[15x02] July 4th, 2010

[15x02] July 4th, 2010

  • 10

    Votes: 43 9.9%
  • 9

    Votes: 145 33.5%
  • 8

    Votes: 132 30.5%
  • 7

    Votes: 64 14.8%
  • 6

    Votes: 31 7.2%
  • 5

    Votes: 12 2.8%
  • 4

    Votes: 3 0.7%
  • 3

    Votes: 1 0.2%
  • 2

    Votes: 1 0.2%
  • 1

    Votes: 1 0.2%

  • Total voters
    433
Ok, but not better than 1st. I just can't stand challenges anymore. Even though as far as challenges go this wasn't the worst.
 
Very natural show, I really enjoyed it. This is Top Gear as we know and love it. I always wanted a 190E 2.5-16, excellent so see one on the show (or be it the smaller one in a really bad condition) for the second time. I'm surprised Germany got away so easily, I expected a lot more bashing on euro-hair and music. And of course James and Jeremy going on about the war ;-)
It's a shame they met up in Berlin. I think it's an awful city. Munich or Hamburg would have been really nice.

//Edit: 9/10 just for hearing James say schei?e. My life is complete.
 
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My score as follows:
- We start with 10/10, because it's Top Gear
- -4 for the poor choice of guest; surely out of countless thousands of possibilities they could've found someone who wasn't there essentially because he has a book to plug
- -2 for the rather poor "I'm pretending to speak German" jokes with actual Germans
- -1 for wasting time with the whole "Youtube video" bit
- +4 for the super-hot Canadian redhead
- -3 for not showing her long enough
- +2 for James May's victory dance
- another +1 for the super-hot Canadian redhead; maybe I'm biased here, not just because she's Canadian, but because she looks so much like someone I dated years ago that I actually had to double-check to make sure it wasn't actually her
- +1 for the Boxster Spyder, one of my most favourite cars of the last year
- and +1 for the very good Autobahn segment

That's 9/10.
 
I immensely enjoyed that one ... huge step up from last week. But then ... maybe I?m just racist because it was made in Germany? :mrgreen:

Generally, the (studio segemts and germany-trip parts of the) show felt pretty natural, wich is kind of the secret ingredient making or breaking TopGear ...

10/10
 
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This is what I needed from last week. Last week I was generous with a 6/10. Like I say I want the worst first and then move up from there. I am from America and have never seen anything like the German "van" before...I really want one...well once I am rich of course :) I am glad I could watch the whole episode and not get bored (unlike last week). 8/10 (the stig in the Reliant was a waste of time along with the BMW Steve Urkel car)
 
Cheap Car challenge: sort of al right. Wasn't that funny, especially the counting up the points at the end, YT clips, not funny, May cocking about was scripted as hell and IMHO not that funny. Best part was the Autobahn bit. Also during the whole trip I was thinking, right, last ten minutes will be on the 'Schleife. And where do they go. The Lausitzring.

Porsche review: Brilliant in every way.

SIARPC: Didn't really like it. Clarkson acting like an arse, just didn't fit him. And I don't watch TG for politics. So go on, ask him about his car (history) and speed cameras. Only bit that felt right (apart from the lap itself, obviously) was the M4 bus lane.

Also, James stuck in the BMW was funny for 2 seconds, then it got really lame.

Overall, I'd give this episode a 7. Where as last week I gave it an 8,5 (9). Weird thing is, everybody here is saying, yeah, old Top Gear. And I feel like this was new Top Gear.
 
I was ABSOLUTELY stunned! This was an epic Episode. Mostly, I think, because Colditz is 50km away from where I live and the Eurospeedway, where they filmed the footage, is my second homeland (with aproximately 1000 trackday kilometers in 2 years). :mrgreen: I couldn't believe it to see such well-known views on Top Gear!!

It was really a pitty that it was wet out there and that they drove the short circuit (DTM track).

The parts where they spoke german where absolute highlights. Never laughed that much during one episode. :lol:


Greets
Namxi
 
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It was OK.

Cheap car challenge had some vaugely entertaining moments such as the conversation with Martin Brundle, but lacked any of the charisma or laughs of older challenges and stuff like the band was just a waste of time. Scoreboard was terrible, and they weirdly tried to emulate Jeremy's win with the ?1 volvo for no reason.

James' review was very good- first good track test for a while. James also seems to give cars good reviews and I enjoyed this very much.

Guest was OK.

Overall felt about the quality of Series 13, with some good moments, but unfortunately it's not possible to script genuine charisma between the presenters. 6/10
 
I enjoyed the Porsche review, and also the fact that there were few stupid childish penis jokes. However, I was hugely disappointed with the challenge. It was boring and didn't make use of their location.
 
