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
I genuinely apologize for making a similar thread to others; I had no idea! :think:

I rarely visit this section, and I can be a bit absent minded also. :sleep:
 
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.

Have you seen Jon Culshaw's and Debra Stephenson's LOTSW/TG parody/impression? Honestly, that's the way the Trio are starting to behave. It's getting to the point where Culshaw does a better Clarkson than Clarkson.
 
^It seems like it was quite awhile ago now, but yes, I saw it :lol:

 
Note to self: Put poll in every thread.

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

Don't be a troll and the real answer is because I can do as I fucking please. Happy?

I'm tempted to just kill this worthless thread too.
 
^It seems like it was quite awhile ago now, but yes, I saw it :lol:

Wrong one (I was thinking of the Last Of The Summer Petrol sketch), but Culshaw and Stephenson do a magnificent Clarkson and Hammond. Culshaw's Clarkson on a family holiday and the "Clarkson-style" reformat of Total Wipeout...I can actually see it. "First thing, we'll move the show from Buenos Aires to Guantanamo Bay!"
 
As sad as it may be, I voted to kill it off.

It's past it's prime, it has outdone it's stay and all they do now is simply regurgitate the most annoying, obvious and shallow "jokes" and "funnies". Lingering on into oblivion down the road past mediocrity into shittyness is not how great things should end. They should end with a bang, at the height of their game.

It's just getting more and more painful to watch and there'll ofcourse be replies like "don't watch it then, gtfo" but that's not the point. The point is that we're here to discuss it and share opinions.
 
I voted to leave it as it is, however that doesn't mean that I am particularly happy - especially about the most recent episode (16x05).

From my point of view one of the key problems is, that Top Gear has forgotten about its basic strength. In the beginning, most of its appeal was down to the wonderful metaphoric descriptions of cars, very entertaining rants of JC the "spontanious" interaction of the three and of course the fact, that the car reviews were simple different in a very pleasant way. Then more and more deliberate comedy was introduced and the filming went to art levels. But it was all fine, because the scripts were still great and we got our rants.
Nowadays, Top Gear has lost it's initial appeal. It's still a very good show, by TV standards, but not by Top Gear standards (that's probably why last episode still got a pretty good rating). When have we last seen JC ranting, or delivering his famous metaphors? Apart from that, I miss proper comparisons where each presenter fights for his car and then, after changing cars, everybody realises that everybody does have a point. Yes, it still does happen occasionally but not often enough. Although tests by one person can be entertaining, if they are done properly.

So all in all, I am quite worried but still hopeful, that things might change. They managed to pull it of in the past, so there is no reason, why they shouldn't be able to come back to this standard.
 
  • Like
Reactions: TC
I voted leave it as is, but I would like some tweaking. I haven't seen this week's episode yet, but so far I've enjoyed season 16. Not the best by any stretch, but not bad either. Overall, I like the format I even like some of the running gags like the Marina/Piano because you know its coming, your just not sure when or how. I even like when running gags get tweaked, like when JC hit May in SA and May flipped out. Scripted or not, that was awesome.

In my opinion, the show needs to play off what Clarkson said in his 60 minutes interview. I don't recall the exact quote, but he basically said how quickly the three of them become irritated with each other. Run with that, put them in situations where they wanna kill one another and roll with it. Two example I can think of were the beginning of the caravan holiday, andthe ending of the "cheap not-Porsches" challenge. "Its not whether you win or lose, its just about the Hammond bashing!"
 
I would at least refresh the studio a bit
 
Remember when challenges were only once a season and were something special? Remember 7x03? Now all we get is cocking around in ridiculous, mildly amusing challenges, some more cocking about in the news and 8-9 minutes of car testing in a one hour show.
 
They need to take some serious time off to recharge, the take their time making the next series and release it early-mid next year. Make it like ~15 episodes of quality stuff, and kill off some of the stupid, planned humor (a man spontaneously combusted, right). Six episode series' aren't cutting it in my book, it's over jsut after it begins. The insane amounts of money the brand is making won't allow for this to happen though, which is a shame.
 
Lets be honest.

If you took 10 die hard Top Gear fans, and 10 causal Top Gear fans, and 10 random folks who've never really watched it and stuck them in a room and asked them each to write just one episode:

You'd get at least 30+ different ideas and scripts. And most of them would be crap.

It's never going to make all the viewers happy all the time, and yes, sometimes it'll go bad. But it's still (mostly :p ) Top Gear. :)
 
Yes, everyone has an opinion... and its impossible to make everyone happy.
I don't see that much wrong with TopGear at the moment to be honest. Appart from them taking some time off and come back refreshed.
Then the natural humor will come back stronger I think and they don't need to script all of it.

TopGear is still the most awesome show on the planet :).
 
Seeing as (in my opinion of course) some people's attitudes have been making a slow slide into something not so good, why don't they:

Switch the tele off completely? Read something mind-expanding. Go outside and be active.

Change the channel to something they do like? Maybe Hollyoaks or X-Fakta.

Keep watching Top Gear, but bottle away the rage?


Perhaps all the people who have grown tired of Top Gear should take a break for a year or two, refresh themselves, then see how they feel. Or only watch the older series and remember the good times.
 
Or only watch the older series and remember the good times.
Most people's issue is not with the low quality of episodes, but the reasons behind it. Of those many reasons, the lack of car tests/reviews is the one that irks me.

The argument of "If you don't like it, GTFO" doesn't hold up here. If the show had remained the same and we had just got bored - you could say move on. As the fans (mainly petrolheads) who gave the show its' audience 10 seasons ago, you have the right to be slightly annoyed when the shows' new direction leaves it's original fan base out to dry.

No one here is boycotting the show. Just venting frustration as serves the purpose of the Internet. Hey, I still think The Simpsons is great despite being rubbish for the last 12 + seasons :p.
 
Keep watching Top Gear, but bottle away the rage?

Reading this thread, I don't really see "rage" .. more like slight disappointment with the way the show has developed. What makes it worse is the fact that the guys could easily return to old form if they dropped all that excessive acting and concentrated a bit more on their actual subject matter: CARS. Take the excellent "James drives to the studio"-videos for example. When you have to wonder why the show can't be more like the outtake-/promo-clips on the TG-website, something's definetly not right ...


Of those many reasons, the lack of car tests/reviews is the one that irks me.

Yup.. the reviews almost seem like an afterthought these days. Plus: The structure of the older shows (more and shorter clips) gave the impression of a much more tightly packed and longer program, whereas the newer shows seem to drag quite a bit in comparison. I'd much rather watch tons of short clips (like JC extending the range of his remote by pointing it at his head, JM/RH comparing the Boxster and SLK in the studio, RH/JC racing Mini vs Skoda Fabia VRS) than an overly long one-joke-two-parter ...
 
Last edited:
Top