Top Gear (UK) - General Discussion

[ProfCrash]

I thought that LeBlanc was far better then Chris Evans and would keep him over Evans. He seems to drive reasonably well and who knows what he actually knows about cars. LeBlanc was far more comfortable and fun to watch. I think that if you find the right co-host and give him some time to settle in and LeBlanc will be just fine.

I am sure they will ditch the "I don't know anything about the UK" schtick but I hope it is sooner rather then later.

[halopub]

6 hours ago, ProfCrash said:

You cannot find it on YouTube so this is not something that someone in the US can watch. That sucks

It runs on BBC America after Top Gear and is also available on their website if you sign up. My cable company has it on their Free on Demand channel. Feel free to message me if you need help.

Edited June 2, 2016 by halopub

[ProfCrash]

I'll check there later tonight. I can't do that at work

[halopub]

The aftershow is a little too brief to serve as Top Gear, which is the primary reason I suggested adding segments with Sabine and LeBlanc. But I'd be okay with instead adding others as long as there is some natural rapport.

[Athena]

It was better than TG. Rory was a more natural narrator and interviewer. He also seemed to know a about cars and tracks. I think he should be on the main show to be honest. Top Gear will never be the same because that old show will live on in GT, but it could do more with the style in Extra Gear: more informative, light car show with higher production values and more celebrities.

[ProfCrash]

I think they would be better off realizing that it would be better to do something a bit different and call it part of the evolution of Top Gear as opposed to trying to remake a show that worked primarily because of the chemistry between the presenters.

[phantom]

On ‎6‎/‎1‎/‎2016 at 2:08 PM, Athena said:

Chris Evans started as a radio host where he did a lot of celebrity interviews, then went onto producing and TV hosting. He's primarily done music shows. I'm not a big fan of his style, but he seemed nervous even though he's been hosting for years. I think having Leblanc there really showcased how Evans has less charisma on TV. Another thing to consider that Evans was the highest paid radio personality in the UK and he is extremely rich, about £55 million net worth. Both the hosts are costing the BBC a lot of money.

Thanks Athena! That makes sense - it was clearly not Chris' first hosting gig but he didn't seem totally comfortable with the material. I will say that Evans' accent is stronger/different (to my ear) than the previous hosts so I had to rewind a few of his bits to catch what he said. I wasn't a Friends fan so basically only knew Matt LeBlanc from silly "Joey" sound clips. It's good to know he's not going to play a buffoonish character on Top Gear. I liked some of his dry humor, though it was not spontaneous. That's what I'm waiting for - for the hosts to get more comfortable with each other so the interactions are more natural and less rehearsed. Whether that will happen or not is up in the air. But I'll say again: more Sabine! She's the career car/racing enthusiast the show needs right now.

I was disappointed with Matt's Reliant being hoisted on a tow truck so quickly. The old show made a huge point of sinking or swimming based on the host and crew's ability to fix things on the fly and get back on the road. It only reinforced that the hosts have very limited knowledge of car mechanics.

[Kromm]

LeBlanc is doing a sort of buffoon. It's just that his new buffoon isn't intellectually challenged like Joey, it's a version of the character he's been doing for years on the show Episodes. Even though that show represents a fictionalized version of him, since it was always a joint venture between UK and US TV, it's how the UK audience knows him currently. That version of Matt is basically kind of a slightly seedy Lothario. My sense is that the Top Gear scripted Matt is (so far) kind of a bit of that, and a bit of "Haw Haw, that American doesn't know that Bristol and Blackpool are actual places!" 

Evans accent is fairly tame IMO, but I suppose my ears may be more accustomed. He does talk FAST as well as LOUD though, and while the second should help people at least hear him (it's annoying though) I think the speed means he does swallow parts of words. It's not an accent thing really, I think it's just bad diction--a funny thing for a famous radio personality to have--but maybe bad stagecraft too.

Wait.  Listen to him interview this person you might recognize. He's SO loud, and yet it almost seems like he doesn't know how to properly speak into a microphone.

Edited June 3, 2016 by Kromm

[Jamoche]

Chris Evans was a radio host? Odd. I find his voice annoyingly shrill.

Not enough Sabine.

Never could get into Friends, and now I remember why. To counter annoyingly shrill, we have mind-numbingly dull.

How can you make a Reliant road trip boring? That's serious anti-talent. At least give one to the Stig!

When the Mini Cooper ad is a more interesting car segment than anything on the show, you're in trouble.

