Top Gear 2016 Official TV show thread *contains spoilers*

[DonkeyApple]

MaziA said:

technodup said:

Flop Gear in the Mail. Flop Gear in the Mirror. Flop Gear in the Sun. Strop Gear in the Star. It's not just PH.

And the last thing it needs is more of the personality bypass who is Chris Harris.

Kill it now.

Those same papers are forever championing Big Brother, Britain's Got Talent and The X Factor. This makes me feel even better for liking the new TG.

Indeed. They not only despise the BBC but at least half of them earn money from Amazon. Go figure.

[C70R]

I wonder how many of the moaners/dissenters will be watching and posting again next week? Do we think some people just like/need an excuse to moan?

[r11co]

Slippydiff said:

The alarm bells started ringing when Evans introduced the staff of his local curry house onto the show, a typical Evans stunt unfortunately.

That's him engaging with the audience, dontcha know. His audience.

Zoobeef said:

Mud_ said:

Obvious shouty wkiness aside, did anyone else find playing the TG theme as walk-on music for the celebs particularly jarring? Not sure why that riled me so much...

I noticed it too and found it rather strange.

That's Evans applying live radio thinking (incorrectly) to TV.

Edited by r11co on Monday 30th May 15:08

[ninja-lewis]

I think the "give them time to develop chemistry" argument misses the point. The issue isn't the lack of chemistry but that they thought they could just carry on as if they did have chemistry.

The whole production has the superficiality of a first year critical essay - they've identified the elements of the old TG but shown no understanding, analysis or evaluation of what made them effective.

[Mr2Mike]

C70R said:

I wonder how many of the moaners/dissenters will be watching and posting again next week? Do we think some people just like/need an excuse to moan?

I wonder how many fawning sycophants will be posting again next week? Do we think some people want to have Chris Evans babies?

[MarshPhantom]

DonkeyApple said:

MaziA said:

technodup said:

Flop Gear in the Mail. Flop Gear in the Mirror. Flop Gear in the Sun. Strop Gear in the Star. It's not just PH.

And the last thing it needs is more of the personality bypass who is Chris Harris.

Kill it now.

Those same papers are forever championing Big Brother, Britain's Got Talent and The X Factor. This makes me feel even better for liking the new TG.

Indeed. They not only despise the BBC but at least half of them earn money from Amazon. Go figure.

I love the BBC, that doesn't last night wasn't a steaming pile of excrement. It also got slated in the Mail, a paper Evans writes for.

[Mr-B]

CE was far too shouty, tried way too hard. MLB came across OK. First day nerves probably got the better of both of them, so if CE can tone it down a bit it might be OK, but I have little hope unfortunately. Should have made bigger changes from the old format, the old format was getting very tired and needed sprucing up. This was an ideal time to introduce new things.

Introducing the stig with the old "some say" routine was poor, it was tedious after about the second series of them doing it, I thought with CE's shouty style he would have got the crowd to shout in unison "bring on the stig!!"

Quite like the rallycross track reboot for SIARPC although never liked that segment of the show but at least they have tried to revamp that part.

Thought the online show with Rory and Chris was ok but was expecting it to be longer than 20 minutes and Chris seemed to be like a rabbit in the headlights occasionally, first day nerves again probably.

Will watch the rest of the series if only for the nice cars and decent quality filming of them.

[C70R]

Mr2Mike said:

C70R said:

I wonder how many of the moaners/dissenters will be watching and posting again next week? Do we think some people just like/need an excuse to moan?

I wonder how many fawning sycophants will be posting again next week? Do we think some people want to have Chris Evans babies?

I really don't see any fawning sycophancy on this thread - it's more a case of people saying "Jeez, it wasn't that bad, do lighten up".

I'm not Chris Evans's biggest fan. I agree his faux enthusiasm and shouty nature can be a bit wearing at times. It just feels like so many PHers are trying really hard to be over-critical, because it's quite trendy/edgy to talk down pop culture (which is what TG is).

People's memories are short. Old Top Gear was scripted and wooden at the start, and overcooked by the end.

ETA - By contrast, I thought the thing on BBC3 was absolutely wooden. It looked like the sort of tat you see on late-night cable TV, and neither presenter was particuarly compelling.

[London424]

I see CE has popped up on Twitter saying it was a hit.

Didn't watch so can't comment either way.

