BBC Top Gear - Series 23 discussion thread

That last section going up Muncaster Fell just made me think back to when Clarkson drove the Discovery up that mountain in Scotland.

Anyway.

Evans is ok, but his voiceover is dreadful. Le Blanc is ok, but no good in the studio. Sabine has still got it, and her saying "The handling is terrible... Like a Ferrari!" was the best moment in the whole thing. Her wealth of experience driving oodles of cars very quickly will be underused, as will Chris Harris' technical knowledge.

It wasn't terrible, but that's about as kind as I'm prepared to be just yet.

Oh, and Star in a Rally Car was as dreadful as SIARPC, but with the added wtfery of wondering why Eisenberg and Ramsay were in the same room, never mind on the same sofa.
 
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The_One said:
Its the first ever show

They need time to bounce off one another, I guess people don't remember Clarkson, mays and hammonds first ever show

That wasn't exactly classic top gear either
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But they did create the formula for a winning show by the end which Evans has taken and still managed to balls up.
 
I didn't mind it, but this being my first experience with Evans and i'm not impressed. He was shouting the whole time. Matt and Sabine were really good though.
Theres always room for improvement. First step would be to get rid of Evans :p
 
steve45 said:
Yeah its no patch on the Clarkson era... i'll still watch it in hope the presenters start to settle in and bond better, i'm not going to write it off on the strength of the first episode.

Early impressions.
Format - ok so they have stuck mainly to the old format with a few tweaks, not sure its going to fully work for anyone but the 3 wise men but lets give it a season before any drastic changes are made. hated the SIARPC section, however when it got down to the driving the new track and RX mini actually a lot better in my opinion.

presenters - Chris Evans, just plain awkward and cringeworthy. Matt LeBlanc, acvtually not that bad, very tolerable seems to have settled into the role a bit better.
the fleeting glimpse of Sabine... hmmm not sure, maybe just the bad scripting of that part but yeah didnt settle well with me, too awkward but i feel that feature and poor scripting didnt do her any good.
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Completely agree with all of this
 
Hmmmmm - first impressions I was really surprised how similar to the old format it was and how even evans seemed to be trying to emulate Clarkson to a degree.

Reliant challenge was a bit lame except mayor dude was funny. Would have thought they'd have kicked off with a really good feature/challenge to make an impact.

Matt and Sabine pretty OK.

Evans' squeeling is annoying.

I actually liked the rallycross SIARPC - I think there'll be a wider and more interesting range of performance between people who are terrible and people who are pretty damn good with the mix of surfaces and jumps.

Really hope Chris and Rory get in the main show - will suck if they are stuck on the extra thing.

Can only get better (hopefully)! Give it some time.
 
Just needs more time and a bit less of the old Clarkson format. They were screwed for this episode though. Dammed if they changed too much and if they didn't hopefully it improves. I'm not writing it off i quite like leblanc once he gets the live studio part more refined he'll be fine.
 
I thought LeBlanc was Ok once he got into the filmed Ariel Nomad and even in the "challenge" in places, less good in auto cue studio pieces though. Chris Evans was awful and cringe worthy particularly in the "studio" where he seemed a bit desperate clapping and trying to get the audience to cheer.

I'm happy to have another TV programme be a bit blokey with cars but they really should have tried to change things a little, I think it worked previously because it was tailored over the years to the personalities of the the three presenters. Tonight Chris Evans just struck me as a precocious kid trying just that little bit too hard to do "I can do this just as well - honest". Might need to think about having LeBlanc lead and Evans support based on tonight episode for me
 
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I didn't think much of the 1st episode. The Top Gun bit was to long & I switched it off at the Jeep bit. Will watch 2nd episode,hopefully there will be less of Evans.

Just watched Extra Gear & it was so much better.
 
Seriously need to push Evans into the background - LeBlanc and some of the others were a lot better than I expected - LeBlanc pretty much saved the episode.
 
Chris was very annoying and whilst I'm glad Matt was far less like an overeager presenter, he always sounded bored.

The intros felt like they were too long. Especially the Viper ACR, but that might just been the poor delivery of Chris.
 
Extra Gear on iplayer - wasn't aware of this show. They're going through the details of the new track.
 
Chris Harris and the other dude we far more entertaining. He worked quite well with Sabine in her segment as well. Tbh Matt and Chris are so far detached from normality they can not interact with the viewers. Clarkson and all still retained that bloke up the pub kinda of vibe and you got that in their challenges. I think the bbc are worried to cast Chris and the other bloke in main show as they would out entertain Matt and Evans.
 
Evans... once again shouts his waay.... get Ant and Dec on to shout even more... just noise that gave me a headache. The thing is here. Evans naration is embaressingly stacato... very very scripted... yet when hes in the article hes bearable... but as narattor and show host hes appalling and loud.

Le Blanc... tough... he boring yank voice started to grate in the second half.

So... articles... this could save it and tbh... for the first team on TG i was bored... i wanted to luke this... and not compare to the original... however i thought theyd alter the format more so that we werent conparing. However... just didnt work

I personally think... Ross Noble narating wpuld be superb and also be natural as a presentor and would be adhoc funnier when needed. Evans isnt naturally funny... neither is Le Blanc... and this is where the trouble will be.

Very poor first episode... but i really think they need we need diffeent presenters.
 
It was OK I guess.

I personally would have welcomed going back to the old old version of Top Gear, rather then try to rehash the 2002 and onwards version.

The former was the one I grew up with and enjoyed the most. A proper car show.
 
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