seriously
Cool Wall - yeah it's back
AMG Black - excellent editing, Jeremy back on his game, the Top Gear we all love
 
I gave it an 8.

I really liked everything in this ep. especially the news :) "Bad news! The Dacia Sandraro is delayed! - OH NOO" I was laughing out loud.. There were some hotties in the background as well.

The SIARPC was really good imo. " Did you like the lacetti? - Wonderfull car - Isn't it " :D

TG stunt man deserves more time from the ep..I like it.

I can't wait till next sunday :blush:

btw: sorry for my english, I'm Hungarian :)
 
6/10

Rally comparison.- Average and tbh annoying that Clarkson "fudged" the result
News - Feels forced and way to scripted. Is that Squirrel sign even real. I doubt it.
Stunt. - Quite liked this actually. Would of liked to see him make it in Take2
RS6 - Why? Cool car, but Im bored of these races. Remember after the Fiat 500, Clarkson remarked to May "that wasnt a race"
SIARPC - I hate Spooks (its overacted and completely inplausible) Dont give a shit for the actors either. In fact I still maintain its the weakest part of the show
Cool Wall - Oh God not again. Soo over rated. Hammonds right on Astons though, but the problem is that over time its moved away from the original ethos. M3s are great cars but sooo NOT cool.
CLK - Great Car but not one thing in the review was new. Even down to Clarksons "Ive never felt more alive" and several other over used phrases. Plus the director had obviously seen those VW adverts.
 
JCTJennings said:
I am afraid I only really like the challenges and that kind of carry-on.
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Clarkson in that episode said:
What this shows all about; the absolute joy of driving a great car on a great road
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If you're purely after some slapstick humour I may have the show for you. However I think I speak for most people here when I say cocking about is a part of Top Gear, but only a part.
 
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RichW said:
6/10

News - Feels forced and way to scripted. Is that Squirrel sign even real. I doubt it.
Stunt. - Quite liked this actually. Would of liked to see him make it in Take2
RS6 - Why? Cool car, but Im bored of these races. Remember after the Fiat 500, Clarkson remarked to May "that wasnt a race"
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I agree about the news. It seems that they are much more aware of the fact that they are speaking on tv/in front of an audience. James especially--he used to be much more relaxed and fun I think. He now looks very serious and speaks as if he's making a speech, not like he's having a real conversation. I loved him on the news before; he always had very funny/insightful things to say, and played off the script more than just reading Clarkson's words. Like the rant about Clarkson not being able to ride in a convertible "limp wristed twaddle." Jeremy laughed at that, I would bet because he did not write it. He just sits there now making some seemingly half-hearted attempts to replicate his old style.

And yes these races are now out of control--the 500 in Budapest was the worst one ever, imo, and this one was only a bit better.
 
I'd just like to say I thought the Top Gear Stunt Man was impressive. I actually rewound that bit several times. I don't really understand the negative comments personally, it was only a tiny segment, something a bit different to break the monotony. Variety is the spice of life, some say. ;)
 
WillDAQ said:
If you're purely after some slapstick humour I may have the show for you. However I think I speak for most people here when I say cocking about is a part of Top Gear, but only a part.
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Definitively. Top Gear is a car programme. It's ment to be about cars, not boats catching fire. It you want to watch that, watch something else.

I gave it a 7, but I felt generous.

Evo v STI - felt short and not very well thought it. It didnt feel like a proper review. He did one pointless benchmark-test and without showing any more, telling us (the viewer) that the Evo was best. JC reaching for the instruction book was quite funny tho.

News - as somebody said before: I looks like they are doing the news just because they are forced to (= taking the piss). At the moment it looks more like some random chat business. When something is called "The News" you would, naturally, expect that they actually talked about new/upcoming cars, not signs with squirrels on them.

RS6 - beautiful intro and music, but the lack of actual information about the car let the review down. The old RS4 review was a million times better. This felt like a bad copy. It felt more like a random roadmovie with some action gently massaged in.

