[27x01] Jun 16, 2019

I've seen this episode and reckon it's a...

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  • Total voters
    18

MWF

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The presenters buy examples of their personal first cars to drive across Ethiopia, and Harris thrashes Ferrari and McLaren's lastest track weapons around the TG test track.
 
Solid start, great visuals as always.

Cue various Yanks and Europeans complaining they need subtitles to understand the new presenters.
 
Seemed kind of strange to jump into a bro-cation in Ethiopia without the hosts knowing each other. Just seemed a little off. Still thinking I would have rather Chris Harris do the show completely by himself with an occasional visit from other people like Sabine. Seriously BBC, just let Harris take the reigns. Ultimately 6/10, may have to watch it again.
 
That would be rather difficult.
Chris is awesome, no doubt about that, but the show is very long and the items would get repetitive with only him unless they go full hour specials following him racing or something like that. Even then it would be rather problematic as you can only do so many of them at any given point. Visits would have to be rather more than occasional and even then if they are just "guesting" you don't get a lot of chemistry in and it's left to Harris to carry the show by himself.

As for this episode I haven't watched it so I can't accurately critique, let alone give a rating. This may be the situation for a while as I really can't get excited about it anymore, Harris or not, and I'd rather not spend an hour watching something out of scientific curiosity.
 
Who are those people? Seriously, I was a tad annoyed that they didn't introduce themselves at all.

The "buddy-ness" of their interactions also felt weird, given they are a new team. Also, what the fuck, not showing the Dunsfold laps?
Apart from that, it felt like standard Top Gear...
 
They should have introduced each other in some way, most foreigners have no idea who the two new guys are. As for the rest, Pista and McLaren was standard, pretty ok. The Ethiopian bit was great, but seriously. Presenters on a motoring show that can't pronounce Porsche?! It seriously hurts my ears.. ??
 
Seemed kind of strange to jump into a bro-cation in Ethiopia without the hosts knowing each other. Just seemed a little off. Still thinking I would have rather Chris Harris do the show completely by himself with an occasional visit from other people like Sabine. Seriously BBC, just let Harris take the reigns. Ultimately 6/10, may have to watch it again.

Not really. They don't shoot the films in the order in which they are broadcast and it was clear from the film there is already a decent chemistry between the three which they have all said in pre-season interviews.
 
One of the new guys is with a TERRIBLE, TERRIBLE, TERRIBLE, TERRIBLE, TERRIBLE, TERRIBLE accent. Unwatchable for me. More annoying than Evans even, wow. And worse than all, apart from Chris Harris the other two doesn't look like car guys at all, looking that they are reading a script with little to no emotions. I enjoyed Matt and Rory Reid. But now is terrible. Harris should do this only by himself. Meanwhile TGT and Fifth Gear for me. And only segments of Top Gear presented only by Harris.
 
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Ha ha. Your comment actually makes me like the regional accent all the more!

And I say that as someone with a homogenised neutral British accent, due to living in various countries over the years.

Variety is the spice of life. These days everything is becoming uniform, so it's strange you actually take offence at a British TV show daring to use a British presenter! While the rest of the world gets US accents and spelling foisted upon us all the time...
 
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As a northerner, I'm all for the accents.

It was a solid start. Felt a bit too 'hey bro' for my liking at times, but it did at least feel pretty genuine.

I'm fairly sure Flintoff knows bugger all about cars and driving, I just get the impression he's here for the ride. His voiceovers were also incredibly wooden, like a primary school kid trying to read outloud in class. I think McGuinness might be the bigger petrolhead of the two, and is certainly the more natural presenter.

But honestly, it was good telly and I enjoyed it.
 
For a jumping off point, it was really promising. The new guys have some thick regional accents, to say the least, but they have the delivery required of a television host so far. I think I'm getting a bit cynical about the car reviews though since I wasn't as into the Ferrari/McLaren review as I expected. I think I expect a bit more than rabbiting off the specs while you power slide the cars around, I expect a little bit more from a car review now. I still like the Stig laps though.
 
Finally watched it today, I'm glad Chris Harris is still one of the main hosts.

The other two though... I didn't like them much after this one, maybe they'll grow on me. At least they aren't Chris Evans though.
 
I like the accents. The Pista v. McLaren review went about as I expected. British guy picks British car, duh. At least the other two presenters called him out on it when it was in fact notably slower.
 
Chris Harris is the only one on this that makes this watchable, while the two new presenters are just horrible. The heavy accents made it hard to understand what they are saying.

With all the turn over with Top Gear had since the three stooges left, it hasn't been the same. Top Gear has run its course and BBC should just finish its run.
 
The last episode (5, series final) was really good IMO...

Not sure why no-one's posting since episode 2 - I would do it myself except for being a junior member and using my phone.
 
To whet your appetite, episode 5 had real unplanned but quite successful participation in that bonkers Icelandic extreme rally / hill climbing thing (genuine competition and no silly set up situations), a genuinely interesting look at the development and impact of the Lotus 79 F1 car (the one that introduced skirts) - including Chris handling original wind tunnel models and driving the actual championship car... And Will Young was an actually fun guest as well.
 
To whet your appetite, episode 5 had real unplanned but quite successful participation in that bonkers Icelandic extreme rally / hill climbing thing (genuine competition and no silly set up situations), a genuinely interesting look at the development and impact of the Lotus 79 F1 car (the one that introduced skirts) - including Chris handling original wind tunnel models and driving the actual championship car... And Will Young was an actually fun guest as well.

The whole series has been short but enjoyable IMHO
 
Very promising start. I like all hosts including their accents. I quite enjoyed that and I am not from an english speaking country.
 
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