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New Top Gear line-up

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DrFfybes
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Re: New Top Gear line-up

#230355

Postby DrFfybes » June 18th, 2019, 9:16 am

OK, I enjoyed it.

Oddly, MrsF actually enjoyed it, as we both found ourselves laughing a lot more than expected.

Take it for what it is, with cars, and it is fun evening entertainment.

For all those saying "it's not as good as the old TG", it never was.

Paul

richlist
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Re: New Top Gear line-up

#230367

Postby richlist » June 18th, 2019, 9:42 am

So top gear has become a comedy show....even more so than the original. BBC..... can we please have a more serious car show ?

UncleIan
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Re: New Top Gear line-up

#230370

Postby UncleIan » June 18th, 2019, 10:07 am

richlist wrote:So top gear has become a comedy show....even more so than the original. BBC..... can we please have a more serious car show ?


Surely you've got to go back to William Woolard era for when it was a factual car show not an entertainment show, 1991? Only 28 years ago. Or maybe until the "re-boot", that was about 2001. A mere 18 years ago.

Apparently Fifth Gear is now on Quest. Not sure what else is out there to satisfy your car information needs on terrestrial telly. Chris Harris was a YouTuber, so maybe there's where to find normal car reviews.

richlist
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Re: New Top Gear line-up

#230391

Postby richlist » June 18th, 2019, 11:01 am

The car world is moving on at a rapid pace with new electric & hybrid models being launched regularly. It would be good to have a car show that was up to speed with latest technology but TG just isn't it.

UncleIan
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Re: New Top Gear line-up

#230395

Postby UncleIan » June 18th, 2019, 11:16 am

richlist wrote:The car world is moving on at a rapid pace with new electric & hybrid models being launched regularly. It would be good to have a car show that was up to speed with latest technology but TG just isn't it.


And right on que...

Description of next Sunday's episode...

Freddie Flintoff, Chris Harris and Paddy McGuinness present an electric cars special, each taking up the challenge of constructing a battery-powered sports car on a budget. Plus, Chris takes the Tesla Model 3 for a spin on the test track. Plus, Danny Boyle and Himesh Patel, director and star of fantasy comedy Yesterday, drop into the studio.

Yes, I know, you'll still not enjoy it.

SalvorHardin
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Re: New Top Gear line-up

#230403

Postby SalvorHardin » June 18th, 2019, 11:30 am

Top Gear hasn't been a serious programme about cars for years. It's not exactly a secret that quite a bit of the audience would prefer nothing but car reviews, car industry news and in-depth discussions about the technical aspects of motor vehicles.

Unfortunately for them a much larger part of the audience isn't all that interested in that. They would much rather see blokes messing about in cars and taking on vehicle-based challenges all over the world. For example, playing Car Rugby at Twickenham or using cars as darts (links below).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y2Djnwsj5L8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-i-op1aceUg

Andrew Flintoff has had a decent post-cricket career in the media, basically by being himself. So those of us who've seen him before, such as in "Flintoff: Lord of the Fries" where he goes around Britain (and later Australia) in a fish and chip van, knew what to expect and weren't disappointed.

Very sensible to start with a foreign episode, more like a special, with the lads travelling across Ethiopia. IMHO the best Top Gear since the BBC sacked Clarkson. The Top Gear Specials always tended to be the better episodes.

richlist
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Re: New Top Gear line-up

#231829

Postby richlist » June 24th, 2019, 8:03 pm

I find Paddy Mac impossible to watch......all I see is him being chased by a pink flamingo in those bingo ads.
It's the same with Noel Edmonds....all I see is Mr Blobby

Once your card is marked there is no going back to normality.

JohnB
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Re: New Top Gear line-up

#231858

Postby JohnB » June 25th, 2019, 3:16 am

I liked the northern lads in Ethiopia. I skip through the shows for the bangers abroad and stunts, no interest in supercars or studio segments. Paddy needs to be more different to Freddy though

If you want a good technical car show, look for Fully Charged on YouTube. Electric everything, informative with limited car porn.

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Re: New Top Gear line-up

#231941

Postby bungeejumper » June 25th, 2019, 12:41 pm

I lasted fifteen minutes (at the first attempt) this time, which wasn't as good as the 30 minutes that I managed during the first episode. If McGuinness and I were stranded on a desert island together, one of us would definitely be shark bait within a couple of days. :)

Flintoff kept reminding me of all the empty-headed long-limbed sports bullies I remembered from my school days. Okay, I'm not a sporting type, but I've worked regularly with cricket pros like Alec Stewart (most-ever capped England player, very dry after-dinner wit), and I know damn well that not all of them are as stupid as this one.

Chris Whatsisname was just about keeping it together, but he plainly knew he was flanked between a goon and a sports goon, and there was something rather like workplace bullying going on. "Gwarn Chris (thump), where's your sense of humour (thump), can't take it eh, (thump)?" Clarkson and May laying into Hammond was at least witty; but this really wasn't.

