[23x01] May 29th, 2016 -- First Episode With New Cast

[23x01] May 29th, 2016 -- First Episode With New Cast


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Mind your manners. A different opinion does not an idiot make. If you want to start a flame war then there are places on the internet where keyboard warriors will argue with you all night long. Keep it civil.
A person whose opinion is so different from the general consensus that it provokes a fight and brings out ad hominem attacks must have thick enough skin to endure the various unflattering titles that will inevitably be bestowed upon him. By the same token, if it is someones opinion that someone else is an idiot one must respect that person's right to voice it. If your opinion happens to place you in the overwhelming minority, you would do well to reevaluate your stance, or put on the dunce hat and take the shit you deserve.

Having said that I think it's time for Clarkson to punch Evans in the face now.
 
8 seconds in and I was steaming, when they showed the india gang on the car I turned angry and when they were joking about bumping in the Reliant I was completely annoyed.

LeBlanc with the nomad was OK... The rest was a pile of sh...

2/10
 
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Damn, Chris Evans is annoying...

Even if he toned down 50% it would be still twice as annoying as I could bear so it ruins the whole show for me.

The Nomad segment was something the CHM Top Gear would have done, and thanks to the camerawork it was actually bearable.

LeBlanc could grow into his role, but I don't think Evans will get the criticism since he's too narcissistic.

3/10, only the Nomad segment prevented the complete desaster.
 
I had to watch it agin this morning so Junior could see it as we got home too late from Santa Pod and he was too tired to be allowed to stay up to watch it.

Without the the beer goggles on? Let's just say it's a good job we have the gun laws we do in the UK because I would have shot the TV. Houston, the Ego has landed. And for someone who speaks for a living his voice overs were appalling. High pitched and monotone with no expression whatsoever. A kid in a school nativity play sounds better.

MLB in the Nomad wasn't bad but I have to agree with others. What the hell is TG UK doing employing an American as a presenter? The Britishness of the show is a massive part of its appeal. Getting a Yank in to try to appeal to the American audience is like getting Prince William to take up baseball to encourage more U.S. tourists.

Can Evans, ship MLB back home and hold some proper auditions for new, unknown talent who could actually gel as a team and come up with fresh ideas.

Top Gear needed a refresh anyway after Clarkson got hangry but what we got is warmed up leftovers.
 
What the hell is TG UK doing employing an American as a presenter? The Britishness of the show is a massive part of its appeal. Getting a Yank in to try to appeal to the American audience is like getting Prince William to take up baseball to encourage more U.S. tourists.

Sorry, but I don't buy this at all.

The CHM version of TG:UK managed to achieve international success *despite* its Britishness, not because of it. The concept of "ambitious but rubbish," especially involving middle-aged men, transcends international borders. It worked for "Home Improvement." It worked for "The Red Green Show." It seems to have worked for TG France, and it definitely worked for the CHM version. (It does work, after a fashion, for TGUS, once the producers figured out how to play to the presenters' overall strengths.)

As for CE ... look, he's not Clarkson and he's not going to *be* Clarkson, and once he stops being overdefensive about his first outing he'll get his opportunity to improve.
 
I watched it again today just in case I was tired, drunk or jaded when I watched it last night, and it was still not good. I think the poll results are telling as the show has almost a marmite quality, but without the lovers, just the haters and forgivers.

As others have said, dirt bike jumps over off road car ? CHM done already; laser shoot ?em up; CHM done already; 4 presenters but the two ?auditioned? only online and only for ukadians, rally cross ? inspired by one of the best CHM films and then executed in a tame and boring way.

Matt Le Blanc was really good, and voiceover will improve, and the reality of the last push in the landie / jeep challenge was all well and good, but, and it?s difficult to quantify, just not really watchable. I suspect the TFI comparison might fit.

As to the SIARPC, this was a classic case of it ain?t broke don?t fix it, so they choose to broke (sic) it.

Matt, Sebine and Chris I felt were the most natural and watchable, and Rory did a fair job, and all (except possibly MLB) will have been nervous I?m sure.

For me, it?s drop CE, keep the others, have one show, (if they have that much content make it 90 minutes) and share the screen in both equal amounts as individuals, but also as group challenges. 4/10
 
I think it's really unfair how much shit these guys get. That was a solid show, I was entertained, and hell, watch S01E01 of old TopGear for comparison.

