[20x04] July 21st, 2013

[20x04] July 21st, 2013


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I'm kind of surprised at the number of people bitching and moaning, saying they'll give up on TG after this episode or if they see another episode produced like this one was. Utterly ridiculous.:idiot:
- SLS v ESLS: 9/10 Very well done and I think this is the first time I've seen both cars in the same video compared.
- News: 7/10 Obviously those of you who down voted because the news was too short, missed the point entirely and paid absolutely no attention to what Clarkson was saying toward the end of the segment on why it was short.
- HoverVan Pt. 1: 6.5/10 Not really surprised by the fact that it sunk, but considering the amount of power each of the two motors had, I'm kind of surprised it didn't even float at all.
- SIARPC: 9/10 Not much talking about cars or driving, but a pretty decent interview nonetheless. Watching that lap it looked like it was going to be towards the top, but he did scrub some speed coming around Chicago and didn't hold the inside line very well at the Hammerhead. All-in-all Jackman seems like he would be a cool guy to hang out with.
- HoverVan Pt. 2: 8/10 Pretty good for a couple of laughs, the downside was definitely the time they spent trying to figure out how to operate the lock. Going over the weir was entertaining, knew Clarkson was going to try to go back up it using all the power available but I did not expect the engine to blow up in the process.
Overall: 8/10
 
Not the train wreck I feared, so a 6 from me.

We've seen the SLS a fair bit, but Jezza kept it relatively fresh and the film crew did a great job with the super-slow-motion shots. So what I expected to be a yawner ended up being decent.

The News was more The Commentary.

Hugh Jackman is a pretty good interview (he's been on Inside the Actors Studio twice and both were good shows) and I think he did well for what little time he had.

Then, alas, we had the Hovervan...:rolleyes:




If I want to watch the boys being 'ambitious but rubbish', I'll watch the Convertible People-Carrier ep from waaaaaaaay back in season 8.

The thing I miss about these more recent "How Hard Can It Be?" challenges like the Hammerhead-i Eagle Thrust and Train GTI is that they go directly from "HHCIB?" in the studio to the completed project. We don't see much (if any) of the mishaps encountered during the build itself, which is what made challenges like the Amphibious Cars, Convertible People Carrier, the Renault Avantime tuning challenge and stretch limos so entertaining for me.
 
SLS review was pretty average. The hovervan bit was annoying for three reasons:

1. They were acting so adamant about the first attempt, despite the fact it clearly wouldn't work.
2. The guys didn't even try to make it look like they did the second bit, and they heavily modified the structure of the van itself and almost certainly removed the engine. It reminds me of the caravan blimp.
3. Clarkson getting out of the van while it was running for no good reason reminded me of when Richard left his land cruiser in the amazon special.

I don't so much mind any of these things on their own, but together, these elements made the episode seem utterly formulaic and forgettable. Vastly prefer the cheap car tests to these "ambitious but rubbish" builds. That said, the rest of this season has been stellar.
 
The SLS bit, I liked. Remember (way back) the original Veyron review, when they asked whether it represented the end of an era for supercars? The SLS E answers that question, more or less.

SIARPC was good, and I always wonder whether actors who might not have a huge amount of car history are better at taking direction from The Stig, because Jackman definitely came across that way.

The second segment of the Hovervan annoyed me a lot more than the first, mainly because they really mucked up the river. I'm sure there were extras a-plenty on the banks, and that the production crew were handing out cheques for the damage that wasn't pre-planned, but it just felt daft in a bad way. I'd have been okay with just the Top Penis Engine Works.
 
Silly? Yes. Loud? To be sure. Fun? Heck yes!! 8 of 10!
 
Did anyone else have a problem watching the SIARPC segment? Because this is all I could see.

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I don't like it when Top Gear uses real people as bits for their jokes. I would guess that guy who fell out of the rowboat was an actor, but a lot of the people who got drenched seemed to be regular people out for the day. It's not funny to ruin their shit like that, even if they were all actors. I feel the same way when they completely jam up some town center with some creation of theirs that breaks down.

Otherwise a decent episode.
 
Hugh Jackman was a great guest and very entertaining, best SIARPC in a long time, and the best part of the whole show in my opinion. The film with the Mercs was also good, but it lacked something that would make the same test two years ago awesome. The Hovervan film was so stupid. Funny moments, yes, but completely impractical and useless.

