[23x04] June 19th, 2016

[23x04] June 19th, 2016


  • Total voters
    10
What was the Colonel's Super Sweet and Secret Recipe for TGUK? Take three blokes, make em grow together a as group, and let the cameras roll.

This. When I watched CHM Top Gear I saw 3 guys who grew together since school, and are still close friends to this day (And watching them made you feel part of it). With that level of chemistry, I could watch a fishing program or a pool cleaning show with those 3 and would love every second.
 
Last edited:
Here's the difference between old and new TG - Hamster, May and esp Clarkson would've talked about the stupid steering wheel on the Vulcan, but even though Chris Harris is a good car reviewer that's all he is doing. The 3 old blokes would've given their personal opinions and not been afraid to throw insults when needed. Not just bhp and track numbers.

How does the Vulcan do against the best of Ferrari/Porsche/McLaren? I'm guessing not so good?

I'm only 1/3rd thru (watching on BBC america) but Evans is back in full shouty mode.
 
I feel cheated by the road trip - they cut the scenes of the 3 showing up with their cars and talking about them then setting off on a challenge. Saving time for the stupid SIARCC even in the longer show :mad:

And I'm amazed - Evans is not shouting in the car! So he CAN talk normally.

Is that the announcer from Masterchef :D This is pretty good, wish they'd show more of the fantastic Orient Express. Can't help but think how many amazing things May/Clarkson would've told us about the train. This lot has no knowledge so they can't.

Also its obvious there's zero chemistry even now, they don't make jokes or talk to each other during the trips. I guess they're doing the best they can.
 
Last edited:
I feel cheated by the road trip - they cut the scenes of the 3 showing up with their cars and talking about them then setting off on a challenge.

I totally agree. The best part of most of the cheap car challenges is the beginning. Hearing them play up their cars and mock the others cars was always gold.
 
I score this new episode of Fifth Gear 1 out of 10. Utter rubbish.
 
A fair bit of potential in this episode, but as others have noted, it's let down by a failure to execute. Maybe they're trying to pack too much content into the allotted time, but everything always seems rushed (with the exception of SSIARCC, which is too long). Still, I liked it more than the previous three, overall.

Evans seemed to have dialed it down to 11 this week, which was welcomed. And Sabine also stopped shouting most of her lines (I still find her quite understandable), though her laugh is grating. Matt does seem terribly bored with all his delivery - maybe he's actively trying to counter Evans' shouty delivery.

As to the bits:

Race to Venice: As noted, far too short - should have been about twice as long to really work. These don't need to take up the majority of the show's runnning time (as I recall, the original race to Monte Carlo was completed by mid-point of the broadcast), but they need more than 15 minutes. They didn't talk much at all about their cars nor about the Orient Express (which is an amazing train even today). I thought Eddie was actually probably the right choice to send on the train, though instead of the stupid "serenade of spoons", spend that time talking about the train and it's history.

AM Vulcan Review: If Harris is channeling Clarkson, he's doing a good job because I thought it was a solid, proper TG supercar review. If anything, it was a better review from a technical and mechanical basis than what Clarkson would have done as Harris focused more on the car than on being witty (mind you, I love Clarkson for his wit). As to being the best on-track film ever, sorry, but no. It was well-done, but the crew did it better on the same track with Hammond and the Porsche 918 Spider last year (?) and I'd put Jeremy's run in the McLaren P1 in the rain at Spa as #2 (just for the audacity of it). Mind you, the Vulcan's exhaust echoing off Yas Marina was the sexiest sound ever in terms of automobilia.

Tesla X Review: Actually saw one in the flesh last week and it looks better in person than on TV (the one I saw was in red, which no doubt helped, as well). Reid is not as polished as Harris, but he comes across as honest and ethusiastic and I respect that. I also like his behind-the-scenes segments about the filmings on Extra Gear.

SSIARCC: Best part of the episode was the announcement Brian Cox has another BBC series coming (I love the "Wonders of..." series). In terms of running time, while it does feel like forever and a day, is it honestly longer than the segments where Clarkson interviewed two guests at a time? As I have noted before, let the guests talk about their projects themselves - it should take less time and be more enthusiastic. Then cut the first and best cars segment, instead spending half that time talking to the guests about themselves or their current product pitch and then do the laps. Add the time saved back into the other content.
 
Another thought that occurred to me over my first coffee this morning. In days past there was real tension in the races, they were (in the main) believable. There were cameras following the participants so you felt part of the action and that it was actually happening in real time.

