The New Top Gear UK...
5I don’t know if anyone here watches Top Gear or cares or what, but I just watched the first two episodes to give the new format a shot and I can’t even describe the horror. It’s literally terrible!
All the claims about how it would be a new format were nonsense, they do the same sort of segments with minor detail changes, and the hosts… honestly Matt LeBlanc isn’t terrible but Chris Evans is trying too hard to be Jeremy Clarkson and he just isn’t.
The scripts are often using the words you’d expect to hear from Clarkson but the delivery is all wrong, and naturally if anyone’s gonna bend the rules or break them it ends up being Chris Evans in his Clarkson wannabe bad boy role. I can’t even describe how bad it is.
As for the segments, it’s the same sort of hijinks you expect to see on Top Gear but dressed differently to make them ‘new’ and filled with forced jokes that just plain fall flat. Take the Star In A Reasonably Priced Car segment, now they bring on two stars and, here’s how they make it ‘original’, its now the Star In A Rallycross Car segment. How is that a new format at all? I mean seriously, they review a couple of cars, then they do some sort of larger gag piece, then they bring on the stars for their rallysport car, then another gag piece, end of show.
Nothing new whatsoever and with the forced attempts to be the hosts they’re not it’s painful to watch. Clarkson, Hammond, and May were an odd grouping but it worked somehow, they had chemistry. I really don’t see how Top Gear UK can turn things around from here. They should have just quit while they were ahead and ended on a semi-high note once the guys left.
Looking forward to The Grand Tour on Amazon Prime to get my motoring entertainment fix from now on, methinks.
- 13 comments, 12 replies
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Thank you for saving me the time to watch. Your review is exactly what I expected from this ‘reboot’.
I always enjoyed watching TopGear. Either UK or US. I have not seen the new UK with new hosts… Now I know I am not missing anything… Thanks!
That’s too bad. I semi-binge-watched some ten plus seasons and loved that show. It was just so…something. You’re right hopefully the Grand Tour will fill our needs
The new episodes were quite awkward… If ANYTHING better was on tv last night, I would have changed the channel. I didn’t like all the “cheating”, at all.
I decided against watching the two episodes so far, and from all accounts, it looks like that was a wise decision. I read Jalopnik on a regular basis, so knowing about Evans and his “I’m exhausted after 4 hours” preconceived some of my opinions already.
Yes, the precedence had set a very high bar, what with the trio working together for many years, but it’s all the more reason why simply putting in new hosts in the same format wouldn’t work.
Eh, synergies emerge over time, when you tray to brush them on as a facade you get a product that looks hokey and is less than the sum of the parts.
They need to kick Chris Evans out and just put Chris Harris in as the primary presenter.
@The_Baron I don’t think that matters, honestly. They need to accept that their show’s entire success was based on and dependent upon the chemistry of three men who are gone and let it die the death it deserves. Cancel it after one year of this and be done with it, let this series be like the ill-fated attempt to continue Scrubs after the initial series’ end.
I assumed as much. Chris Evans was so much better as a guest than he ever would be as a presenter of the show. For me the reason this is true is because I don’t believe anyone should ever be exposed to his personality for too long. Not being English, I realize(and this is the proper spelling by the way) that my opinion may not hold as much weight as a native Briton. However, at the end of the day, the best thing that Top Gear UK had going for it went out the door on BBC’s invitation.
And by the way, Top Gear US is and always has been garbage.
@moldham Brits I’ve discussed it with dislike him as well.
Sad to say Top Gear US is the superior show at present.
@jbartus It is indeed a sad day when Top Gear US is superior to Top Gear UK, because as I have always thought, TGUS is and always has been garbage. The UK has a wonderful motoring tradition that was so comfortably interesting and so readily able to take the piss out of itself.
Speaking for myself, the most successful element of TGUK was the trio of Clarkson, Hammond, and May, and the cars were almost secondary. It was like watching an amazingly funny comedy show written by one of those great comedy teams a la “A Bit of Fry and Laurie,” “That Mitchell and Webb Look,” or “Still Game,” that had some motoring bits mixed in with it. The main difference being that TGUK was written by a trio not a duo, and obviously set in motoring.
The lads have a unique chemistry that worked quite well which no one can replace no matter how many people the BBC throw into presenter’s chairs.
@moldham I don’t think it’s fair to imply that the UK of somehow having a better or greater motoring tradition than the US. Much of where we are today with the automobile is thanks to the US and I challenge you to show me a country where the automobile is more integral to the culture and daily life of the average person than the US.