[Jamoche]

If they're going to put their hosts in crap cars and send them out on road trips, they need to be able to fix the cars themselves. Watching a Hollywood star sit in a car that's being towed and pretend to drive? Boring! At the very least, make some jokes about how that's how it's done in the movies. (Unless, of course, they did, and the segment was so dull that I missed them.)

[Kromm]

21 hours ago, Jamoche said:

Chris Evans was a radio host? Odd. I find his voice annoyingly shrill.

Literally for like... 30 years+.

And as hard as it is to believe given his apparent lack of skill at it, he's got years of TV in the bag too. 

[ProfCrash]

Yup. They chose hosts that might like cars but cannot work with cars. This means that we are not going to see anything like the classic build an electric car or hybrid boat/car. Nor will we see the grand trips through strange areas because they cannot fix their own cars. They went with big names but that handicapped the show. It might have been better to go with with people who were gear heads with personalities and not known to anyone. At least then you can see them get into trouble, get themselves out of trouble and grow to know the people.

[ProfCrash]

http://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-36458510

Top Gear audience drops by a third on second episode

[Quilt Fairy]

Quote

Top Gear audience drops by a third on second episode

My attention dropped by more than a third in the second minute of the first episode.

3 hours ago, ProfCrash said:

They chose hosts that might like cars but cannot work with cars. This means that we are not going to see anything like the classic build an electric car or hybrid boat/car. Nor will we see the grand trips through strange areas because they cannot fix their own cars.

 Did you notice that they also did not even select their own cars?

[halopub]

Apparently the second episode was in the can before viewer feedback from the premiere could be taken into account. Starting with episode three, the powers that be have responded to the awful viewer feedback by 1) asking Evans to use more of his indoor voice and 2) getting rid of the Clarkson references, like the "on that bombshell" jokes.

[halopub]

The second episode was less painful for me, but I think that's just because I weirdly enjoyed Sharleen Spiteri's buddy comedy with Eddie Jordan.

[halopub]

The second episode was still fun in bits - it was infectious how excited Chris Harris got about his car at the 24 hour race. (New York road legal!) And I liked how Rory genuinely enjoyed the school run/grandparents' car on the track. I wished they had ditched the whole Chris Evans segment.

[ProfCrash]

I might watch the second episode on YouTube today. Maybe but maybe not. That is not a good sign

[Quilt Fairy]

I tried watching the 2nd episode and I don't think I even lasted a minute before I gave up. (ProfCrash, let me know if you get past LeBlanc wheeling Chris in on a gurney.) I have no desire to even attempt to watch ep 3 next week.  Top Gear US is looking better and better.

On ‎6‎/‎6‎/‎2016 at 8:38 PM, halopub said:

getting rid of the Clarkson references, like the "on that bombshell" jokes.

I'd also like it if they got rid of the Stig and the "some say" jokes, which I never liked in the first place. Sometimes they were funny but more often forced and unfunny. Stig was a creation of Clarkson and his original producer from their public school days. Let these 2 come up with their own pseudonym  for the show's race driver.

Edited June 8, 2016 by Quilt Fairy

[Kromm]

I thought the second episode was deeply schizophrenic. The South Africa segment was actually okay, but virtually everything else was as bad or maybe even worse than Episode 1.  The lame banter. The Rally Car segment (most egregiously how exactly they parrot the old hosts setting it up and narrating it). That first segment with Evans. It was all total rubbish.

[Kromm]

100 times better than anything on Top Gear now... because its loose and spontaneous.  Things the current Gear has in zero share.

Its just a grumpy old asshole building a box.  But it feels authentic vs. the scripted to hell bullshit on Evans era TG.

[biakbiak]

On 6/6/2016 at 0:59 PM, ProfCrash said:

http://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-36458510

Top Gear audience drops by a third on second episode

I figured that would happen, it's why I thought Evans was stupid for bragging about the ratings.

[ProfCrash]

Evans tweets have been very defensive but that is no surprise. There was enough of a backlash when he was announced that the Powers That Be should have known he was a poor choice to host.

[Jamoche]

Oh, Chris Evans, no 

Quote

“I find it hilarious,” he said, and please bear in mind that Evans does find this whole debacle very amusing indeed, “that people who have never made a show in their lives then presume what is right and what is wrong with the making of a television programme.”

Has anyone ever used that "defense" on something that wasn't utter crap?

