Kill, reformat or do nothing?

Kill, reformat or do nothing?

  • I would kill off the show after this season.

    Votes: 17 8.1%
  • I would reformat the show after this season.

    Votes: 55 26.2%
  • I would leave it as it is.

    Votes: 138 65.7%

  • Total voters
    210
You know sir, you DO have the power to make such a subforum. :p
 
They shouldn't be scraping the bottom of the barrel for cheap laughs. We know that (at least) Clarkson and May have the capacity to make a serious documentary work, just look at James talking about the Moon landings and JC about the St Nazaire raid. They should find the balance between the serious side of things, a larger number of cars, and a measured amount of larking about. So, in short, not a reformat, but a break and a slight rethink is needed.
 
I've just been rewatching parts of seasons 02-05, a period which, IMO, plainly shows the development of TG as a concept. With hindsight, you can even see more clearly in which direction TG was headed, even back then.

I think there's a fourth option missing from this poll, maybe "tweak the show back down to earth" or something like that.. :)

In my humble opinion the team are clearly overdoing the cocking-about-stuff and the "look at us three little boys trapped in the bodies of middleaged presenters"-thing. I just don't buy it anymore. Just as I didn't buy some of the "spontaneous" stuff of seasons past, even back then (Hammond eating cue cards during TG-awards, Hammond and JC "fighting" over the Cool Wall, etc.).

So I guess what I'm saying is: They need a bit more down-to-earth stuff in the show, to make the outrageous stuff more rewarding and fun. If you're going to cock about/not take your subject-matter seriously for an entire show or season, it gets old very fast and your show will soon jump the shark.

Things I'd like to see more of:

- Reviews like Renault M?gane Sport/Astra VXR/Golf V GTI or V8 Vantage/BMW M6/Porsche 911S on the Isle of Man
- Features like "The M-cars" (S03x02) or "The first car with modern controls"
- Challenges like "Cheap Porsches", "Cheap Coup?s" or "Tuning the Renault Avantime"
- Funny, but still consumer-minded, reviews like "Finding a pearl from the Pacific Rim"
- The Cool Wall
- Future classics (VW Corrado, Mercedes 190 Cosworth)

Things I'd like to see less of:

- Using an interesting and new car in a stupid stunt instead of properly reviewing it. (Porsche 911 turbo Cabrio, Lambo Balboni in that *horrid* airship-film)
- Clarksons "proper" Roadtests (Explosions, destruction, "funny" captions.. yawn!)
- One-joke-episodes like the truly terrible "TG builds an electric car".
- Artificial "characterization" of the three presenters. (The noisy one, the quirky one, the absentminded professor in tweed). Mostly notable with James IMO who behaved rather differently (and IMO more naturally) in his first 5/6 seasons.
- Beating jokes to death (Pianos dropping on Marinas, Hammond crashing into James' car during cheap car challenges, etc.)
- Stupid, overlong pieces like the Lancia-film that only have a single point to make. See "The M-cars" for how that kind of film *should* be done.

Wow.. this is getting too long, so I'm stopping myself right here.

In a single sentence: From an "artistic" POV there's no need to axe the show. Just a few tweaks and the old girl could be like new.
 
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Hate to say this but I'm honestly beginning to think it's had its time. I greet each new series with less anticipation and more trepidation.

Having recently started watching and thoroughly enjoying TG US I don't think it's necessarily the format that needs to change but dare I say it the presenters?
They've been looking increasingly like they've been going through the motions of late, and they are all big enough in their own right to have plenty else going on.

Take a break for a year or two, dream up some new ideas, get some fresh faces and come back. Jezza and Wilman will still coin it and can work in the background. Hammond and May won't exactly starve either.
 
I wouldn?t totally "leave it as it is" as stagnation leads nowhere ... the issues that are there with the show need to be adressed and (if possible) fixed/improved, but I see no problem with the general concept - as the shows time is already limited. They?ve all gone on record in the last year or so stating that they will end/leave the show at some point when it?s no longer fun for them. I think it?s safe to asume that one or two more series and they?ve had it. For that time ... please keep carrying on. Reformat Top Gear after the Boys have gone ...
 
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IMHO as much as I'm huge fan of this show they should definitely get a "holiday" and have a mature discussing while they're at it. I don't know if I'm the only one, but watching 3 middle-aged men constantly messing around become more and more unfunny during every single episode, in some parts it irritates me because I know they are still very capable of keeping us entertained, but it feels as though as they don't give a toss about it anymore. Truth be told I don't want this show to be killed, definitely not, and I love the challenges they make these days but their characters truly disappoint me.
 
Sadly, it's not allowed to link to a certain giver/receiver site from this forums.

I did not know what this thread was about, but sitting through the combined icevester film, which most likely was the worst film Top Gear have ever produced, even worse than the Geoff debacle last season, i suddenly understood.

Maybe they should quit, i'd rather watch a season three to nine rerun instead of sitting through more new episodes of such a questionable quality.
 
Hate to say this but I'm honestly beginning to think it's had its time. I greet each new series with less anticipation and more trepidation.

Having recently started watching and thoroughly enjoying TG US I don't think it's necessarily the format that needs to change but dare I say it the presenters?
They've been looking increasingly like they've been going through the motions of late, and they are all big enough in their own right to have plenty else going on.

Take a break for a year or two, dream up some new ideas, get some fresh faces and come back. Jezza and Wilman will still coin it and can work in the background. Hammond and May won't exactly starve either.

That might work. It does seem that anything they do should retain Wilman and Clarkson, so that they can guide the show from behind the scenes. The show is starting to look like another English show I've watched in the past Last of the Summer Wine only it's a lot more irritating. It feels like it's in need of a reset that could help it to become more grounded.
 
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Same type of thread, so I'm just crossposting...

The only thing wrong with TG since let's say S13-14 is that JC, RH and JM are acting themselves too much. News for example; it gets interesting, good gag running and then a pun bomb or a lame written joke is thrown in.

Also, ease down on the challenges. There are SO MANY exciting cars to drive, do that instead...something in the lines of 2 presenters get 3 cars and do stuff with them.

These problems mostly stem from the fact that we are die hard fans of TG. We watched every single episode once or multiple times and we get distracted by anomalies. Yet the show is still top of tree, best there is regarding cars and entertainment.

Me? I have my problems with it...but consider this. I still get a rush when I see that the download is complete.
 

What kind of forum locks the original threads and leaves the repost one open?
 
You could have linked to a shock site at least, not localhost...

I could have, but

A. I'm a nice guy

B. It does link to the sub-forum for people who've become fed up with Top Gear, in a philosophical sense.

C. I'm a nice guy.
 
What kind of forum locks the original threads and leaves the repost one open?

Posting first doesn't automatically make a thread best. This one was longer than the other ones I believe and more importantly had a poll.
 
Note to self: Put poll in every thread.

Edit: Oh, and I just checked. This thread still isn't longer than the original.

The fact that "the original" was started by a relatively new user with a negative reputation while this one was started by one of the honored elders of this community might have had something to do with it, too. I'm not saying that's fair, but i can understand the reasoning behind it.
 
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So your thread was locked. Huh. BFD.

Anyway, I voted for "reformat". However, I'd like to see small adjustments, not a complete relaunch. More true comedy and less staged stuff, for a start. As it is, there's something for me in every series; I'd like there to be something for me in every episode (again).
 
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