[14x05] December 20th, 2009

[14x05] December 20th, 2009


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1. I liked the noble but it seemed short. It was if they only showed 60-75% of the review.
2. The news was average
3. SIRPC sorry but JB was full of crap when he said he intentionally slid the car.
4. The only thing I found funny about the art gallery was the horse head and James audio bit. They need to cut back the scripting.....
 
I guess I have to agree to disagree. I find the concept of an art gallery about cars interesting, and whilst its funniness is debatable, I genuinely want to go and explore that gallery now. The BMW with outside on the inside looked really promising, for example.

Except obviously I can't go see the exhibition, as it's long gone, but you get my point.

I would've liked to visit the exhibit as well. But as a segment of the show, it wasn't very good. I can't help but think it would have been far more interesting as a serious segment, rather then another "cocking about/purposefully ruining things" segment. Like the BMW they painted. Great idea. Beautiful car. Even beautiful paintwork, surprisingly. Well, at least Hammond and May's paintwork was nicely done. It wouldn't be TopGear without Jezza being a dork though, painting the horse's head and pushing the car into a ditch.

I think Clarkson should dress up like Curly for one episode. Hammond can dress up like Larry and May could be Moe. :p
 
Hm, I thought there were actually a lot of improvements in this show compared to recent seasons. The Noble test was very good; absolutely no complaints. Amazing time too. I was expecting a garbage news segment like they usually do filled with Hammond being stupid and penis jokes, but it was better than that. And James gave an intelligent overview of the Rapide; you could slot that segment into season 6 and you wouldn't notice.

The first half of the art segment was better than I was expecting, too, except when they knocked over James' exhibit. Come on! I knew they would go out of their way to make an ass out of themselves in front of an expert of some sort as I said in the pre-episode discussion. Oh, and Hammond's painting falling over. Not buying it.

The guest was boring. He already went around in the same car. Moving on.

The second half of the art segment was pretty good. It looks like they actually put a ton of effort into making the exhibit! James' audio tour was pretty funny, but the shots of people wandering into supply closets and the old lady into the men's room weren't necessary. The soccer scene was pretty funny too.

All in all, decent. I think people here are overreacting; there have been much, much worse episodes recently! Save your best shots for the episodes that deserve it.
 
i found the art gallery part disappointing. the Noble was very good and the news and SIARPC were ok.

for those who dont understand that these threads are about a particular episode but just want to keep harping on how they feel the whole show has gone to hell etc please take it to the "Season 14 slid off track" thread. you will be greeted there with open arms.
if you want to say you are sick of all this(multiple new threads on the same subject, this subject invading these episode threads etc) then dont. lets just say your opinion will not be greeted so well. o_O
 
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Ouch! I'll just consider this a stutter-step in an otherwise stellar season thus far.

5/10
 
I liked the Noble review, the new was ok, and I actually didn't skip SIARPC this time. But the art gallery thing is really boring, I skipped through a lot of it.
 
I found it pretty enjoyable and entertaining.

However, I was chatting with several people and reading FG the whole time, so it only had about 30% of my attention. So maybe that's the best way to watch it?

Anyway, the Noble is a truly gorgeous car. A machine made to perfection. Might have to watch that bit again. :)
 
And the roller coasteriness (IMO at least) continues.

The only good bit for me was the Noble. The news was alright; but after that...it turned into background noise for me. Like with 14x02... 4/10.
 
I thought it was a good episode. Better than last weeks anyway.

Noble was great, the art bit was a bit long, but still enjoyable.

SIARPC wasn't boring for a change.

I dunno, maybe you people have got your standards too high now days.

8/10
 
What's wrong with having high standards for something that has proven to deliver quality, as TG has done many a time before?

It's like Ozgirl's (?) school analogy: they're perfectly capable of delivering A-grade work; and right now they're turning in Cs and Ds. Or to use a variation of the food analogy: I keep being given rubbish takeaways when what I really crave is a proper homecooked meal.
 
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I dunno. It was far better than anything I've seen on the US airwaves lately. Will "Survivor" ever die????
Yeah, I knew something was gonna happen to the statue, as well as the painting and the car. It wouldn't be TG if anything they created actually survived.
This season does show that the guys are rushed to get *something* on the air, and that something isn't as good as usual.
 
