[14x02] November 22nd, 2009

[14x02] November 22nd, 2009


  • Total voters
    605
I'm sorry, all you people saying you'd give this ep a 9 or a 10... have you been watching the show for the last 7 years? This episode was in NO WAY up to usual TG standards. Seriously, if you don't count the camera work (which is always top-notch) this is on par with student films. It's that poor.

Go watch the homemade limos ep, or the Winter Olympics special, or the amphibious vehicles challenge (1 or 2, take your pick) and then come tell me that this ep rates a 10/10. I dare you.
 
By TG standards, this was substandard, but I'm reluctant to give it anything less than a 7/10 because it's still WAY more entertaining than any other show out there.

With that said, I didn't care for 'Geoff'. It should of been cut down to a shorter segment, IMO.

It really confused me to hear Jeremy bash the ZR1, after he loved it during the Bonneville Salt Flats episode and then went on to praise it as his 'Car of the Year' for 2008. I imagine he and producers feel they must dismiss it as a simple American muscle car to avoid offending the sensibilities of the British public.

Regarding the lap time, keep in mind that was a wet track! If an engineer can run a 7:26 lap of the Nurburgring, it can't be that difficult to drive.
 
Brilliant review, brilliant news, nice guest. The rest was below average (really effing tired of this how hard can it be rubbish...)

Whoever was the director/cinematography art guy for the R8 vs ZR1 review: GOOD MAN! :D
 
I'm biased because I love anything with The Stig, and now his deceased cousin. For those few seconds I could only wonder who the anonymous driver was. It was good I thought, not the best but better than a few.
 
This episode actually made me to register to this forum because I know the guys behind Top Gear might follow this forum.

This was the worst Top Gear episode ever, I really mean ever. I find it totally weird that there are actually this many people who liked the episode. How can it be?

The whole Geoff thing was way over scripted thing ever on Top Gear. Presenters act so so dumb that it is not even funny anymore. All the incidents have been done before.
"We just made a crappy car on purpose, so lets go to city and cause a traffic jam!"
"Yes! We haven't done that before have we?"

Segment was also too long. As a part thing I could have live with it but to have it 2 part segment was just way too much.

News were useless and rather unfunny. I don't know if there was a single piece of news on the whole news segment?

The only proper good segment on this episode was the Audi and Corvette segment and then that was too short. Also the funniest part of the episode was the Jeremys review. That is the kind of humour I want Top Gear to have and not some stupid over scripted, over acted, over stupid and over used stupidity.
 
I did enjoy this episode, but I think that's mostly because I only get to see Top Gear when the downloads come around and never get to rewatch on network TV.

I do have to say that one of the highlights for this episode was the guest. Even thought he seemed to have no interest in cars. The R8 v. ZR1 was nice camera work, but meh, if it was done say about a year ago when both of those cars were new on the market, I would have enjoyed it much more.

On to the Geoff/Hammerhead. I was not that big a fan, to be completely honesty, the part I laughed at the most was when they were blinded by the hood.

It pains me to say that I have to give this episode a 6/10.
 
I'm sorry, all you people saying you'd give this ep a 9 or a 10... have you been watching the show for the last 7 years? This episode was in NO WAY up to usual TG standards. Seriously, if you don't count the camera work (which is always top-notch) this is on par with student films. It's that poor.

Go watch the homemade limos ep, or the Winter Olympics special, or the amphibious vehicles challenge (1 or 2, take your pick) and then come tell me that this ep rates a 10/10. I dare you.

I've been watching it since season 4 (but I've seen every episode at least once...some many many more than once), and I didn't care for the limo or amphibious vehicles segments. Shows there's no accounting for taste. :p

I loved the R8/ZR1 segment...finally felt like a complete review, rather than just a "lets do one stupid thing with a car quickly so we can get to farming/ATVs/etc."

The Hammerhead Eagle i-Thrust segment was a bit long, however, it was fairly entertaining.

But I do agree with you...a 9-10 should be reserved for AMAZING episodes...and this isn't one...but a solid 7 is appropriate, for me anyways.
 
Last edited:
Powertest between R8 and ZR1 was awesome and beautiful.

Making the electric car was the basic "Ambitious but rubbish" stuff which I love.

SIARPC was decent, didn't really care.

News was awesome, though need to get more cars into it..

8 from me. They can to better, that's for sure
 
Last edited:
The whole Geoff thing was way over scripted thing ever on Top Gear. Presenters act so so dumb that it is not even funny anymore.

I think you really nailed it there. When they have crap to work with and thus produce crap (ala ?1000 supercars) then it's funny because it has a hint of reality to it. I mean, I doubt if anyone on the planet could find a supercar for ?1000 that would make it across several hundred miles of road and not break down a few times. Situations like that don't make them look stupid, they're just funny on their own.

And when they go over the top doing something completely impossible, like making a convertible minivan (people carrier to you Brits) or strapping a Reliant Robin to a few thousand pounds of jet fuel, those are good too because it's so ridiculous there's no way it will work, but they do the best they can and enjoy the resulting explosions.

The fact is that we KNOW they're not absolute idiots, so the idea that they would actually leave a car, even a bad one, on a hill with no brakes is ludicrous. It just makes things look forced and awkward.

Apparently, though, there's still an audience for this. Well, all I can say is "Are You Being Served" ran for over a decade. If that's the audience TG wants, well, fine, but I thought they had more class than that.
 
I liked it 8/10.