Guests - boring.

Stunt - I still can't see the point of this. Why didnt James make a couple of reviews about old cars and show one of them each week instead? That would've been brilliant.

Cool Wall - great to see it back! I agree about the Astons. They are totally footballers cars and should all be moved down to Uncool. Too bad they cut so much from it away tho. JC/RH has a hand full of cards in the beginning and then they only show 3 or 4 of them. :(

CLK Black - again, beautiful scenery, but the film had a few problems: First of all, that car isnt exactly new any longer, and I know it was taken in just because JC loves it so much. The idea behind the film was actually really good and my first impression was that it felt a bit like the Jag XJ review JC did a couple of years ago. And what did we actually learn about the car from that film? Well, that it's a bit heavier than when Merc started... He (Mr. Power) didn't even tell us how much HP or torque it produces.

I dont know what to say. Everything is in place for making great Top Gear, but they seem to busy looking at rating numbers and planning their next burning-stuff-down cocking'about review.
 
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Hi, does anyone know the name of the song that played during Jeremy's review of the Mercedes? I mean the piano piece near the end with the bird flying overhead and feathers dropping everywhere. It's just so beautiful. I would really appreciate it if someone could help me out.
 
I agree with the earlier comment that James should review some classic or cheap or banger or simple cars, instead of, well, doing nothing it seems at the moment. He appreciates simple honest motoring, and will be a great counter balance against the Clarkson excess.

Also, is it just me, or do they all, especially James, just seem bored??
 
I'm a bit amused by these "this is Top Gear how it should be" comments.
If Top Gear was only like this show they'd run out of material, viewers and scripts pretty quick.
This car review stuff is really mostly just 3 guys trying to advertise cars, be they mostly expensive, which would soon ensure only people who can't afford the things anyway would be the only ones left watching any of it.

Sure the episode was "ok" (7/10 for me) but all this racing around a track smoking tires if it's got a big engine, and chatting about how it's so much better than last weeks make "a" and then the next week make "a" comes back and it's all "make "b" from last week sucked so bad".. that's commercialism, nothing more nothing less.

The magic of these three guys is that they have peculiar character sets which compliment each other quite amazingly when they "cock about". Surely die hard "must only see reviews" fans can understand that their fun stuff brought in millions of viewers which allows them to do show after show and which ensures this is one of the most popular shows around in this day and age of mindless bbrother nonsense reruns and cowells pop stars rubbish.

Show me some nice cars, do a review or two but keep the nonsense coming guys.

Yeah, guest were quite ok, didn't even notice it took 10 min, though I'd prefer not to see two at the same time, just doesn't do them justice and Jeremy hasn't got the same "bravado" somehow.

Keep it all mixed up a bit, stunt man was ok, wish they'd made him redo it a few times though, I'm sure they could have made it work (more cars yeah.. lol)
 
Vaioleto said:
Hi, does anyone know the name of the song that played during Jeremy's review of the Mercedes? I mean the piano piece near the end with the bird flying overhead and feathers dropping everywhere. It's just so beautiful. I would really appreciate it if someone could help me out.
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What's that? You mean even the slightest effort to search would have yielded the Whats That Song section?
 
Loved the episode! Jeremy was so right about the Evo being better than the Impreza! :D
 
JC attempting the first corner in the Evo: "I've had a 14-year-old set up all the computers for me, so let's see what's what" :)

Gave it a 6/10, too harsh I think now after watching several bits more than once.

+ Signs and Dacia Sandero gag in the news, I hope we see it again next time.
 
not enough crashing and slapstick comedy, however this is one of the only episodes that i learned very little about cars
 
Great ep. Loved the testing of the Evo X. I've always liked that model car.

Still waiting to see some of the pulse pounding stuff we saw in the highlights of the series from the first episode.
 
i might have missed this part in the discussion but, why RS6 and Black AMG didnt do the power lap.? have they mentioned why.
over all it was a good episode. not as good as the first one. but not too bad. 6/10
 
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