When TG has made cars in the past, they're usually a take on something that already exists, and most of the time they are attempting to build something that is cheaper than an existing vehicle. In a downturned economy, cheap ideas appeal to the masses, not floating vans that cost hundreds of thousands to build. The Hovervan, while it worked, has to be the most successful machine ever made by TG at disrupting the lives of normal people and being a complete nuisance. I just imagined myself as one of those people trying to enjoy a nice meal by the river only to have my entire day ruined by 3 idiots from a TV show. It was probably staged, which makes it even worse. But if it wasn't, wow. I don't know why anyone would allow any TV show to come to their village and do that kind of damage and create that much of a disturbance.

There's a phrase used in America for TV shows called 'jumping the shark.' It comes from back in the 1970's when there was a show on TV called Happy Days. After a couple of seasons, viewership had dropped. To try and win back the audience, they shot an episode in Hawaii where "The Fonz" (star of the show) jumps a shark on water skis in some sort of daredevil type act. It was such a blatant attempt to try to conjure up a 'wow' factor that most of those who watched the show saw right through it.

Top Gear has now 'jumped the shark.' 3 bad episodes in a row was unprecedented. 4 spells the beginning of the end. They've either run out of ideas, or they no longer know how to make the show that I used to love. Or maybe it's just been on for so long that nothing they can do surprises me anymore. Either way, its appeal to me is almost gone, and Jeremy wearing a button down shirt open with a T-shirt for the first time isn't going to resurrect it. I just hope they find a way to end things on a high note.
 
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I feel this was one of those episodes that is funny the first time you watch it and will be worth a good laugh every now and then when it comes on again (or if you're like me you choose it randomly someday) rather than one of those greats that you can always fall back on to explain why Top Gear is so great (Botswana, Bolivia, etc.). As such, I gave it an 8/10. It had me laughing during the hovervan parts, the power test was pretty good, and the SIARPC wasn't too bad either.
 
OldSkoolGp got it right. While there were plenty of shit episodes in previous seasons (I reference the Train episode, which I hated every motherfucking second of and consider anyone who liked it an enemy of freedom and terrorist sympathizer who should languish in Guantanamo Bay. If there was an episode that jumped the shark for TG, that was it for me), I cant think of a season in which the every episode was pure ass. I say again that season 20 sucks a big ole major dick in every way. The show has become a hollow shell of what used to be, and this season is the nail in the coffin for me.

Like I said the fanbois who just watch for laughs (when the fuck did TG become a comedy show?) will whine about my criticism and predictably they have already posted in this thread. Im so sick of comments like "Well at least its better than anything else on TV"...Um no, it isnt. I never thought I'd prefer Fifth Gear over Top Gear, but these days I totally do, especially given FG's new hour long format on Velocity Channel. And there are a few Youtube shows that I'd rather watch these days than TG. YOUTUBE SHOWS FOR FUCKS SAKES!

Its comments like "well this weeks episode made me laugh, so I give it a 8 out of 10" which piss me off so much. Since when was making you laugh the main fucking point of TG? The seemingly genuine moments in TG where the boys give each other a hard time were good, but the scripted bullshit has gone too far. Again the unfunny assholes who think Sniff Petrol is amusing have pretty much ruined TG. This season is uninspired, predictable and plain fucking boring. 4 episodes in a row. Each season of TG has had a stinker or 2, but season 20 has been nothing but fail, and I blame the "oh well it made me laugh herp fucking derp" crowd for ruining Top Gear.

"Jackass" with cars indeed.
 
Hmm.

SLS's reviews: proper Top Gear. Nothing else I can say. It was great. Well done, Jezza.

News: Short and sweet. Well done.

SIARPC: I like Jackman (though I find the X-Men movies absolute rubbish), and he was likable throughout, although shame no talk about cars.

HoverVan: part 1 was promising. I KNOW they're going to cock things up and have staged comedy, but if they don't insult the viewers, I'll give it a go. Part 2... just seemed not to know where to go. Some of it seemed genuine, some of it seemed staged, and well, it just didn't go anywhere, really. This should have been cut by about 10 minutes to fit in another car related piece.

6/10 because of the excellent SLS piece, but brought down by the bloated HoverVan bit.
 
Hugh Jackman was a great guest and very entertaining, best SIARPC in a long time, and the best part of the whole show in my opinion. The film with the Mercs was also good, but it lacked something that would make the same test two years ago awesome. The Hovervan film was so stupid. Funny moments, yes, but completely impractical and useless.

