What has to happen for TG to improve?

[suggsygirl]

My understanding is the "local" shows (London, Birmingham, Dublin*) have a different script (if you will) from the ones on the tour. You're right that it would be a bit of an issue, though, performing the same show up to four times a day for a long weekend (Thursday - Sunday).

* At this year's (2009) Dublin show, they played car football (Ireland vs. France) specifically for them as Ireland didn't make the World Cup. London and Birmingham didn't have it.

The London and Birmingham shows definitely have a different script from Oz and New Zealand. I saw the show everyday in Birmingham and they seemed totally on form for the whole run which is amazing given the amount of booze they got through in the bar of an evening.

 

[Maxwellsh68]

But at least it was different and interesting without being predictable. Pause any Clarkson track test at time of broadcast from the last 3 years and I reckon I could have got the next phrase before he said it about 2/3 of the time. Jezza is bored of track tests and it shows in his lack of effort. His road test in 14x07 forced him to make proper points and was all the better for it, as was the LFA review because it came through fresh eyes.

I agree with you there. As much as I love TG I always Sky+ is and I skip the Clarkson track test. You are right they are too predictable.
But I feel Hammond tries too hard to be like Clarkson. I much prefer James May's car reviews.

 

[the Interceptor]

I think the most important point about the car reviews of all three blokes is that they have shifted their weighting of the elements in a review.

In the earlier days, they fooled around, made jokes and had effects, too. But you felt that the most important bit always was the car. They wanted to tell you in simple, understandable words what the car makes one feel like, and how a technically perfect car can not feel right, while a car with many faults can still be desirable.

Then, they realised that Top Gear is quite interesting to "normal" people as well. Yet, those people only cared about the jokes and the effects instead of the cars, so they started to focus on the cocking about and having fancy camera work.

Therefore, I do not agree with those who say that 14x07 was good old Top Gear. They had a lot of reviews, yes. But still, I did not feel like they did those reviews because they wanted to make points about the cars. Instead, the cars have become a necessary evil which they simply need to do their thing.

 

[Mauren]

[YOUTUBE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LeHDukbshmc[/YOUTUBE]

 

[Mauren]

Therefore, I do not agree with those who say that 14x07 was good old Top Gear. They had a lot of reviews, yes. But still, I did not feel like they did those reviews because they wanted to make points about the cars. Instead, the cars have become a necessary evil which they simply need to do their thing.

nice

 

[icanhascheezburger]

aloah!

in my opinion the main problem is, as already mentioned, trying to script everything. even though i'm convinced
that in older series (e.g. series 7 which was the best so far imho) there was a lot scripted aswell - don't tell the emmy committee! -
it never felt like it was.
as somebody else stated out before, clarkson, hamster and may are amazing but acting isn't their real strength.

i'm still disappointed by the last series. luckily there were great things but generally speaking it was a weak one.
best things i have in mind are the lancia special, the end of the romania trip and more or less the whole last episode.
but there are quite a lot more things to mention that were just rubbish and not even ambitious. By far the worst one is the whole bolivia trip...
i mean what the fuck came into their mind? being in south america and they show us how they get their cars of the bloody raft.
then their is a "tiny" gap and they suddenly are in la paz. telling us some uninteresting facts -factual but not entertaining sounds common-
just to make another jump to the andes. at least the countryside was mindblowing but the rest wasn't. second worst in my opinion
was the electric car thingy. the tests to make it road legal were just awful and embarrasssing!

just bring back some proper challenges (i don't care really if they deploy the amphibious cars another time), roadtests of expensive
stuff (if u wanna see tests of a lupo go and watch failfifthgear, unless it has a v8 ofc), proper news, let maybe hammond or may do the
interview of the siarpc sometimes, less womens in the front of the audience (unless they have nice $?"%&$?6).

cheers