Didn't like the adding up of points. Pleased with the rest. actually fell asleep through siarpc (because it was 3AM, not necessarily cuz it was boring)
 
8/10 in the end, the SIARPC fell quite flat but I personally enjoyed the rest. Major plus-points for James May's victory dance, the McLaren "rocket-red victory T-shirt", and calling Martin Brundle. I didn't mind the fact that they reused the price difference to decide the score in the end, probably because it was thoroughly rubbed into Jeremy's face this time.
 
Clarkson is in the lead ...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dsKLw7iVpJc
i have seen this sierra overtaking a Veyron on the autobahn?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LAXp6uqLkYs
hamster is excellent, i once caught him in? soho getting head from a 6ft blonde transvestite while he was wearing stilts

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YbUgAI-VTZw
I was? looking for Euro Lap Dancing and I got this rubbish!

(youtube commertarys added to portrait the downfall of society via internet - or rather: youtube is the modern equivalent of certainly catching a STD)
 
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I can't understand the people that suggest it's unfair to give it anything less than 8 points. I'm just waiting for an episode like the South America one that will a few people wish they could give it a 12.

This esisode had a couple of brilliant moments, but - let's be honest - it also had some downfalls. Nonetheless, it was truly enjoyable. The most annoying part for me personally was the SIARPC. One might argue that a political discussion will be boring, but does anybody remember Steven Ladyman being on Top Gear? I would have loved to actually see a heated discussion rather than what seemed to be forced conversation. Having said that, it's quite a shame that they cut out the gernany to poland bit (which I'm certain has some more war references in it) whilst leaving in another reliant falling over and the SIARPC. I guess they didn't want to hurt his feelings taking that bit out.

I completely agree that James should do more car reviews. He has his own childish ways to get lost in silly details and it truly is entertaining and quite refreshing when being used to the good ole Jezza POWWWAAA!

On a sidenote, I would highly recommend to watch the actual youtube clips. They are quite hilarious! Excuse me if they've been posted before.

Hamster: MrM3MAN - M3 lap
Jezza: CossieMan2000 - Sierra Cosworth hot lap
May: Mercedes1902316 - A lap of the Euro Speedway in my Mercedes-Benz 190E 2.3-16
 
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No major complaints from me. A few questions raised however:
Jezza not using an iPhone anymore?
His Mercedes is going as of Monday.. or was that said in jest?
 
A solid episode: 8/10. I hoped for more though, I think it had potential for a 10.

Somehow it does not feel as sophisticated and as well put together as earlier seasons. For example season 10 with the outstanding Road trip quest to find the greatest driving road in the World, the Amphibious Challenge Pt II and the Botswana Special.
 
I hope the series picks up soonish. So far it's a bit of a lemon. It has had its moments but they were brief and far between.
I wouldn't blame them for airing the boring stuff while the footy championship is on.
Programming for TG propably happend before the dates and airing times were public knowledge. They got snookered a couple of times so I wouldn't have taken the risk of showing something like the Africa special when you don't know if you are up against Wazza and his merry mice. Or another Klose salto. Or another ref who secretly wear toilet bowls as a hat.

Just a thought.
6/10
 
James acting skills really let the side down a bit. Jeremy and Richard aren't that good either but it's not as obvious as James's inability to fill his "role" as one of the boys.

The Porsche review was excellent and it felt very natural. But then again, it was. All that cocking along has always looked pretty forced on James and this episode underlined it with a screaming yellow marker.
5/10.
 
[...]The Porsche review was excellent and it felt very natural. But then again, it was. All that cocking along has always looked pretty forced on James and this episode underlined it with a screaming yellow marker..
I disagree and I think this whole thing might be at the heart of the "problem" with the show for a lot of people. IMO the Porsche review didn?t feel "natural" all. It?s a mostly written segment that James delivered perfectly (and nothing wrong with that). Quite a lot stuff from the road trip on the other hand fell short of being perfect, because it was natural and therefore not delivered/acted perfect. A lot of spontaneous stuff that doesn?t really "work", but in the amateur way it?s delivered comes across hilarious. Like you clowning around with your friends. Yeah, the jokes would be better if you wrote and practiced them beforehand and then acted them out on prompt ... but it?s not going to be good fun, is it? It?s not bad acting, it?s just someone not having practiced something to perfection but being spontaneous ... you might overshoot it or cock it up completley getting those blank looks ... that?s the risk and this cheap car challange (not the studio segments) IMO shows perfectly, that with those kind of films ... less script, less acting is more entertaining even at the risk of some stuff just being the sort of moment where you think "that wasn?t funny at all" ... because that?s what happens to us real people. Even when we try to have a good time ... it?s not perfect.
The studio segments also fail a lot of times because the line is much harder to draw between acting out the script and impro ...
IMO with TopGear, you ideally have well written and executed car-tests, very sporadic written "amusing stuff" with mainly impro of the guys and studio segments that manage a balance between impro and acting ... that?s the winning formula. This week this was very well balanced IMO and the slightly "bad acting" by James in the studio segments is forgiven.
 
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