[19x07] March 10th, 2013 [Africa Special, Part 2]

[19x07] March 10th, 2013 [Africa Special, Part 2]

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mpicco said:
Oh I'm sorry mister refined. We should all take more time before we rate. Except you too rated pretty soon after the episode aired, what gives you the ability to suddenly judge the episodes so much better than everyone else in the same timeframe?
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I actually watched it twice before posting/rating. I was sure after the first view, then I verified with the second view. I'm also confident in my judgement; that comes from age, wisdom, and experience.

And really 4x01 is the best of the best of top gear in your golden scale. The silly apache getting a lock on a Lotus Exige, swerving and fooling around on top of it when a real Apache would be 2 miles away and get a lock on in matter of seconds. Give me a break.
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1) I went in chronological order of the episodes I would give a 10 to. I did not rate 04x01 as the "best". In fact, I prefer 12x06 to it. Yet that episode is a 10. 2) US Army veteran here; Apaches are close to my heart.

I'll keep judging my way, get off your high horse you might suffocate in the thin atmosphere.
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Populism is just another form of elitism. At least I'm honest about my belief that, yes, I am indeed better than you in every way that counts. And I can breathe perfectly well up here. The air's thin enough that it doesn't carry your foul stench to me.

fisheye said:
That's unreasonable criticism. They had 2 seconds shaky-cam, the rest was either the guys or the scenery. Of course only scenery near the road and no close up cams attached to lint worms. It's a road show.
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I was explaining where Matt was coming from on his conclusion. Fair or not, even the boys make reference to this fact in the episode.
 
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I'm sure if Jeremy Clarkson were to be reading this argument about whether or not people are being objective/sensible enough with their personal rating procedures, he'd be shaking his head and mumbling something insulting.

If voting on these episodes is in any way useful for anything, it's to get a general consensus without having to read page after page of asinine gibberish.
 
It started off very well, but then they had to ruin it with the contrived bullshit. (Another addendum to the List of Ridiculous Gags They Must Include in a Special These Days: Make Hammond look like an idiot.) I also didn't like that they turned it into a race at the end.

Overall: Not the worst, but not the best, IMO. My own rankings...

1) Polar
2) Botswana
3) Vietnam
4) Bolivia
5) Nile
6) Middle East
7) USA I ($1000 challenge)
8) India

(5-7 are fairly close together for me, it should be noted.)
 
10/10 (as good as current Top Gear gets)

+ great cinematography and soundtrack
+ WRX <3
+ Clarkson blasting Genesis to distract Hammond
- some scripted bits were kinda lame/obvious (May running over a pothole, Scorpio drowning..)
- ending felt just a bit rushed, just like their trip through Rwanda (maybe because I didn't want it to end)

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Choosing a favorite episode between Botswana, Vietnam and Bolivia is near-impossible...
If I had to choose:

1. Bolivia (My first Top Gear episode. HD helps, too)
2. Vietnam (I am fascinated by this country)
3. Botswana (Hammond + Oliver = <3)
 
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Having seen the two episodes, I'm suspecting Jeremy's logic regarding the 'true source of the Nile'. Just because it's the furthest as the crow flies from the Gibraltar Strait, doesn't necessarily make it the 'source'.
 
No Hammond, the car has two tow hooks,
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Exactly. Just like every other halfway modern car in existence. Otherwise: What would be the point of the rear towing hook? :)



S.
 
I hate cliff hangers so I watched the 2 epis together and I gave this road-trip 8/10 (but I so wanted to give it a 9)

Scripted comedy is a given when you deal with Top Gear so I let those pass. Full marks to the Trio, they're brilliant.

2 marks docked for Wilman and his crew of blithering producers for :
1)Basing this trip on the premise of the Straight of Gibraltar as the mouth of the Nile. I'm quite keen on geology/geography and the Mediterranean Sea was cut off from the Atlantic Ocean as recent as the last ice age (glacial period). The fact that they are looking at a place "somewhere southeast of Lake Victoria should be where the source is" is bullshit because it is about the distance the water has to travel, not the general location.
2) Calling those modifications done on site in Uganda.
/rant

Overall the whole thing is quite entertaining and I had quite a good laugh on many occasions but I had to pretend to ignore what I said above. <_<

Surprise: I thought Rwanda is still the land of AK47s'. I guess I'm wrong.
 
It was great, in my mind. Started slow (again), but if that's the harshest complaint I can throw at 'em, then I have no problem with that.
I like how organic it felt. Yes, they cocked about some, but much of it felt just... like it flowed very well. Obviously they were well prepped (and prepared; my god how many tires did they go through?).

With this special I feel like they're exploring the outer edges of their television milieu. I'm interested in seeing if they take anything from this and apply it to the summer season. Bring on Series 20.
 
Everyone, PLEASE try to stay civil.
 
In the spirit of making lists, I find ranking the specials one by one is too hard. It's easy to lump them in three separate categories (all under the headings in chronological order of broadcast):

Exquisite
Polar
Botswana
Vietnam
Bolivia

All those three had a mix of amazing scenery, entertaining and non-scripted challenges (even if they weren't presented as such, e.g. attempting to drive over Guallatiri [the f*cking great volcano] in the Bolivia one), banter between the presenters that felt geniune, and perhaps most importantly a great focus on the cars and the challenges they faced in them just getting to the end. The entertaining bits did not feel scripted and forced, either. All deserve a 10/10.