[ProfCrash]

Ahhhh so that's the problem....

[Quilt Fairy]

I'm not criticizing how they made the program, I'm criticizing the final product. Am I not allowed that privilege as a viewer? Or has this man had such universal popularity in the UK (I'm in the US and I don't know him from a head of cheese) that he's never had his work criticized before? He had to know going in that a revamped program with new hosts was going to be a hard sell.

[halopub]

Rory tweeted that he and Chris Harris will now be on the main show the rest of the season.

[Kromm]

43 minutes ago, halopub said:

Rory tweeted that he and Chris Harris will now be on the main show the rest of the season.

Well that just made the show at least SLIGHTLY better (since unlike Evans and Joey Tribiani, this guy actually seems knowledgeable). 

Edited June 14, 2016 by Kromm

[halopub]

8 minutes ago, Kromm said:

Well that just made the show at least SLIGHTLY better (since unlike Evans and Joey Tribiani, this guy actually seems knowledgeable). 

Rory is certainly more personable and less yelly. And hey, like Chris Harris, he does know something about cars. The Focus film was solid.

Was it just my imagination or did he and Chris Harris not have HD cams for the car interiors?

As we see with this episode, I think the producers are pushing LeBlanc to do more hosting duties in the audience segments. The interactions aren't fully natural but it's a definite improvement whenever Evans' screentime is cut. Now they have to cut down on the American in UK storylines.The dude's spent a bit of time across the pond, which is how he got on their radar in the first place.

[Jamoche]

Show description: "Evans struggles to keep his lunch down while riding with Sabine." OK, rerun... nope, it says episode 3.

If you get carsick going around Laguna Seca with Sabine, you don't belong on Top Gear. On the plus side - Sabine at Laguna Seca and, finally, in the studio.

[Kromm]

When's LeBlanc have to leave to do one of his OTHER two full time jobs anyway?

Now I don't know if next season of Episodes is going to be set in L.A. or Britain, but even if it's Britain, it's likely a long workweek if he's doing that AND Top Gear simultaneously.

And I have to think his new CBS sitcom, likely premiering in September, has to start filming by mid-Summer. 

[ProfCrash]

Don't they film the out of studio stuff before the show starts to air, so Matt is fine on that. I don't know that they have to have him in the studio. Hell, they could even shoot the studio stuff early, nothing says that has to be live.

Was the third episode any better?

[halopub]

There were some decent parts and it might be worth checking out a few segments. Luckily the best contributors, Chris Harris and Rory, will now be participating in future mothership episodes.

• Audi R8 - another irritating, shouty film by Evans. It was interesting to see Sabine briefly lap Laguna Seca with and without the R8's computers.
• Ferrari F12 TDF- a solid contribution by Chris Harris and a beautiful film. Something felt missing, though, that prevents it from being a true classic. Maybe they should have included that bit of the side mirror falling off the car instead of putting the blooper on the aftershow.
• The audience segments - led largely by LeBlanc, rather than Evans. He wasn't 100% natural, but he was much more successful at interacting with his co-hosts than Evans. One gets the sense that Harris, Sabine and Rory actually get along with him in real life. 
• SIARPC - Skippable. Kevin Hart was his usual self and was a game enough guest but this ran way too long. Maybe 15 minutes?
• Ford Focus RS review - a straightforward, well-produced hatchback segment with likeable Rory. Something that'll appeal to both motorheads and more general design fans.
• LeBlanc's tour of London in Ken Blocks Hoonicorn - it had some promising elements - a dramatic intro and a cinematic view of London on closed streets. But it felt long, soulless and pointless. It needed a better story to justify its existence/cost.

[Quilt Fairy]

On ‎6‎/‎13‎/‎2016 at 7:56 PM, halopub said:

Rory tweeted that he and Chris Harris will now be on the main show the rest of the season.

Does that means there's just one 90 minute show and no Extra Gear?

[halopub]

They will be on both.

[Milburn Stone]

Just saw my first Top Gear ever. I'm not into cars. Didn't realize how much fun the show is even for people who aren't into cars!

It was the one with Gillian Anderson.

The host is brilliant. Loved the sadomasochistic interplay with the short guy. Loved the race to rescue a guy with the guy who kind of looks like the host. I don't know who anybody is.

[Quilt Fairy]

9 hours ago, Milburn Stone said:

I don't know who anybody is.

That's good, because they've fired all the guys you saw (well, fired one and the other 2 left) and hired a new cast.

