New Top Gear, will you be watching it?

jimmycrackcorm

bear1 wrote:

Here is what I can't understand from the BBC. Clarkson is fired for punching a team member and the subsequent fall out cost a fortune to all involved. Then in the first episode of the new TG they start having sly digs at Clarkson for what happened? How did the jokes get past approval for live TV? Seems like hypocrisy from the Beeb when they said it was a very serious matter. I'd have more respect for them if they made 0 reference to the past and got on with their on **** instead of needing cheap laughs. I bet Oisin wasn't laughing.

I'd bet Oisin watched and said up yours Clarkson.

Somewhere in the BBC a manager with a handlebars moustache is keeping a very stiff lip indeed...

HandsomeDan

liam7831 wrote: »

That Extra program was pure Sh it e too, with those two z listers, laughing at each others one liners as if they had not rehearsed them to death. Like who are these people 😫

Chris harris is a v popular motoring journo/youtuber. He's actually rather excellent. Check out some of his stuff.

I do sometimes wonder with the amount of youtube motoring content, and its popularity, is that not ultimately where motoring video journalism is going?

millington

liam7831 wrote: »

That Extra program was pure Sh it e too, with those two z listers, laughing at each others one liners as if they had not rehearsed them to death. Like who are these people 😫

Z listers - because Richard Hammond & James May were red carpet material when they landed on Top Gear

Chris Evans & Matt LeBlanc are "A listers" and they aren't exactly great either.

w124man

As this is a 'car forum' we are all fundamentally petrol heads ( we wouldn't be here if we weren't) and we are all looking at Top Gear as a motoring programme. Top Gear isn't a motoring programme and hasn't been for a long while. Clarkson, Hammond and May very effectively turned it into an entertainment show with cars by making it light, funny, irreverent, un PC and occasionally informative using some fabulous camera work and other tricks that made people watch it. Top Gear with CH&M was made to be watched and if it was a hard core car programme it would probably be boring. The old Top Gear was never that.
Chris Evans has comprehensively shot himself in both feet by trying to justify last Sundays programme by Tweeting 'the FACTS' as he called them. He has failed to understand that a large percentage of the viewing figures had a curiosity value and will probably fall away quite quickly as the show failed to entertain.
On Monday last, I referred to the new Top Gear during my 'Father of the Bride' speech in front of 250 guests at my daughters wedding. Almost everyone present had watched it even though most of the guests don't care that much about cars but generally, they all had a negative opinion of the new show because they weren't entertained. Shouty Evans didn't differentiate between his TGIF audiences and Top Gear audiences and 'the suits' in the Beeb have just learnt that big names don't always carry it off!

Brief_Lives

I watched the show after reading about all the disdain online...
I didn t think it was bad... Matt Le Blanc is a real petrol head... he can drive and has opinions (although he needs to write them down, to read them, to let us know).. Sabine Schmitt... great addition, she's a huge chunk of energy..

Chris Evans, I can t stand, but I didn t like the previous 3 stooges...

So Far so Good...

Less of The reliant robin UK vs US bullSh!t in the future please...

StudentDad

I watched the original Top Gear because of the utterly irreverent banter between Clarkson and co. This new one, (I saw some of the first episode more out of morbid curiosity than anything else) feels like the two presenters are filling in until the original presenters come back. Everything seemed strained. Le Blanc and Evans didn't work for me. The whole episode felt like the BBC were stuck and grabbed two lads from the catering crew and dropped them in front of the cameras.

SD

RobAMerc

FFs lads this is the first episode !!
I didnt think it was too bad ( for its current format ), but what I do worry about is the fact they didnt change it that much and what they did was basically "lipstick on a pig" sort of stuff.
I worry that maybe the 3 other tools had some proper input into the content and the producers might find it a struggle to find writers who get it.

Also, what made the previous TG so special was it was like watching your mates tooling about, you felt like you knew them and enjoyed their company. Its gonna take time to re-create that too with new people on board.