The Art Gallery segment was the dullest in Top Gear history, forced calamities have never been funny, and certainly aren't when they've been done in a similar way 9000 times before.

More or less what I was going to say. There's three sorts of scripting for a show like this - there's the sort you would have to be told about to notice; there's the sort where in the moment you don't notice it, but if you stop to think about it probably is really (which is fine - most people WON'T stop to think about stuff like the blimp "wandering" into the airport airspace). And then there's the sort that dominated the art gallery film - limp, overused stuff anyone who's seen the show before will spot coming a mile away. James' sculpture being the single most blatant example in this episode - the thing was clearly built to fall over given its' total lack of a base, and Clarkson and Hammond promptly tipped it.

I gave it a 4. Really not good enough on any front Mr Wilman - even the comedy run through the Christmas landfill's been done better on earlier series (the plate of sick leaping to mind).
 
7/10, C, 75%

This was a kind of mediocre show. It started out with an excellent car review, had an acceptable pre-Christmas news segment, and a funny feature film that drug on a little too long and ran out of steam toward the end.
 
6/10 from me. Liked the Noble film, but wished for a drag race with the other supercars. Liked the 4 door Aston Martin. Liked the Jenson Button interview.

Art film part 1 was predictable (I knew that was Hamster in the hidden art piece). Art film part 2 I skipped everything from James complaining about people calling him to when they went back to the studio. It just bored me that much.
 
Mineworksfine, you obviously don't let other people have opinions. Why else negrep me for having one....

And another person that gave me some red...I was trying to make my point more obvious.
 
Mineworksfine, you obviously don't let other people have opinions. Why else negrep me for having one....
I'm fairly lost for words you said that, given that MWF almost certainly negrepped you for this post, where you attacked other people for expressing their opinions.

[Edited for formatting glitch]
 
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Just got to the news, I want a Hamster calender now :D
 
Yeah, I knew something was gonna happen to the statue, as well as the painting and the car. It wouldn't be TG if anything they created actually survived.

And that is the issue for me with Series 13 and 14 - I know it's all going to happen before it does. In Series 12, Episode 01 I should have known Richard's car would break out of the trailer and Jeremy's trailer should have caught on fire, but I didn't. So when it happened, I was surprised.

But I knew Geoff would roll down the hill and I knew JC and RH would knock over James' sculpture. And worse, I knew James knew it would happen, which is why he doesn't really look all that annoyed about it.


And then there's the sort that dominated the art gallery film - limp, overused stuff anyone who's seen the show before will spot coming a mile away. James' sculpture being the single most blatant example in this episode - the thing was clearly built to fall over given its' total lack of a base, and Clarkson and Hammond promptly tipped it.

Exactly. It's like seeing a comedy show where you know every punchline before it's delivered. You may still find it funny and you may still laugh, but there is nothing spontaneous about the experience.
 
i had a nice post, then the page didn't load, and i lost everything!!!
so long story short.

Noble... Nice sound, interesting looking, new/good cinamatography. Best review this season in my opinion after the Twingo review.

news.... i watched another christmas news earlier today, and it was the same idea, different gismo's..... and there's nothing wrong with that.

Jenson.... he was more entertaining first time around, and he looked like he had fun in the last 2 corners.

Gallery.... ummmm. Cut 5 minutes of the fluff out. stop destroying things for the sake of a cheap laugh, the statue was actually cool and it was a shame to destroy it.

the segment had great potential, but was let down by the "over the top" sillyness, some sillyness is acceptable, but if you're trying to prove a point, why kill the point before you've prooven it?

and that 5 minutes i said to cut, use it for studio and audience interaction, cool wall (even though i find it silly sometimes) and spending more time looking at cars like the Rapide (i felt short changed on this, they barely talked about the car)
Top Gear is a great show no matter what direction it goes, but i think this series the guys have spread themselves too thin with all their extra carricular activities outside the show, and as a result i think it's suffering. they don't have the same energy and spirit, and you can sense it. however tonight, some of that spirit seemed to be coming back!.
 
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