The state of Top Gear at the end of Series 9

janstett

janstett

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Now that series 9 has passed into history, it's time to reflect on it.

I think the show has officially jumped the shark. I still love watching and enjoy it, but I've watched and enjoyed other shows after they've jumped in the past. The chemistry of the three presenters is extraordinary. The humor, even though more and more obviously staged, is still amusing.

However, something is just missing and I'm left unsatisfied. They barely reviewed any cars this series. The episodes are becoming dominated by the "how hard could it be" segments. The qualities that drew me to get so obsessed with Top Gear in the series 3-7 era are all but gone. I think if I was being introduced to it with only series 9 to go off of, it would be cooler than virtually every other car show, but it's just missing something. The awe of being around an exotic car. The excitement of driving a fast car fast. The head-to-head comparisons.

It's become something other than what it was. Maybe if you're around exotics for a living you become jaded. Maybe if you're doing this incredible job for 9 seasons, the excitement can't be sustained.

Here's hoping they prove me wrong in series 10.
 
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You are unsatisfied because they've done only 6 episodes per series lately and there's less car review content and more cocking about content. I also feel unsatisfied as a whole.
 
I feel that the term "jumping the shark" has now jumped the shark.

Im kidding.


Anyway, maybe they figured they would get all the silly stuff out of the way, and move on. Really if anything, I think that alot of the stunts are a bit over the top, but in no way was it Fifth Gear, which while informative, can take a review of an exotic and make it boring. Oh, and Tim Hatesad must go.
 
yea but you also forget that the series was ... for lack of a better word squished due to hammonds accident. Hence all of the few episodes being challenges.
I thought it was a fantastic series concidering the circumstances.

Here is hoping Season 10 will bring a full load of everything we love back
 
there's a load of videos we know are still lingering about: hammond in an F1 car, europa, alfa, hammond getting shot..


WE NEED TO SEE THEM! PLEASE OH FUCKING GOD PLEASE!
 
Blythy said:
there's a load of videos we know are still lingering about: hammond in an F1 car, europa, alfa, hammond getting shot..


WE NEED TO SEE THEM! PLEASE OH FUCKING GOD PLEASE!
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tis true - i think they jsut ran out of time ........ lets see what season 10 brings!!! ( i really really want to see the F1 car!!! )
 
It's clear the show has changed.

I am curious as to why. Has it been ratings driven? This is Jeremy Clarkson's project since 2002. Perhaps he is driving the change in the show? I would guess Jeremy makes most of the calls. If so, I would guess he wouldn't care as much about popular opinion or ratings, as long as he thought the final product was good. I don't know though.

Hammond's accident had a large effect on Series 9 and any conclusions drawn from it should be discounted to a degree.
 
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janstett said:
Now that series 9 has passed into history, it's time to reflect on it.

[...]

They barely reviewed any cars this series.
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Surely a part of that had to do with Hammond's accident.

Not only because one presenter was completely out of action review-driving wise for most of the prep of this series, but also because there was some time when it wasn't known if, and then when it would come back, which would have meant that car reviews would have been difficult to book.

The manufacturer won't lend you a car, pay for the insurance and all the attendant costs if there's no assurance there'll even be a show for it to be shown on, or coincide with the launch of the model they're trying to get promoted.


biddy said:
yea but you also forget that the series was ... for lack of a better word squished due to hammonds accident. Hence all of the few episodes being challenges.
I thought it was a fantastic series concidering the circumstances.
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Agreed.

Also, they're going to air at the wrong time, as in, they're out of place on the schedule, so the series would have been basically where BB2 could make room for them, rather than their assigned place, and that kind of shuffling is always difficult.
 