[ThunderGuts]

DonkeyApple said:

ThunderGuts said:

I like the cut of Weenys jib

Mind you, look at the names of the whiners: weeny, angry and old.

All no doubt PHers...

[OctiMoron]

Chris Harris was massively more engaging in Extra Gear, his knowledge of the subject matter was more informative and his use of simile for comic effect was much more 'Clarkson-esque' and less lude than those spouted by Evans or MLB in the main show.

Agree that the format needed to be substantially different to what had gone before for this to be seen as anything other than a shadow of its former self, and the live audience sections were excruciatingly awkward to watch, whilst SIARPC seems done and the reworking of that bit fell rather flat. I think if they were to have two people on the couch for each weeks show like this, they should have been put on track at the same time to fight it out....although I assume that's a H&S minefield for the bbc

Still there are countless ways they could have reengaged with a whole new tv audience but personally I'd love to have seen the two concepts of a SIARPC, and the much loved Three man review faceoff or extended road trip, merge to become a Two men and a guest Star in a Car review/roadtrip on a bi weekly rotation, seeing many famous faces join the regular presenters each week, and being set up/falling foul of the kind of tom foolery that these sections were well known for would have been something to tune in for. This kind of star turn is already proven popular with the likes of Ricky Gervais Extras' comedy series and James Cordons Car Karaoke segments.

Edited by OctiMoron on Monday 30th May 15:25

[DoubleD]

Just watched the topgear extra program, less shouting than the main topgear, but even more dull.

[hairyben]

DoubleD said:

Just watched the topgear extra program, less shouting than the main topgear, but even more dull.

I gave that a watch; it wasn't too terrible but was on the whole too supportive of the main program to stand alone so I don't see it working as the more car-enthusiasts-orientated alternative to the main yarn some are suggesting it could.

[Jonesy23]

London424 said:

I see CE has popped up on Twitter saying it was a hit.

I can see why he would have written that. A and S being next to each other on the keyboard...

[suffolk009]

MarshPhantom said:

It also got slated in the Mail, a paper Evans writes for.

Does he? Really?

Most celebs phone in a few ideas to a staff writer who then puts some words together in a coherent manner.

[patmahe]

Am I the only one who enjoyed it then? Maybe I'm easily pleased.

I did mute it during the SIARPC and did something else for a but, but then I've never liked Ramsay so didn't even give him a chance, I had hoped they'd drop that as it was the weakest part of the show in my opinion.

Matt Le Blanc was good I thought, entertaining, watchable, funny. I have been a big fan of the Nomad since I first saw it so it was interesting. A proper road test for once, mixed with some humour.

The Reliant thing could have been a lot better, they effectively just rejigged an older Top Gear episode, but it was funny in spots.

The show needs some more creativity and originality and Evans did grate as I feared he would. But there is the kernel of something there, if they can just nurture it and fix the issues.

[suffolk009]

Jonesy23 said:

London424 said:

I see CE has popped up on Twitter saying it was a hit.

I can see why he would have written that. A and S being next to each other on the keyboard...

Excellent!

Even in his tweets he's been SHOUTING.

[technodup]

Nik da Greek said:

technodup said:

he irrelevant corner with a worldwide audience, one of the most successful businesses on earth and a much bigger budget?

I suspect TG will be irrelevant sooner than Clarkson.

Er yeah. Cos almost no-one watches the BBC, after all

I'd be willing to bet there will be fewer watching it next Sunday night anyway.

Between this thread and the driverless cars ones it's amazing how so many can be quite so behind the very obvious curve.

[hairyben]

Ozzie Osmond said:

I was hoping for "new TG" because IMO the format was getting tired long before the Clarkson fiasco.

What we got was old TG with one presenter taken away. Is it a good idea to be bumping cars into each other on public roads and filming on the hard shoulder? Business as usual at TG.

I thought the bumping looked a bit dodge TBH - did the old trio ever bump each other at anything more than manoeuvring speed?

They had better judgement and knowing precisely when to stop IMO - they did "silly" stuff but did they ever have anything as apparently disrespectful as the cenotaph incident? chris evans is like the tryhard kid who sees the cool kids doing something funny, dives in and copies to try to impress them but overdoes it.

[sparta6]

Contrived.

Evans is a pastiche of Clarkson, but unlike Clarkson, Evans has someone else write his scripts.