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[21x07] March 16th, 2014 [Burma Special, Part 2]

[21x07] March 16th, 2014 [Burma Special, Part 2]

  • Total voters
    219
More than happy with the last 2 episodes.
Sure, there were some clearly fake/scripted moments, but I really enjoy seeing them work together on something, instead of sabotaging each other for laughs. (not that there weren't moments of it)
 
barely watchable,

Kept checking the time to see how much was left.

Only good laugh was 'plum depth' and the great panoramas.
 
Finally a good special after a while. I did enjoy both of these, and IMO the second part was just a bit better.
 
The river is called Kok River, you can find it on a map here. Beautiful scenery, I love it when Top Gear shots a location in such a way that I really want to visit the place.

Btw, I got to thinking what about the bridge, do they just leave it there? There didn't seem to be any connecting roads. Seems like too much effort for essentially a short TV skit. They could have built the bridge at least somewhere where it was needed, like connecting two villages or something.
 
wasapamati said:
To all those with problems with the SD version....I have to ask, why are you even getting the SD version?!
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Mpeg container is generally easier to deal with than MKV, especially if you're using a media server to play it on a TV. The files are also quite a lot smaller, which is significant if you're archiving every episode. For me, the slight increase in video quality isn't worth the extra hassle of dealing with the file format.
 
wasapamati said:
To all those with problems with the SD version....I have to ask, why are you even getting the SD version?! Don't you want to see all the beautiful scenery from Burma and Thailand in HD and not fuzzy, globby, smudgey, 1990's SD?! I don't get why you'd even get the SD version of a show like this at all.

Anyway...the special gets a solid 9 from me. Love all the scenery, looks beautiful in that part of the world. As Clarkson said, if I were there I'd probably be stopping every 5 minutes to take a landscape photo. The guys talking about the villagers probably having never seen a westerner while standing in front of an ad for Chelsea was funny. All the "House of Flying Daggers" music was very fitting. And of course the "Kelly's Heroes" song at the end was perfect! Great stuff boys, enjoyed this whole series!
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Not all users here have unlimited bandwidth and depends on the location and what the ISP provided. I'm a leisure Internet user so my Internet service limited to only 10GB bandwidth per month and I don't see why I have to pay more for extra bandwidth.
 
Pedestrian_A said:
...Internet service limited to only 10GB bandwidth per month..
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"The advanced western civilization" gets that and here I am with an internet connection that no one gives a fuck about. This will never cease to amaze me.
 
I'm wondering what the next special will be.
We had used 4x4, estates, convertible sports cars, even bikes, now trucks ...

Next time on BBC2 - Jeremy, Richard and James head out to Dubai to find out how much Ferrari you can get for 30 grand.
 
I thought it was interesting that they spent so long shooting this special--17 days! In Vietnam they ended up "cheating" by taking a train for a few hundred miles but here they just kept on going, and then insisted on building a complicated bridge for several days. They "cheated" in Africa last year as well by taking the ferry across Lake Victoria, and this time the driving was much more grueling--Jeremy seemed to be right at his breaking point.

- - - Updated - - -

Almost forgot, Jeremy said on Twitter on their last day there: "To be clear, we are STILL filming the special. Miles behind schedule. 12 crew down. The rest of us utterly knackered."
 
The not so bamboo bridge

The not so bamboo bridge

Mike Bull said:
Enjoyable overall, though I didn't for a minute buy that they had built that bridge, a few locals to help or not- that was clearly quite the major construction and I'd bet, a damn sight stronger than we were led to believe. The fake pissing was a shame, too.

Some good humour and some beautiful scenery though, shot brilliantly well as always.
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!!SPOILER ALERT!!

Actually you can see in the final few shots when Hammond gets to the end of the bridge that it is made from steel truss; look between the bamboo cladding on the side.
 
8. Didn't like the stupid jokes but the last few minutes made up for the boring wait.

I take it there are no stuntmen doing this, and they are genuinely doing the driving themselves?
 
Worth it just for the Kok River joke & the closing titles. Very funny.

Mitchi said:
I'm wondering what the next special will be.
We had used 4x4, estates, convertible sports cars, even bikes, now trucks ...

Next time on BBC2 - Jeremy, Richard and James head out to Dubai to find out how much Ferrari you can get for 30 grand.
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I thought of this today too, another David Lean film homage perhaps:

"Lawrence of Arabia" - a drive across the desert on camels 4x4s in the footsteps of T.E. Lawrence in the 1914-18 war. (Yeah, I know "done it already", but the Jerusulem one was in Palestine/Israel, which in 100s of kms away.)
 
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controlspecimen said:
Jeremy was hyping part 2 for weeks but I actually think part 1 was better television. It seems like from his point of view building the bridge was one of the show's greatest achievements, but sometimes the final product on TV doesn't quite match the presenters' experience on the ground.
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Well said, and I agree!

Watching it, it also just dawned on me what a different show it has become - I'm watching a a former car show building a bridge.
 
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I don't know why Jeremy was hyping this episode up as better than part 1, but it was OK. I actually liked part 1 better. I was struggling to stay away towards the end, so I am going to have to re-watch the bridge building part later. Overall this was a better special then they have had in a while, but it wasn't great. The fake peeing and Richard going on about how nice and warm the shower was while the other two laughed was one of the most obviously fake and moronic things they've ever done in the history of the show. Also, I am sure it was really pretty being there in person, but I think they were hyping up the scenery a little too much. It looked like any other mountainous tropical country to me.
 
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