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I agree that the car content of this series wasn't anywhere near as good as in previous series, but I sense that soon they'll return to the reviews - partly just because new cars coming out are genuinely interesting. I like the cocking about sections (particularly the 'how hard can it be' bits), and I think that you have to appreciate that Top Gear has become a much more widely-watched show, and John Q Public isn't as devoted to cars as you or I, and is looking for entertainment on top of anything else. (And you may well say 'John Q Public shouldn't be watching then' and I slightly agree :p )

I don't think the show has jumped the shark, I think the show has changed in content naturally, and of course, some people aren't as willing to accept that as much as others. While I'm not greatly opposed to the cocking about-centric tone that series 9 took, I, for one, would want the mix of messing about and car content that series' 5 to 7 had. And although it seems clear that at least one member of the production team reads these forums, I'm not convinced that our continued discussions about the show will ring any major changes to its format.

However, I suspect that series 9 was not meant to be the way it turned out. And I put this fully down to Hammond's accident. Clearly it was best for him to get back on the show, put it to bed and try to return to a normal life - but it should also be obvious that while he was in a period of recovery, recording a television programme wasn't the best way to avoid stress (but the two are incompatible, presenting TV shows being his job). So the series was shortened (I would imagine, given the lengths of previous series) to six episodes. Which means that there was no longer room for all of the features the men in charge wanted to include. And clearly the decision was taken to widen the show's appeal (or perhaps to appeal to the show's already wide audience?) by conentrating on the segments whose audience would be less limited. I suggest that there may have been enough material for at least 8 or 9 episodes, and had the series been able to go out as normal there would have been a fairer cars/cocking ratio.

I hope (is it too much to say expect?) that series 10 will address this, and that Top Gear will soon return to its real glory days. I think that series 9 is an anomaly in Top Gear's history and while it provided six entertaining additions to the show's impressive roster of episodes, the BBC and everyone involved with it weren't completely happy with it. And if they weren't happy with it, I'd expect them to do something about it.

Here's to series 10!

Edit: About five posts have been made in the time I took to write this saying much of what I did, so I no longer feel eclectic and insightful. :(

:lol:
 
I can hardly remember anything from this series. Not many high points.
 
Just my opinion, till its confirmed or denied. But I think its two things: The presenters (you know, the ones that run the show, the ones make it what it is) have grown tired of reviewing cars. And two: Hammonds accident made any reviews they had 4 months late. I realize they are only on twice a year, but why would you want to hear about a car thats now ~6 months out the door already. Obviously if its an exotic you might not have heard anything, but for normal cars most of their reviews tend to hinge on "should you buy/not buy it". Well that doesn't mean much if its 6 months too late. Just my opinion anyways. And I thought Series 9 was brilliant in all the ways that Series 8 wasn't.
 
Of course there are less car reviews & more comedy, & of course the whole show has changed & will continue to change over time. All of it because, first of all, after 9 seasons, they inevitably started to run out of fresh ideas. The other thing is that there are less new cars to review, they did almost all the new ones in seasons 8-9, either in a single car review, comparison or event. I was not fond of a new level of instudio scripting, The News in season 7 were horrid but they overcame this problem in late 8-9th season. My final point is TG's current ratings, let's be honest, they are pretty good. No idea how much viewers the show attracted in the last couple of seasons, but i am sure, the numbers were a lot lower than latest episode's 8 mil. average.
 
bwkrupp said:
..., but why would you want to hear about a car thats now ~6 months out the door already. Obviously if its an exotic you might not have heard anything, but for normal cars most of their reviews tend to hinge on "should you buy/not buy it". Well that doesn't mean much if its 6 months too late.
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Uhh... cars tend to have longer model lives then just 6 months. And the majority of people who buy a certain car will buy it well after the first 6 months of it's initial production.

Besides, I still love watching the series 1-8, even if the cars are out of production and the news is no longer news.
 
How many threads like this do we need? There's already plenty of existing threads to put this discussion in to.
 
fbc said:
How many threads like this do we need? There's already plenty of existing threads to put this discussion in to.
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:thumbup:

I like Top Gear no matter what they do!!
 
This is the umpteenth thread complaining about how there are not enough car reviews, while there are other threads complaining about how the car reviews in this series got monotonous and boring because many phrases from earlier reviews were repeated. Looks like they cannot please a single soul whatever they do - I feel sorry for them!
Regarding that there could have well been no series 9 at all, I'm glad it was as good as it was. I certainly feel not disappointed!
 
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