So the thread about the last episode has 46 post, this thread has 67.....sais it all really.
I really hope the remaining crew can make something out of this mess by season 24, if anything they face even bigger issues now than they did before season 23, because Evansgear has alienated a lot of people from the franchise....
IMH, now that problem number 1 has been eliminated, one important other thing needs to happen, the BBC needs to get their fingers out of this, if anything was made clear by this series, besides that Evans was a cunt, is that a watered down, pc, 'safe', nice and non threatening version of TopGear does not connect with it's intended audience, we want banter, we want naughtyness, we want spark, we want "oooh, that's another 100 angry emails" none of those things are gonna happen if BBC middle management keeps looking over their shoulder, as they have clearly done here, not to mention they were the ones that saddled TopGear with Evans in the first place, that pretty much tells you all you need to know.....
About CHM TopGear, pretty much every 'behind the scenes' book or interview makes one thing very clear: it is that they were a little bit of outcasts among the BBC, the naughty boys, 'rebels', a little looked down upon even according to Richard Porters book.
Well, a show like TopGear needs that, they need this naughty schoolboy sprirt, they need this 'us against them' mentality.
They need some controversy, even if it is just pissing off the Marina fanclub, and they need the beeb to do a halfassed public apology, and maybe they would get a little behind the scenes scolding, but after that they just went on their merry way just like before, the BBC knew it, and they let them, because it worked.
Somehow, someway, that felt like it has gone missing, maybee because many people left, but I think mostly it's because the BBC is keeping a closer watch, 'do one of those race segment things again, those worked before' and the TopGear boys just don't have the freedom they should be having.