I loved TG before Clarkson, enjoyed it while he was there ( both times ) and look forward to what ever we end up with next. It beats the sh*t out of celebrity big brother or whatever sh*te I suspect a lot of TG's audience also watches ( I mean, TG "die hard" fans who dont know who Chris Harris is ? ), and we may be forced to watch more of if Tg is gone because we dont support it !

mikeecho

Top Gear needs to ditch the Ginger lad,and get someone good and Keep Sabrine Smitch, and Le Blanc.

Gwynston

StudentDad wrote: »

I watched the original Top Gear because of the utterly irreverent banter between Clarkson and co.

The old TG hadn't been about genuine banter for a looong time.
The sat down "news" section had long since become scripted and predictable and rehearsed to death. Even the features were clearly tightly choreographed and fixed to follow a predetermined script.

So the new show isn't much different - it's just that the new guys can't yet pull it off quite so convincingly. But don't pretend that C,H&M were God's gift to television. Clarkson was just as polarizing a personality as Evans, and I know plenty of people who gave up watching TG years ago as it was becoming a parody of itself on repeat.

lee_baby_simms

Gwynston wrote: »

The sat down "news" section had long since become scripted and predictable and rehearsed to death.

So they actually rehearsed the 'all mexicans are fat and lazy' bit?!

I presumed all the little Englander shtick was off the cuff.

Alanstrainor

RobAMerc wrote: »

FFs lads this is the first episode !!

I do think it needs time to mature and for the presenters to find their feet. Go back to when the new format top gear started in 2002 and watch it now. It wasn't the best viewing, James May only game in on season 2, and even then wasn't really there until later.

ofcork

There was too much scripting in the old top gear alright its like the wrestling i used to think it was real at one time,like the veyron v the mclaren f1 ,it should have been the veyron all the way.

ba_barabus

Currently watching more of the repeat. It's Evans that I just can't stand. He's painful.

Everyone else I'm happy to give a chance but as he talks over every thing it's painful to watch.

I'm forcing myself to watch excrement

Jesus.

Gwynston wrote: »

The sat down "news" section had long since become scripted and predictable and rehearsed to death. Even the features were clearly tightly choreographed and fixed to follow a predetermined script.

I don't really think that matters. As long as its funny who cares?

Wibbs

ofcork wrote: »

There was too much scripting in the old top gear alright its like the wrestling i used to think it was real at one time,like the veyron v the mclaren f1 ,it should have been the veyron all the way.

Actually you bought the script there too. The car they had the problems with and required the most takes to have an exciting race for TV was the Veyron. Kept dogging down off the line, needed constant resets of race mode. The heat wasn't helping it either. In the outtakes the F1 was walking away from it to an embarrassing degree for the Bugatti.

bazz26

Lol - Flop Gear

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GdzX1o6jKaA

bear1

So I'm 16mins into the first episode, decided to give it a go.
First impressions - iritating.
I've had to turn the volume down cause I just can't stand Evan's shouting. The challenges so far are a copy and paste of the old TG.
The wit seems identical also.
Also, I'm not sure if anyone noticed but the track time board has had all the cars re-written It isn't Clarskons handwriting at all.
Some poor bastard had to re-write all those cars and lap times. Idiotic.
Now they are just about to go to Blackpool but I can see already I won't be enjoying the remainder of the episode.

_Kaiser_

bear1 wrote: »

So I'm 16mins into the first episode, decided to give it a go.
First impressions - iritating.
I've had to turn the volume down cause I just can't stand Evan's shouting. The challenges so far are a copy and paste of the old TG.
The wit seems identical also.
Also, I'm not sure if anyone noticed but the track time board has had all the cars re-written It isn't Clarskons handwriting at all.
Some poor bastard had to re-write all those cars and lap times. Idiotic.
Now they are just about to go to Blackpool but I can see already I won't be enjoying the remainder of the episode.