Sabine running up a couple of steps, around some people then back down and going the other way with a static camera? For crying out loud if you're going to shoot B roll footage at least have it credible and fitting with the overall narrative.

Nearly 12 hours after broadcast and only just on page 2 of the comments. Time was when we would be 5-6 pages in at least.

Says it all really.

:tumbleweed:

FACT: The posts here don't represent the way the modern audience consumes media.
 
I think Kiskaloo just nailed it. Here is the word:

Wit.

CHM were full of it. I haven't seen one ounce of it in the CE version.
 
Chris Harris is a car geek. Simply put. He's not a Clarkson wannabe by any stretch of the imagination.

I'm assuming neither of you have watched his youtube channel or earlier /drive videos https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8AMAhCRmep7VJKe1sxvHFg https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL239B84BD346EEEFA

It was easily one of the best car channels out there.


yes i have, he is just bland.. and yes he is a clarkson wannabe thats where he 'borrowed' his review style from. Except in a bland way ...
 
Harris has a VERY different style of reviewing and talking about cars when compared to Clarkson, both are good and both are entertaining in their own way. One would expect that if you bring in someone who has a history doing this car stuff and is well known for it he's going to retain his own style, there'll be some adaptations of course due to the different medium and audience but on the whole you want to preserve what makes this guy good in the first place.

That is not what happened, right now he's acting as if he's Clarkson which he isn't, which is both good as bad. I honestly can't see him doing that because he wants to so I'm fairly sure he got told/pressured to be more "shouty" and "be more Clarkson".
 
4/10 from me for this one.

As soon as I realized it would be a "race", I was facepalming.

And my reaction wasn't premature, it was confirmed. They honestly tried to squeeze everything from previous Top Gear into it, stir it and then serve it to the viewer:

- Cheap cars? Check.
- "Race" car vs. something else? Check.
- Stupid challenges along the way? Check.

The cooking under the bonnet thing was already done by previous Top Gear in season 2 or 3, don't remember exactly when, by Gordon Ramsey. Wasn't very funny back then, was even less funny now.

The race itself was boooooring. No drama, no excitement, apparently no pressure, too. They seemed to have picked a slow train and then had to take care of the cars being slowed down enough so Eddie Jordan could win.

The rest of the episode didn't save it. And compared to last week even the car reviews were bland and boring.
 
Last edited:
Thought I might do mine before the next episode happens.

This also happened to be the longest I took my time to watch an episode (away interstate) before I got my hands on it and even when I finished downloading it, I still took my time. I wish I still did take my time, that challenge/race/whatever you wanna call it was Frankenstein's monster on wheels. Like what did it want to be? A cheap car challenge? A race? Showing off Eddie's spoon skills? Like...

On the upside I didn't mind the car reviews and a little bit of SIARPC, but that challenge (and also Sabine's voiceovers. It's understandable that it's not her first language, but you also need to articulate well to come across as likeable I guess? I'm still trying to figure out how does Sabine not fit into it even though her skills are needed...)

I really am hoping the producers of the show are taking note of these things for improvement, regardless of how scathing they are, at least look at the constructive feedback.
 
The only constructive feedback I can think of, is "Come up with your own ideas and do something new, for crying out loud!"

It really was painful to watch Chris & Co. murder a once great part of previous Top Gear -- and I don't mean their poor attempts to copy Clarkson, May and Hammond in their car reviews.
 
Last edited:
Watched last week's ep this morning and....yeah. Some improvements but that race could have been so much better. Did they not bother showing the hosts interacting with each other for a reason (ie. because there's no chemistry? or to make more time for the "Stars" segment?) or was that their way of showing the program is 'different' from the CHM version? I will say this about the "Stars" segment, at least the guys this week didn't seem as awkward as they read the cue cards to say what the other guy had been doing. Still, I couldn't tell you what their first & best cars were (and I just watched the show an hour ago) - that bit just is not at all interesting to me.
 
The only constructive feedback I can think of, is "Come up with your own ideas and do something new, for crying out loud!"

It really was painful to watch Chris & Co. murder a once great part of previous Top Gear -- and I don't mean their poor attempts to copy Clarkson, May and Hammond in their car reviews.

I feel like this is just getting ridiculous. Come up with your own ideas? So they can't buy some used cars or go on a race or do reviews of cars one day you'll say they've ripped them off by appearing on the BBC. I mean seriously I'll bet you that the first episode of The Grand Tour will come out and it'll be back to the same old criticism "Oh it was scripted" "That was so unfunny" etc etc.
 
Top