With that said, I think you nailed it on the head with regards to the success of the UK show being based on the chemistry of the three leads. If you go back and look at the first series even, Jason Dawe just didn’t fit, he was dropped for series 2, May was put in, and the show clicked. With the new cast it’s like the BBC just went "right, those guys are out, who can we get to be the new lead? Okay, Chris Evans, now let’s go find some random automobile enthusiasts to surround him with.
Chris Evans is not Jeremy Clarkson, Matt LeBlanc is not Richard Hammond, Eddie Jordan is not James May and Sabine Schmitz, as fun as she was in her episodes as a guest with the old crew, is not someone who is going to work as a long-term host for Top Gear (I’ve heard she’s good on D Motor but between her accent and off jokes her segment at Top Gun felt really awkward) I really don’t see the kind of chemistry the old crew had developing among the current crew, certainly not while they’re all pretending to be the presenters who are no longer there.
If Top Gear is to succeed it needs to be reborn, not just be the same show with an ensemble cast of presenters trying to make the old format work still.
(Why do they call them series in the UK and seasons here? sigh)
@jbartus Honestly, I think the UK motoring tradition was born out of a true love and passion for the machines. Whereas here in the US, it seems to have been motivated by utilitarianism. At least at first anyway. I’m not saying that there aren’t empassioned gear heads here, but my impression of our love for automobiles and the automobile culture here is somehow less charming. I don’t mean to denigrate our automobile-mania as less valid than that of the UK’s, I just don’t find its television manifestations as entertaining.
@moldham out of curiosity… to what do you attribute hotrod culture? (Just to name one example)
@jbartus WWII vets coming home. I’ve read about motor pool mechanics, often in response to shortages of parts, who would “rod out” vehicles in order to make them operational again. Back at home after the war, there was no shortage of parts and the know-how gained during their service was brought home and put to good use making their personal vehicles faster and more powerful. Our competitive nature then took over and thus, the hot rod culture, and in turn drag racing, were born.
@moldham hot rodding predates WW2, Also there’s the history that spawned NASCAR to account for, Duesenberg and various other manufacturers who built that era’s equivalent of modern day supercars, and so on and so fort. Lots of proud American motoring tradition. Heck, look how many songs involve cars.
I’ve tried to watch both episodes, but have yet to stay awake through an entire viewing, even after multiple attempts with the first one…
good to know that the Orangutan, Hamster, and Slow one have finally chosen a name for their show.
I had missed any announcements they had had.
@earlyre yeah I’m pretty pumped.
If anyone is wondering why it’s called The Grand Tour it’s because they’re going to be hosting each episode in a different country, in recognition of their worldwide fanbase. The premiere will be in Johannesburg, South Africa.
Sounds like Top Gear US.
@DrunkCat if only it were that good.
I watched the first episode. Yeah, it sucked. Fucking Joey… and the Fat English guy was bad too. I mean Clarkson was a total tool, but this new version is unwatchable. I can’t watch the American version at all. They should have kept Hammond and May and just brought in a new guy to replace Clarkson. Thank goodness for the Stig
Wasn’t going to happen, @somf69. If one went, they all went.
@somf69 Hammond and May quit in solidarity with Clarkson, they’re a package deal or no deal. In for a penny in for a pound wot.
Part of what made the show work with Clarkson/May/Hammond was the banter, heavily spiced with Clarkson’s political incorrectness and the “you can’t say that on TV but he just did” 5th-grade humor. That’s one thing the BBC wanted to get rid of, apparently, but they needed (and didn’t get) something appealing to replace it with. We don’t need another Drive or 5th Gear but that’s kind of what we got, 5th Gear but with an outrageous budget.
My other reaction was that I don’t want to know that Gordon effing Ramsay has a La Ferrari and can afford to have ordered another one. The old show had a lot of cars for wealthy people, but we didn’t generally know who owned them, and we knew that Hammond has a nice Porsche and Clarkson has an AMG Black and Slow has … a Ferrari, was it? But it was ok, we knew and liked them and they didn’t push their wealth in our faces. Now it seems every week someone will be asked “So what do you drive?” and it’ll be something I couldn’t have afforded in the best of times, owned by someone I don’t know* whose job title is “TV Presenter.”
I’ll record it, and I’ll wear out my fast forward button “watching” it … but I’m waiting for Clarkson et al. on Amazon.