New Top Gear, will you be watching it?

Richard tea

It just didn't work well. I'll watch it again next week but like mentioned already, I can't see it going for a season 2

edburg

Top gear USA is a better watch for me.

Although nomad and willy truck segments were decent watch.

It would help if Evans changed his ways to the Chris Evans that appeared in episode that James may took his Ferrari out in, bit more laid back quieter demeanour.

Now he just looks like old man in young mans stylish clothes version of big breakfast Chris Evans. i.e a Scruffy high pitched loud mouth.

Barr

I thought all the presenters seemed a bit awkward, maybe this will get better with time.

The banter between Clarkson , May and Hammond used to be very enjoyable.

Don’t see this happening between the current presenters somehow.

TrailerBob

Watched it last night, and slept on it before giving a verdict.

All in all, it was mediocre, but so was Top Gear 2 back in 2001.

Good:
Le Blanc in the Nomad was a decent enough segment. Very similar to something Hammond would have done.

Willys vs Land Rover had its moments, much better than the Reliants

Sabine is a proper driver, not a presenter, but great to see her skills again

Bad:
Evans is appalling - his constant playing to the audience is like he is in a Panto. Very unnatural for someone who is a seasoned presenter

Who had the best/worst car celebrity bit was awful - more audience participation - waiting for a clap-o-meter

Not convinced by the rallycross bit - like the idea, but the 'water splash' was a bit tame.


Obviously they haven't developed chemistry yet, but give it time and Evans might tone down, and Matt might get more natural. I'll watch again to give it a chance, and look forward to Grand Tour at the same time

btkm8unsl0w5r4

My take on it is that I was so jaded with the old top gear I was really hoping for something different and possibly about cars. As it was the same stuff again, same format, same scripted jokes I was very disappointed. As said above maybe they will change things over time.

As we all know that leBlanc and Evans are not friends...the whole things seems forced. May, Hammond and Clarkson were friends and it was often nice to watch these guys loon around, its was believable. It seems the show is aimed at children of an age that they should be in bed by 8 anyway.

My guess is that this will run for two seasons and then get cancelled, to be resurrected 3-4 years later in a totally new format. The producers should have had to balls to go a totally different direction taking queues from the you-tube car reviewers such as Shmee150 and Supercars of London, thats where things are going.

CFlat

Maireadio wrote: »

I was hoping there'd be a thread in the TV forum for us people who used to watch Top Gear but weren't petrolheads (as Top Gear was always about more than cars) but nope!

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2057579614&page=4

catbear

I think it will settle in. the more they poke fun of the previous incarnation the better.
either Evans finds a new lower pitch for variation or the prime hosting duties will have to be shared with others.
I think the guests were willing the show to be good.

Brian Scan

Barr wrote: »

I thought all the presenters seemed a bit awkward, maybe this will get better with time.

The banter between Clarkson , May and Hammond used to be very enjoyable.

Don’t see this happening between the current presenters somehow.

The "banter" was, for the most part, awful scripted sh1te.

robbiew

feck all chemistry between Evans and Le Blanc, but i suppose it must have been nerve wracking trying to follow C H M, but still great to have Top Gear back, the more car shows the better imo..

Sonics2k

Brian Scan wrote: »

The "banter" was, for the most part, awful scripted sh1te.

Oh yeah it was scripted then, but even in the early days it didn't feel scripted. The chat between Evans and Leblanc felt forced, as if they'd only just been shown the script while recording.

ShaneU

I enjoyed it, people just don't like change.

iano.p

God was a pile of crap. I just think evens is the wrong man I don't think he can carry the show. Matt was ok I think he could be good when he settles into it. Will give it a few more shows before I shut off.

Blazer

ShaneU wrote: »

I enjoyed it, people just don't like change.

I think that's the problem right there...apart from the presenters there is no real change.

honreal

Really enjoyed it. Thought Matt was excellent and I enjoyed his sense of humor and dry witt.

Clarkson was a clown and hammond was like his lap dog with poor attempts at humor.

smash

stimpson wrote: »

There were no new ideas, just rehashes of old ones.

The old presenters did this week in, week out anyway.

ShaneU

robbiew wrote: »

feck all chemistry between Evans and Le Blanc, but i suppose it must have been nerve wracking trying to follow C H M, but still great to have Top Gear back, the more car shows the better imo..

Previous presenters hardly had chemistry in the first episode either.