Still, the subject matter (electric cars) seemed okay, as far as it went, so I skimmed the rest of the programme this morning on iPlayer. And I'm pretty glad I did, because with hindsight it disqualified itself from being taken very seriously at all. Certainly as far as comparisons were concerned. Complete waste of time.

First off, because Harris drove the (alleged) rear wheel drive 200 bhp Tesla through London, commenting on how smooth and boring and well-fitted it was, without telling us (until much later) that it was actually the 450 bhp model with twin motors and all wheel drive, and probably higher spec all round.

And secondly, because it turned out at the end of the programme that Flintoff's Tonka truck was carrying a full engine (and presumably a gearbox and other ICE gubbins) as well as the electric setup. Of course, that actually made its performance all the more impressive in retrospect. But what the hell use is retrospect when you've just spent the programme making comparisons that are now useless?

Oh well, I suppose I'm taking it all too seriously. Bargepole TV. Good luck to all who sail in her, I suppose. :(

BJ

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Re: New Top Gear line-up

#233074

Postby PrincessB » July 1st, 2019, 9:20 am

Agree with you BJ.

First off, because Harris drove the (alleged) rear wheel drive 200 bhp Tesla through London, commenting on how smooth and boring and well-fitted it was, without telling us (until much later) that it was actually the 450 bhp model with twin motors and all wheel drive, and probably higher spec all round.


Despite that, it was by far the best part of the show.

There is something strangely addictive about it though, almost at a level of 'mouth hangs open' at the crass behaviour and openly punchy behaviour.

It could appeal to the global market, American audiences (among others) like to see their presenters suffer real pain (See Man Vs Food) so the occasional facial punch, elbow in the ribs, wedgie, karate move to the groin are simply seen as the cut and thrust of serious debate about cars.

The new Top Gear may have presented the new face of TV - More violent, more edgy. More like Rollerball than William Woolard.

B.

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Re: New Top Gear line-up

#233103

Postby bungeejumper » July 1st, 2019, 11:06 am

LOL, agree with you too, B. :lol:
PrincessB wrote:The new Top Gear may have presented the new face of TV - More violent, more edgy. More like Rollerball than William Woolard.

A bit funny, though, that the new TG has been cheered by the Guardian as the touchy-feely, sensitive new-age face of a gender-fluid generation that's cast off the misogyny and the macho-hetero styles of the past.

I didn't see much of that, TBH. All it seems to have done so far is to edit out Clarkson's tired old tropes about East Asian "slopers" and bikers who were obviously gay because they all wore leather. But then, the last incarnation of TG ditched that old crap as well?

BJ. (I must remember to use the word "tropes" more often, it sounds so gloriously unsavoury. :lol: )

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Re: New Top Gear line-up

#233147

Postby bungeejumper » July 1st, 2019, 1:38 pm


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Re: New Top Gear line-up

#233173

Postby Peltiq » July 1st, 2019, 3:04 pm

Wow, that didn't take long, did it?

https://metro.co.uk/2019/07/01/top-gear ... -10094884/

https://news.yahoo.com/top-gear-viewers ... 00719.html

BJ


FFS, what makes you think that this crap isn't scripted and rehearsed like most garbage on the BBC?

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Re: New Top Gear line-up

#233207

Postby Mike88 » July 1st, 2019, 4:42 pm

The format is not for me. I'm hoping to see a programme when they compare cars that you can actually buy and not stupid stunts with hearses and modified bangers. Last week I saw they were reviewing hybrids - at least that is what I thought - but instead the show's version of an electric car was an old Triumph Spitfire, a modified truck and a Nissan none of which would be the remotest of interest to an average car buyer.

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Re: New Top Gear line-up

#233218

Postby bungeejumper » July 1st, 2019, 5:47 pm

Peltiq wrote:FFS, what makes you think that this crap isn't scripted and rehearsed like most garbage on the BBC?

FFS, how would that make it better if it was? (As, indeed, I assume. ;) )

I expect Clarkson's old racism was scripted as well, but I struggle to think that that made it easier to defend. Thuggery is thuggery.

BJ

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Re: New Top Gear line-up

#233309

Postby bungeejumper » July 2nd, 2019, 9:08 am

I somehow stumbled upon this 2015 article by Richard Porter, who scripted much of the Clarkson-era TG output. Might be of interest. https://jalopnik.com/how-we-made-top-gear-1713882209

One of the things that emerge is that the TG three-on-a-mission specials, etc, would often be quite loosely planned and would be wide open to last-minute gags and provocations and complete changes of direction on the day. But, as you'd expect, some/most of the key punchlines were written well in advance, and after filming the whole package was post-edited. (To a rarely-equalled standard, IMHO - the TG camerawork and visuals alone were always impeccable.)

Compare and contrast with the average-to-boring production standards on the new series. :(

BJ


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