When TG has made cars in the past, they're usually a take on something that already exists, and most of the time they are attempting to build something that is cheaper than an existing vehicle. In a downturned economy, cheap ideas appeal to the masses, not floating vans that cost hundreds of thousands to build. The Hovervan, while it worked, has to be the most successful machine ever made by TG at disrupting the lives of normal people and being a complete nuisance. I just imagined myself as one of those people trying to enjoy a nice meal by the river only to have my entire day ruined by 3 idiots from a TV show. It was probably staged, which makes it even worse. But if it wasn't, wow. I don't know why anyone would allow any TV show to come to their village and do that kind of damage and create that much of a disturbance.

There's a phrase used in America for TV shows called 'jumping the shark.' It comes from back in the 1970's when there was a show on TV called Happy Days. After a couple of seasons, viewership had dropped. To try and win back the audience, they shot an episode in Hawaii where "The Fonz" (star of the show) jumps a shark on water skis in some sort of daredevil type act. It was such a blatant attempt to try to conjure up a 'wow' factor that most of those who watched the show saw right through it. Soon after, Happy Days was off the air.

Top Gear has now 'jumped the shark.' 3 bad episodes in a row was unprecented. 4 spells the beginning of the end. They've either run out of ideas, or they no longer know how to make the show that I used to love. Or maybe it's just been on for so long that nothing they do can surprise me anymore. Either way, its appeal to me is almost gone, and Jeremy wearing a button down shirt open with a T-shirt for the first time isn't going to resurrect it. I just hope they find a way to end things on a high note.

Let's get real for a moment... This show has been jumping the shark for the past i dunno 10 series? From stupid races (motorhome racing), Top gear stunt man, V8 smoothie, making ads for VW, making homemade caravans...etc.

That being said, i will give this one a 5/10 because the hovervan was just too long and kinda boring.

Oh yeah about your Jumping the shark moment... That happened in season 5 of Happy days (1977) which went on for 6 more seasons (11 together, last one 1984) so saying it was canceled shortly after is a lie. The show went on for 7 more years after it "jumped the shark".
 
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Moaners. India was way worse than this. Are you not genuinely amazed that they actually made that Transit into a working hovercraft? Sure, the jokes were stale and some dialogue really hits rock bottom, because it's been heard a thousand times...but...I still give it a 7/10. Just for them being mad enough to make a VAN, a fucking VAN into a hovercraft.
 
I don't like it when Top Gear uses real people as bits for their jokes. I would guess that guy who fell out of the rowboat was an actor, but a lot of the people who got drenched seemed to be regular people out for the day. It's not funny to ruin their shit like that, even if they were all actors. I feel the same way when they completely jam up some town center with some creation of theirs that breaks down.
I can absolutely one hundred percent guarantee you that every person you saw being harmed by their stunt was an extra hired and paid for by the BBC.

Some of the people ashore and on the bridges who caught some spray may just have been "Look! It's Top Gear"-style onlookers, but everyone involved in the set pieces (the restaurant, the man on the boat, etc) was a paid extra for sure.
 
I'll try to do this mathematically.

25 mins was given over to the SLS/news/SIARPC. Most of this was OK. Although they have done the SLS to death already, it is (slightly) interesting to see how the electric version compares to the petrol. 6/10 for this portion of the show.

The rest was "Hovervan". I was pleased that they eventually built something that worked and got a couple of giggles out of it, but the whole segment was too long. For the majority of the segment, I was looking at the time stamps, waiting for it to end. 3/10 for this portion of the show.

so ((25*6)+(35*3))/60 = 4.25 (out of 10)

Rounded down that's 4/10 ... and can the moaners stop moaning about the moaners please, you are getting tiresome. If you think it was a great episode ... fine ... but how about letting others express their opinions without putting labels on them?
 
This was top gear by numbers. Run of the mill review. Bit of news. Geoff rehash x part 1. Geoff fail. SIARPC. Geoff part 2. End.

Still a good watch though and although I will probably not see this episode again, I'll tune in next week. On that basis 6/10.
 
Thought it was going alright until Jeremy deliberately lunched the engine trying to go back up the weir. They just couldn't resist :rolleyes:

Electric SLS looked promising but as a whole didn't care for the review. The track tests are so mundane it puts me off watching the episode again. Had a good laugh when the original Hovervan went straight into the drink though, thought that film was ok :)
 
I'll give Clarkson credit for the SLS review. It was rather well narrated, well shot and edited. The news was disappointing. I honestly quite enjoy the random banter about nothing that usually occurs.

As for the hovervan? Utter...utter tripe. The cheap car tests were orders of magnitude better.
 
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