Good
Middle East

I liked this special more than most people, I think. Whilst lacking the same emotional punch as the top four, it does have some great bits (e.g. the theme park in Iraq that's generally the first thing that comes to mind when thinking about this one, the opening sequence) and overall not much in terms of cringe comedy. Overall an 8 or a 9 depending on how much you like the specials over the regular episodes, I'd probably plump for an 8.

See me after class
USA Florida - New Orleans
Nile

These two had some fantastic bits, and some less fantastic bits. USA FL-NO I think suffers from being the first special, and seems to be to have been developed as a full length regular segment more than a proper special. Therefore it's entertaining but nothing amazing. Likewise, the Nile one wasn't bad but was for the most part unmemorable, nothing interesting really happened aside from the muddy bit and the lake crossing (exactly) and for one of the few times ever (which include from that which is below) I got a bit bored watching TG. I gave the Nile an 8 in the poll, but upon reflection that's a bit generous, a 7 is more appropriate. I'm actually inclined to give USA an 8 simply because it wasn't trying to be a special in the same way as the others, and as a regular episode segment it worked really well.

"It which must not be named"
India

The last bit wasn't bad, I guess.... This was Top Gear: Saturday Night Takeaway edition, but at least Ant and Dec don't take themselves seriously. Even Top Gear Ground Force was far more entertaining. Gave it a 5 in the poll, redeemed slightly by some decent bits (the end part, driving at night etc.) which in hindsight is what I'd give it now as well.
 
GaryC said:
Having seen the two episodes, I'm suspecting Jeremy's logic regarding the 'true source of the Nile'. Just because it's the furthest as the crow flies from the Gibraltar Strait, doesn't necessarily make it the 'source'.
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As an engineer that does hydrology as part of his job, I should also add that the volume of water should IMO factor into deciding where the "source" of the river is. Considering the size of the Nile watershed, and how seasonal it is, once you get past Lake Victoria its all semantics anyways.

I found it hilarious at the end when they were running around madly. I'm not sure they knew what they were looking for, a USGS* marker or maybe just something that looked good on camera :)

*Her Majesties Geological Survey?

Honestly, I'm more peeved about the fact that no one mentioned the words "hydrology" or "watershed", than how purposefully wrong it was.
 
19x06 got a 7/10 from me - this will not be the case for this episode. I wouldn't call the first half promising, but it was a solid start. They didn't finish solidly though. It was not a total catastrophe, but I'm having a hard time understanding how what I just saw was of such importance that they had to make this a dual-episode special. I mean what did we witness? Some nice scenery, granted. The (initially funny) joke of stealing each others car parts being dragged out for too long. A very bad road that revealed there is a service truck with a gazillion spare parts (what was the point of buying cars on a budget again?). A spy helicopter that came out of nowhere which seemed totally misplaced. A river crossing on a raft which they certainly didn't just build right there by themselves. A sinking Ford Scorpio which I think the three guys did not know about, but which certainly was pre-planned. A car ferry on which they took the "the crew has to go to the loo in the morning"-joke another step too far, and which dropped Richard off at a beach for no understandable reason. A cross-country race to the finish with the typical "I'll win, get out of my way!" wrangling and last but not least a ridiculous puddle of which they seriously want to make us believe it is the source of the Nile, and they just found it when any previous scientist and explorer failed to do so. Seriously?

When Clarkson commenced his typical speech of how great the trip was, how awesome the cars have been and how much they love them now, I was disgusted. If this has really been the case, which I deem possible but which they completely failed to show in two full hours, it was buried under a big pile of stupid jokes and doing pointless things for the camera while being on a journey which seemed quite pointless to begin with. The first part of this special merely was okay because it was this one where they contained all the fail.

Mr. Wilman, didn't you once say something along the lines that Top Gear will go with dignity and not slowly languish in shame? What ever happened to that?

4/10, only because there was some nice scenery and it was a special where they were far from home and had no creature comforts.
 
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abczyx said:
"It which must not be named"
India
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:D


Good list. Personally, I *might* swap Middle East and Nile (though I never hated ME with a passion), but overall your ranking is spot on. US, while not entirely terrible, has a definite "shark-jumping" moment for me.. I like to call it "dropping the dead cow".


S.
 
I couldn't see the point in any of the other specials 'journeys', I think this one about the Nile was as good as any.
In fact, I think the whole point of anything that occurs on Top Gear having a commonly regarded quantifiable 'point' is pretty much missing the point of why Jeremy kicked off the new era of Top Gear in the first place.

If you're looking for facts & descendable analysis about cars, then you are in the wrong place.
 
The Spie said:
Populism is just another form of elitism. At least I'm honest about my belief that, yes, I am indeed better than you in every way that counts. And I can breathe perfectly well up here. The air's thin enough that it doesn't carry your foul stench to me.
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Lol. Pathetic.
 
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1. Africa
2. Bolivia
3. Vietnam
4. Middle East
5. North Pole
6. America
7. Botswana
8. India

But in all honesty, It could also read, they outdid themselves each time they did a special. They still have many places to do another one! New Zealand, South Africa, Antarctica, Australia (including Tasmania), Bottom half of South America, Russia & Siberia, Ukraine, Scandinavia
 
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