[Milburn Stone]

19 hours ago, Quilt Fairy said:

That's good, because they've fired all the guys you saw (well, fired one and the other 2 left) and hired a new cast.

D'oh! Well at least I have 22 seasons of reruns to catch up on.

[Milburn Stone]

Just wanted to add...one thing that impressed me about Clarkson was the writing of his piece about test driving the two Lexuses on the Gillian Anderson episode I saw. Sure, he's quick on his feet and has an engaging off the cuff manner. But that piece was written, and written superbly well. I assume by him.

[ProfCrash]

So I should actually watch the third episode?

It is good to see that they are responding tot he initial comments but I would point out that most every article I read about the show, before it aired, was luke warm to anti Evans.

[Quilt Fairy]

On ‎6‎/‎19‎/‎2016 at 2:20 PM, Milburn Stone said:

D'oh! Well at least I have 22 seasons of reruns to catch up on.

Yup, look on the bright side. Be sure to catch some of the specials like Botswana, Bolivia, Vietnam, the Middle East and the North Pole. Also the 2 different shows where they try to build an amphibious vehicle.

[ProfCrash]

The electric car episode had me peeing in my pants. Full disclosure, I watched it when I was 7 months pregnant and I gave birth to a 10 pound 2 ounce baby so I was huge and my bladder was, well, very, very small.

But it was a funny episode

[b2H]

DirectTv is not running Extra Gear.  The last couple of weeks 'Cars of the People' has been rerun. Before that, it was two weeks of clip shows of the old TG.

[halopub]

According to the BBC America schedule, it ought to run at 10:30 pm on Monday nights, right before Cars of the People.

[halopub]

On 6/20/2016 at 6:42 PM, Quilt Fairy said:

Yup, look on the bright side. Be sure to catch some of the specials like Botswana, Bolivia, Vietnam, the Middle East and the North Pole. Also the 2 different shows where they try to build an amphibious vehicle.

 

On 6/19/2016 at 3:20 PM, Milburn Stone said:

D'oh! Well at least I have 22 seasons of reruns to catch up on.

There are so many fantastic episodes to add. Off the top of my head, I'd like to add the time Jeremy reviewed the Peel P50; his review of the Ford Fiesta in shopping mall; James May learning the Scandinavian flick; the bullet train race across Honshu; the Toyota killing challenge; the time the hosts' moms reviewed some cars; when they taught some grannies to do donuts; and just a classic review of three cars on the Isle of Man. Beyond the fantastical and the gorgeously filmed travelogues, the last one covers cars and demonstrates how May, Hammond and Clarkson click.  

[halopub]

I'd pick and choose which segments to watch. I just fast forward through any of Evans' reviews and speed through any challenges he's in.

[emma675]

I finally caught part of one of the new episodes--I was half watching but it was some kind of challenge to get to Italy and they were cooking food in their vehicles. I think Sabine won. It was just so weird--there was none of the spark and whimsy and cleverness that TG with James, Jeremy and Richard had. The banter in front of the live audience felt forced and awkward, as well.

Let's just say, I'm going to be waiting for The Grand Tour to debut.

[b2H]

22 hours ago, halopub said:

According to the BBC America schedule, it ought to run at 10:30 pm on Monday nights, right before Cars of the People.

I just looked at all of early next week on Directv, and this show is nowhere on the schedule.

i will be out in CT the end of next week where we have Comcast to see if the schedule is different.  

Have seen the BBCA commercials for the show on the schedule you note, but my guide says no.

[Quilt Fairy]

If you can't find this show on your TV schedule, you might want to see if your situation is similar to mine. I have Comcast in the Chicago area and Extra Gear by name is not on the schedule, but the initial showing of the weekly Top Gear episode is 2 hours and the last half hour of that is actually Extra Gear. Subsequent re-airings of the TG episode are only 90 minutes.

[Quilt Fairy]

7 hours ago, emma675 said:

The banter in front of the live audience felt forced and awkward, as well.

It's probably only fair to give the chemistry some time to develop, but I just don't like LeBlanc or Evans, and after the first episode I was done with them. Sabine I haven't seen enough of to have an opinion. Chris Harris, who hosts Extra Gear is much more personable and watchable. If as advertised he comes into the main show and Evans' role is reduced I might give the show another chance.

And this is coming from someone who thinks Clarkson is an arrogant prick and was happy that the BBC had the balls to fire him.