This week’s episode started promisingly, as the Top Gear gang decided to try and solve the nation’s snow issues by turning a combine harvester into a snow plough. Although this didn’t seem particularly topical, it did provide a fair amount of entertainment for viewers.
While James May enlisted the help of Bovril as he struggled to get to grips with the machine, Richard Hammond and Jeremy Clarkson looked dejected as they realised no more snow was coming to Britain. Realising they wouldn’t be able to test their ‘snowbine’ at home, they headed to Norway, with chaos inevitably ensuing.
It has long been established that whatever the Top Gear team attempt, it will go wrong at some point. This week’s misadventures were fairly tame by Top Gear standards – Hammond lost his wedding ring, a plane sort-of crashed after some dodgy snow clearing, May accidentally ploughed a car and they set fire to a sign with their flame thrower.
Unfortunately the ‘snowbine’ provided little more than mild amusement, and the rest of the show failed to provide many laughs either.
Jokes about personalised number plates and cars sounding like ‘urethra’ were juvenile even by Top Gear standards, so we were relying on the star in the reasonably priced car to inject some humour into proceedings.
Sadly we were just served with this week’s opportunity for offensiveness.
The Top Gear presenters have spent the past few weeks under fire for their Mexican jibes, with even Tony Blair wading into the row. But while the presenters avoided joking about any national stereotypes this week, you can always rely on Jeremy Clarkson to lower the tone and provide some offensive comments.
Actress Amber Heard was this week’s star in reasonably priced car, with Jeremy introducing her by saying that although no one’s heard of her, she is bisexual. Throughout the segment we were subjected to Clarkson’s unabashed drooling over Heard, her sexuality, her love of guns and cars and the fact she’s been naked on screen.
While feminists know better than to listen to anything Jeremy Clarkson says, it really was quite cringe worthy to watch. Heard gamely played up to it, bemoaning ruining her hair with a helmet and being made to remove her heels for her lap, which made the spectacle all the more worse to see.
As the series continues it seems all the good ideas have been used up, begging the question – how long can this go on for?
Read more:
http://www.metro.co.uk/tv/reviews/856056-top-gear-just-can-t-help-being-offensive#ixzz1EaLDGZDK