Yea, I noticed that they'd rewritten the lap times as well.. seemed very petty to be honest.

It does get slightly better as i goes on (the Nomad section is well done) but Evans is a liability and I've never liked his 90s shouty-cool-lad persona. He's like a hyperactive 4 year old running around the place!

And I'm sorry lads, but Sabine was shyte. Yea she can drive but as a presenter on this show she's awful. Still, it seems to me that until the BBC force changes anyway, the main show will be fronted by Evans and LeBlanc with the rest of the cast relegated to offsite segments (as with Sabine last week) or the Extra show.

I read somewhere that episode 2 was in the can already so expecting more of the same this week, and will not be surprised when Evans is rather quiet about the FACTS (what an insecure tool!) because the ratings took a nosedive.

I'd say Amazon and CHM are laughing. This disaster can only be good for TGT

bear1

_Kaiser_ wrote: »

Yea, I noticed that they'd rewritten the lap times as well.. seemed very petty to be honest.

It does get slightly better as i goes on (the Nomad section is well done) but Evans is a liability and I've never liked his 90s shouty-cool-lad persona. He's like a hyperactive 4 year old running around the place!

And I'm sorry lads, but Sabine was shyte. Yea she can drive but as a presenter on this show she's awful. Still, it seems to me that until the BBC force changes anyway, the main show will be fronted by Evans and LeBlanc with the rest of the cast relegated to offsite segments (as with Sabine last week) or the Extra show.

I read somewhere that episode 2 was in the can already so expecting more of the same this week, and will not be surprised when Evans is rather quiet about the FACTS (what an insecure tool!) because the ratings took a nosedive.

I'd say Amazon and CHM are laughing. This disaster can only be good for TGT

Agreed.
I just finished the episode now. The Indian cuisine "joke" was utterly stupid, the "wit" was even ore scripted than the older version and even then the older version was still amusing.
Then there is the ending, the Bombshell moment which Evans then refuses to continue.. utter ****e.
I also noticed he tried the "In the world" in the episode which was just slightly cringe.
I tried to like it and I thought LeBlanc was pretty good albeit not very funny but if it weren't for the Nomad piece I'd have given it a full 0/10.
The stars in a rally cross car segment was even worse than before and I generally hated it when the other trio were there.
What was that whole reading from the prompter thing with Ramsay and Jesse? And then voting on who had the better car. Just boring.
Pity, the Beeb could have done so much better.

ba_barabus

I can only assume the lack of comments tonight is indicative of the lack of people watching it.

I for one have stood by my initial reaction and not watched it.

HandsomeDan

Only just noticed:

The Grand Tour

TGT

Top Gear Two

ba_barabus

HandsomeDan wrote: »

Only just noticed:

The Grand Tour

TGT

Top Gear Two

I think I pointed that out on page 2 or 6, although I spotted it on twitter

cml387

What's this thing about Matt Le Blanc claiming not to understand anything Eddie jordan says?

HandsomeDan

ba_barabus wrote: »

I think I pointed that out on page 2 or 6, although I spotted it on twitter

Fair enough. I'd a feeling I wasn't the only one to notice. I'll get me coat.

ba_barabus

HandsomeDan wrote: »

Fair enough. I'd a feeling I wasn't the only one to notice. I'll get me coat.

In this weather?

OldMrBrennan83

This post has been deleted.

Alanstrainor

Liking this episode a lot more. It's as if it's a lot more chilled.

Sweetemotion

cml387 wrote: »

What's this thing about Matt Le Blanc claiming not to understand anything Eddie jordan says?

And now, just called him a sneaky little Irish man.

cml387

I like Eddies style. Clingfilm FTW.

Francie Barrett

Alanstrainor wrote: »

Liking this episode a lot more. It's as if it's a lot more chilled.

Last week was bad, this week has been a lot better. It's clear the new team will need time to make this their own.