Did last season seem a bit too scripted?

Danny Tran

Danny Tran

or <br /><div class="bigusername">Tranny Dan?</div
Joined
Dec 20, 2004
Messages
893
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Montreal, Canadaland
Top Gear on BBC is the best show ive ever seen in my entire life. It is so beautifully crafted and edited. The scenic shots, the cars, the presenters, their personalities, all the cheap car challenges, the races, the well timed music cues, etc, etc. Everything is nearly perfect about it.

see more here:
http://www.topgear.com/content/features/stories/2006/02/stories/01/2.html

The only slight, vert little imperfection in the last season was the feeling I got that sometimes in the studio segments, the presenters looked like they were following scripted dialog.

For example, during most shots in the cheap car challenges where you see the presenters inter-acting with one another, you really get the impression that they are being themselves. (ie: bashing Hammond, making fun of James :lol: )

In retrospect, some shots in the studio seemed a bit too rehearsed. (they are, as JC in the link above mentions)

Again, this aint a rant. Just a remark.
 
Yes, I agree entirely.

The last episdose of the season was the worse. The whole animal part and eating the card just made me cringe by the end of it.
 
^What Janus said + I rekon they should go back to the way it was during the 03' season. They'd spend more time in the studio doing presentations of all-sorts and it felt much more natural and better to watch even if it was probably scripted.
 
and stop having richard eat the pics of the cool wall

was funny first time, realy pathetic second time
 
it seemed to me that it was a little too scripted. they also seemed to milk the jokes a bit too much (i.e the teeth whitening). Although can't complain too much, it still a lot more entertaining than 5th gear (yes I watch them both).
 
It also annoyed me how every week was just something racing something else.

Not just the usual continental race they have every year but things like the old car vs. the ricers (which I thought was quite good and nice and short), the MX5 vs. the dog, the car vs. the bike, the Audi vs. the climber etc. :roll:

The real life vs. GT4 thing was kind of cool, although anybody with any idea about driving could tell you what the result was going to be.

It just seemed like they ran out of interesting things to do so just defaulted to racing everything against something strange.
 
Janus said:
It also annoyed me how every week was just something racing something else.

Not just the usual continental race they have every year but things like the old car vs. the ricers (which I thought was quite good and nice and short), the MX5 vs. the dog, the car vs. the bike, the Audi vs. the climber etc. :roll:

The virtual vs. GT4 thing was kind of cool, although anybody with any idea about driving could tell you what the result was going to be.

It just seemed like they ran out of interesting things to do so just defaulted to racing everything against something strange.
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I think they may keep putting a car in a race against something else to try a show how great cars are. The government in England are always trying to put people off cars by saying how they're ruining the environment etc. , but by doing this it is helping people see that a car is the best option.
Also if everyone stopped driving cars, everyone on Top Gear would be out of a job. Unless they changed it to a programme about reviewing how good food is on trains or Britain's best bus journey :)
 
I must say, this last season, I really missed James' normal review of a newer cars (ie: Perodua Kelisa, Honda Element, Nissan Murano and such )and of older cars (ie: Maserati Bora). I like to hear what he thinks other than how fast it goes around corners.

PS His voice sounds real cool over any bit of film!
 
Danny, I'm with you there, his reviews are always quite nice, a bit of sensibility to counter the power craze of the other two. Yet at the same time the reviews are always not what you would expect of a typical review. More James reviews pls... hmm.. scrap that, just make sure they all get the same kind of airtime, they all have different things to say.
Every episode of TG for me is fun, it's something I look forward to the whole week, what with all the drab muck they have on every day here. The new season can't start soon enough for me :)
All I'm hoping for is that they're going to abandon some of those running jokes, it's a new year and time for some changes. Would be fun if they introduce some new stuff like the cool wall or perhaps something instead of those stars in famous cars. It was fun while it lasted but they must be careful not to start to rust and get too comfortable.
 
Janus said:
It also annoyed me how every week was just something racing something else.

Not just the usual continental race they have every year but things like the old car vs. the ricers (which I thought was quite good and nice and short), the MX5 vs. the dog, the car vs. the bike, the Audi vs. the climber etc. :roll:

The real life vs. GT4 thing was kind of cool, although anybody with any idea about driving could tell you what the result was going to be.

It just seemed like they ran out of interesting things to do so just defaulted to racing everything against something strange.
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Somebody in the Specific Episode discussion thread said somthing like "I'm really starting to think this whole season was just a rush job so that they could test the Bugatti Veyron before 5th Gear could." And I'm kinda starting to see their point. This season seemed very watery, like there was no meat to it, just little bits of importance here and there.

But hey, I laughed, I clapped, and I was entertained this series. True it might not have been good as some 2003 and 2004 series.....But honestly, they can't all be gems.
 
Somebody in the Specific Episode discussion thread said somthing like "I'm really starting to think this whole season was just a rush job so that they could test the Bugatti Veyron before 5th Gear could." And I'm kinda starting to see their point.
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Why do people feel the need to read so deeply into things like this? There was no rush to beat Fifth Gear since the two series don't run concurrently and TG was running in its usual Winter timeslots.
 
No.

It had its MOMENTS that felt too scripted (hammond eating the award card thing, it was funny the first time because it seemed random and spontaneous) and the like, but saying the SERIES felt too scripted as a whole is unfairly harsh on some obviously supremely hard work by the TG people. The series overall felt certainly no less great than previous series', and if we just get more of the same in the future i'll be happy :)
 
was it as good as previous? maybe not. Did it still kick all kinds of ass and is it still the greatest car show around? hell yes.
 
Chupacabras said:
was it as good as previous? maybe not. Did it still kick all kinds of ass and is it still the greatest car show around? hell yes.
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Agreed - but I wouldn't limit it to just being the greatest car show around, it's easily one of the greatest shows ever. The production quality is just amazing.
 
The last series did feel a little scriped in some of the studio segments, but this was already apparent in series 6, such as "some say" and "on that bombshell" for that example. In a way, this series cannot really be compared to the previous one for the simple fact that it was nearly half the length...
 
fbc said:
Chupacabras said:
was it as good as previous? maybe not. Did it still kick all kinds of ass and is it still the greatest car show around? hell yes.
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Agreed - but I wouldn't limit it to just being the greatest car show around, it's easily one of the greatest shows ever. The production quality is just amazing.
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Agreed!

I dunno why people always seem to need to find the negatives...
 
I would agree, top gear is for me the best program on TV today. But i do feel that some sections last 2 series seemed too scripted, but at the same time there were some great studio sections, the news section with the bionic fish car and Angelina Jolly picture was one of the funniest moments of top gear ever, same when they talked about the cows.

I think that last year they just got the balance a bit wrong sometimes, it sometimes seemed like they had rushed the script and so the guys hadn't had time to learn it properly or no one had though that it wasn't actually that funny.

Even so, it was another great season/year for top gear, not the best, but better than any other shows.
 
Chupacabras said:
I dunno why people always seem to need to find the negatives...
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I think it's a constructive critisism. It's not any close to trolling or sensless ranting. I too love TG, the best thing on TV ever for the petrolhead, but I think it's good we're discussing one or two things that could be improved. Who knows, maybe they even see such comments from the community and make something about it. But even if it doesn't go this way (which is more likely), we're just making a healthy chat, IMHO ;)
 
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