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.