Granted the first part of the electric car was, for the lack of a better word, crap; The second part more than made up for it. I did like the audi vs zr1 segment and the news was funny. The guest, I found interesting and he seems like he enjoyed being on the show, and he seems like a genuinely nice guy.
very nice entertainment for those boring sunday nights.
 
I thought the Geoff stuff was pretty damn entertaining but it is the same old 'ambitious yet rubbish' formula; almost like a caricature of itself. You can also say that with the car comparison since it was the sensible German going up against the loud, horrible, yet fun American. Relatively typical stuff but with HD cameras a lot is forgiven ;)

The eco-mentalists were probably having a crisis as they saw Top Gear's take on an electric car especially with all that smoke hotboxing their box on wheels.
 
I think you really nailed it there. When they have crap to work with and thus produce crap (ala ?1000 supercars) then it's funny because it has a hint of reality to it. I mean, I doubt if anyone on the planet could find a supercar for ?1000 that would make it across several hundred miles of road and not break down a few times. Situations like that don't make them look stupid, they're just funny on their own.

And when they go over the top doing something completely impossible, like making a convertible minivan (people carrier to you Brits) or strapping a Reliant Robin to a few thousand pounds of jet fuel, those are good too because it's so ridiculous there's no way it will work, but they do the best they can and enjoy the resulting explosions.

The fact is that we KNOW they're not absolute idiots, so the idea that they would actually leave a car, even a bad one, on a hill with no brakes is ludicrous. It just makes things look forced and awkward.

Apparently, though, there's still an audience for this. Well, all I can say is "Are You Being Served" ran for over a decade. If that's the audience TG wants, well, fine, but I thought they had more class than that.

^ exactly! I was waiting for the pie-throwing to start in thru slapstick style.....

For the very first time I had to force myself to stay and watch the whole episode.....after the brillliant 14x01, yesterday was a sad, sad day....
 
I guess the true test is how desirable it is to go back and watch again (and again and again).

Series 13 is the first series since 01 and 02 that I really didn't care to watch again, much less multiple times. The same is starting with Series 14. I watch the SD rips first, but so far I have not felt the desire to watch the entire episode again in HD, instead just skipping to the "highlights".

I suppose if I am honest, this series and 13 have been pale shadows of what I consider the "great" seasons (7, 10 and 11). The "epic races" haven't been epic. The challenges are things we've seen done before - and done better. The jokes are recycled. But it's still Top Gear and I still find it entertaining.

I imagine I rated the Series 13 episodes relatively high, as well, which just shows the "fix effect" a new episode has - even if it's not very good, it's new so I rate it high. But like a hangover from a drinking binge, the next day it's not nearly as good. So maybe I need to wait a day or two before I post comments and cast a vote.
 
I have to agree with you guys with the whole electric car film. I laughed at some of the stuff, like James incognito eye shifty-ness, but ultimately the entire thing was scripted. There is no unpredictability.

They should have had an electric car build-off competiton for a 1000 quid.
 
Last edited:
I am about 1/3 way through this new episode, watching this whole electric car segment, and it's terrible. I like those guys (on tv, coz I don't know them of course), but they're not Fry&Laurie. Hamster is starting to sound like an over-scripted moaning primabalerina. Everything is scripted but there's a problem - they are not actors. At least the dialogues could be a bit more natural, not just mere pretend reactions to something they pretend to be surprised about. So it comes out lame.
No matter what the rest of the ep is, just for this overindulgence in being "funny" I give this ep, for the first time for me I think, a solid 6.
 
Last edited:
Apparently, though, there's still an audience for this. Well, all I can say is "Are You Being Served" ran for over a decade. If that's the audience TG wants, well, fine, but I thought they had more class than that.

Are You Being Served? at least had some... you know.. trained comedic actors and writers. I guess I don't want to insult anyone elses taste in humor here, so I'll just say that their jokes and situational comedy tend to fall pretty flat with me.
 
I've never laughed this hard on a TopGear episode!
brilliant!
the A4 has had a catastrophic effect on our performance
Geoff hitting the tree
Richard drawing a penis on Jeremy's face
slow motion impact(Hammond looks and sounds like a zombie on the high speed replay)
James with a fake mustache- genius,classic cartoons stuff
calling Hammond on the "retard" button
mustache on car-ridiculously funny

*whoever came up with the idea of filming the out-of-control exhaust of the Corvette is genius and should be awarded "Sir" title (they did something similar while filming the Scuderia review)...a, and what a rich sound those pipes put out...nice!
**Jeremy looks like a Turkish gipsy lorry driver with the mustache and the leather jacket :))

The only car maker that has only built beautiful cars- Lamborghini
second:Alfa Romeo, particularly in the old days
 
Last edited:
5/10.. Not brilliant, must be the dullest episode so far :( The electric car segment was too dumb, and that's saying something - and I usually love their challenges. This one just didn't sit right. More of last week, which was epic, please :)
And I'm kinda tired of Hamster's "sorry, sorry!" too, lol. Looking forward to next week tho! Now it can only get better :)
 
This was the worst Top Gear episode ever, I really mean ever. I find it totally weird that there are actually this many people who liked the episode. How can it be?

Funny, that, because I though that 14x02 was one of the best episodes in the "new history" of Top Gear, i.e. after series 8.

I genuinely laughed a few times, and absolutely loved Jeremy doing the Yorkshire accent :lol: I know, this was reused too but it did feel fresh.

Jeoff bit was rubbish though, can't deny that. Maybe they've left that in for like seven year olds :lol:
 
Top