Matt Le Blanc is seriously entertaining and I like the Anti-Brit banter.

What the hell is TG UK doing employing an American as a presenter? The Britishness of the show is a massive part of its appeal. Getting a Yank in to try to appeal to the American audience is like getting Prince William to take up baseball to encourage more U.S. tourists.

See above. Sadly, besides you paying for the show (thanks, suckers!), it is sold worldwide in license, and we like this stuff.

Chris Evans shows how nervous he is, he acts like a nervous Squirrel. He needs to calm a bit down, then it will be a good show.

Sabine Schmitz...well, let's say, HD is not kind to her, and I am already annoyed by her accent when she speaks German, it's even worse when she speaks English.

The Offroad Celebrity track will cause some hilarity soon I am sure.

Camera work is top notch as always.

Also, Matt Le Blanc said asshole on british TV, this is amazing :D

I gave it a 7/10, which I think is fair.
 
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You guys have mostly covered everything about the new show that bothers me. I'd like to bring up a few more points, though:

They basically took the occasional worst elements of the previous show (patronizing guest interviews, obviously scripted and forced dialog, jokes, and situations) and made them more common. Then they added a main presenter who tries too hard to be over-the-top, and yet is lacking so much in confidence that he has to turn to the audience every 10 seconds to get their approval. One of the better Evans bits was in Xtra when he was the one being interviewed, and he was starting to actually articulate that he doesn't like the Viper because it's only good for racing really fast on tracks... but instead he just blames it on not having Sabine to chase him, and then turns to the audience AGAIN! Xtra's hosts and the interviewing of guests was much less forced, more reminiscent of the old show. They were able to be jocular smartasses without being annoying or rude.

One big thing we learned from the old show is that chemistry is key. Evans pretty much has none with Matt, but at least Matt has potential. Whereas Harris, Reid, and their guest had chemistry right off the bat. And for being a journalist, Evans' star interviews were absolute shit. I honestly think Matt would have done better, but they probably should have just let Harris do it. What's funny is that Chris Evans is basically Rutledge Wood: both wear glasses and have a strange sense of style, and on paper would be good TG presenters because they're journalists. But in actuality they just try too hard and are the most annoying person on their respective shows.

The new track is an awful idea, for several reasons. First, rallying is going to produce some very inconsistent and spread-out lap times due to the varying and unforgiving surfaces and layout. On the previous show, many stars actually looked forward to fighting their way up the lap board, and would anxiously lean forward while waiting to hear their lap time. And even though we still had wet laps, you could do some maths to calculate what their time would have been on a dry day. You ended up with a spread of lap times that were very close together. But a rally track and faster car are going to drive the moderate drivers to the top, because the fast/aggressive drivers are just gonna crash the car, and the slow/bad drivers are gonna crash the car AND go too slow. Which brings me to my second reason: rallying is going to be DANGEROUS! When they had gutless little cars on asphalt, you have plenty of traction to stop and turn, and not enough power to get into trouble. Sure, some folks would occasionally spin out or go off track, but they would simply SLIDE when doing that. Over the years, even on very wet laps, the worst "crashes" we saw were either going up on two wheels, kicking up a bunch of mud, or a wheel randomly falling off through no fault of their own. With the new rally car and rally track, I can see about every other star sliding sideways in a turn and either busting their wheels or rolling over, or understeering in a turn and wrecking the engine. Whose idea was it to put a huge dirt berm on the outside of the corners, anyway? Probably the same guy who wasted a ton of time and money laying concrete just to make a stupid mud puddle that only exists for dramatic effect. And speaking of water, as if the dirt parts weren't slippery enough, wet laps are gonna SUUUUCK. That poor Mini is going to take a beating, even if nobody wrecks it. The old reasonably priced cars only ever needed tires, brakes, clutches, and new hubs when the odd wheel fell off. The thing's gonna need new suspension every week!

What they should have done: Started the new show by acknowledging they have big shoes to fill, wished CHM the best in their new endeavors, but then made a joke about getting custody of the Stig. Admitted that they can't replace CHM, that they will be their own personalities, but they'll strive to keep the heart of the show alive. Then they should have spent the first episode basically doing what TG Xtra did: introduce the new hosts, explain the new track (or ideally left the damn track alone and just changed car), and invite a handful of stars to come out and set laptimes like the old show did when they would change out the Reasonably Priced Car. Also, was sad to see that neither the main show nor Xtra showed a map of the new track or gave clever names to certain sections or nasty corners. So far, we have The Jump, and The Water Splash. Whoopty frickin doo!