LorMal

A lot of people bought into the hype around Clarkson's sacking. He was a egocentric bore by the end - and Hammond in particular was a complete sycophant.
I was interested to see what the BBC would do with the format. Its a pity they weren't brave enough to drop the adolescent skits - these people are too old to be acting like excited teenagers (I especially hate it when they do the pretend laugh when they accelerate in a powerful car).
There was room to mellow out the programme a little - make it a bit more informative and realistic, without it becoming Antiques Roadshow.
Opportunity may have been lost. Trying to ape a bunch of middle-aged immature schoolboys has made them look like...middle aged immature schoolboys.

stimpson

smash wrote: »

The old presenters did this week in, week out anyway.

No argument there, but it was an opportunity to try something else. Most of the show revolved around Reliant Robins breaking down. Like that hadn't been done before. It's like they didn't even try to come up with any new ideas.

Joeface

To be fair it was only every sunday evening chewing gum for your brain with the odd good special version thrown in.
years of Clarkson shouting "power" as the solution to everything just becomes back ground noise. Even when they started the "New""old" version of top gear it was fairly poor ...the heavy set car journalist that May replaced was terrible in the mix of what they were looking for and he needed replacing to create the Entertainment show they wanted. Evan's was always a big no as a lead presenter , he is still stuck in the 90's TFI fridays presenting style . Le Blanc on the other hand could be better , he seems easy going and with some little more Human or Normal compared to Evans could make it easy Sunday viewing again.

I cannot see what the complaints about Smith are , she was on screen for all of a min in a terribly edited Top Gun bollox.
Not sure what Eddie Jordan is going to bring either .

legocrazy505

Joeface wrote: »

To be fair it was only every sunday evening chewing gum for your brain with the odd good special version thrown in.
years of Clarkson shouting "power" as the solution to everything just becomes back ground noise. Even when they started the "New""old" version of top gear it was fairly poor ...the heavy set car journalist that May replaced was terrible in the mix of what they were looking for and he needed replacing to create the Entertainment show they wanted. Evan's was always a big no as a lead presenter , he is still stuck in the 90's TFI fridays presenting style . Le Blanc on the other hand could be better , he seems easy going and with some little more Human or Normal compared to Evans could make it easy Sunday viewing again.

I cannot see what the complaints about Smith are , she was on screen for all of a min in a terribly edited Top Gun bollox.
Not sure what Eddie Jordan is going to bring either .

To be honest if they needed the village idiot to be the lead presenter I would take Jordan over Evans. Jordan always seemed more laid back on screen when he was doing the F1. I mean thinking about it now imagine if they still had Jake Humphrey available to them.

recipio

The format is lifted straight from the old series but with none of the class based humour ( same as Dad's army ) I'm surprised the BBC didn't just allow it to die a death or get Clarkson to grovel and be allowed back.

lee_baby_simms

Clarkson is basically Nigel Farage in jeans, I've never understood how he was popular, especially in this country.

Joeface

legocrazy505 wrote: »

To be honest if they needed the village idiot to be the lead presenter I would take Jordan over Evans. Jordan always seemed more laid back on screen when he was doing the F1. I mean thinking about it now imagine if they still had Jake Humphrey available to them.

Maybe Evans will only get this season , Jordan Le Blanc & Smith could be ok, I could see them been a lot more relaxed as the main group and slightly more natural. Evans is very "look at me , look at how entertaining I am "

ba_barabus

It would be interesting to run this poll next Sunday. I know I won't be watching it again.

Maireadio

CFlat wrote: »

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2057579614&page=4

Ta.

Maireadio

Brian Scan wrote: »

The "banter" was, for the most part, awful scripted sh1te.

Agreed, and that was exactly how it came across too. After several seasons, they were just phoning it in. I have no idea how people loved it.

Blazer wrote: »

I think that's the problem right there...apart from the presenters there is no real change.

Well, the format was always good, but I for one was thoroughly sick of Clarkson et al, and never liked Hammond, the smug unfunny lickarse.

Atlantic Dawn

Top Gear:Extra Gear is on tonight on RTÉ2 at 8.30, doesn't seem to be on BBC channels except BBC3 online.

I watched this muck last night too.
was the sound completely ****e?

HandsomeDan

Can only imagine what Quintin Wilson makes of this new lot.

Voodoomelon

Urgh, i'm in that place again where i'm forced to watch something to see how bad it is.

Why do I do this to myself...