What needs to happen: Ditch Chris Evans, let Chris Harris lead the show. However, I'm sure Evans has a contract and isn't going anywhere, so he just needs to give up on the bad Clarkson impression, form his own character, and just TONE IT THE FUCK DOWN and relax and have fun with it. Unfortunately, I just don't see him having ANY chemistry with the other hosts like CHM did. Matt le Blanc is surprisingly the strongest part of the show. But he needs to just be himself, add a touch of confidence and enthusiasm, and sound less forced and and scripted. His quiet attitude isn't quite what I expected for the stereotypical American on the show, and it isn't bad, but I'd like to see the occasional burst of New Englander sass. In fact, I can see Matt bridging the chemistry gap and mocking Evans for being a stiff-assed Brit, which might actually salvage Evans for us. Rory Reid is a decent guy and a good interviewer. He kind of plays the straight man, and has Hammond's youthful exuberance, but Matt technically does have Hammond's American-ness. I do like Sabine, not the greatest presenter maybe, but I guess they really didn't give her much of a chance, and probably edited out a lot of her better stuff. Oddly, she's probably got the biggest balls of anyone on the show, with good potential for blunt humor, which the new show is direly lacking. I would kind of like to see a full-episode challenge between Matt, Chris Harris, and Sabine.

Above all else, though, my biggest annoyance with the new episode was that Matt le Blanc, representing America in both the show and the specific challenge, repeatedly mispronounced Willys. It's will-iss, not will-ease. But then again, blatantly mispronouncing things is a pretty American thing to do. We say things like Porsh, Jag-war, Pree-us. :p
 
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Sorry, but I don't buy this at all.

The CHM version of TG:UK managed to achieve international success *despite* its Britishness, not because of it. The concept of "ambitious but rubbish," especially involving middle-aged men, transcends international borders. It worked for "Home Improvement." It worked for "The Red Green Show." It seems to have worked for TG France, and it definitely worked for the CHM version. (It does work, after a fashion, for TGUS, once the producers figured out how to play to the presenters' overall strengths.)

As for CE ... look, he's not Clarkson and he's not going to *be* Clarkson, and once he stops being overdefensive about his first outing he'll get his opportunity to improve.

I always loved it mostly for its Britishness... sorry.

One reason Top Gear US or any other foreign imitation doesn't work as well, is because of the lack of Britishness. I know no other country in the world where people can be that annoying AND entertaining at the same time :p
 
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I just watched extra, a far superior show than the main TG, a Harris, Reid, LeBlanc main show would have promise.
 
Even Belgian newspapers are running stories about Evansgear, or Flopgear, or whatever people are calling this turd, not being well recieved, if it's here, it's everywhere, since it took them 5 years to figure out TopGear existed in the CHM age :p

Certain people at the BBC are wetting themselves me thinks.....
 
Learn some manners or get lost.


hmmm maybe you should rethink that last statement, maybe you typed it before you went to girl guides?

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Americans would love New New top gear, I can imagine they would be laughing all the way through.. dont think I managed so much as a giggle once...
 
hmmm maybe you should rethink that last statement, maybe you typed it before you went to girl guides?

I can really see you staying here a long time and making a lot of friends :rofl:
 
FYI ... After 610 votes (as of the time of this reply) ... The episode is rated 2.4/10 on IMDb

It ain't looking good for 'em.

IMDb Link
 
hmmm maybe you should rethink that last statement, maybe you typed it before you went to girl guides?

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Americans would love New New top gear, I can imagine they would be laughing all the way through.. dont think I managed so much as a giggle once...

Maybe my previous comment fell on deaf ears so let me spell it out for you. Abusive or insulting behaviour isn't tolerated here from long standing members let alone n00bs. It's one of the reasons why Final Gear is so respected and frequently acknowledged by the original TG team.

Wind your neck in and show some respect. We welcome new members with open arms as long as their contribution is positive. On the basis of your recent posts I would say you have a very short shelf life.

EDIT: And neg repping someone when your rep power is zero is as effective as entering an arse kicking contest when you are a double amputee. I guess you can add "thick" to your resume right alongside "rude", "obnoxious" and "as popular as Chris Evans".
 
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