Top Gear (Series 20) Returns Sunday 30th June 2013

Skeeter said:
This.

10 years ago average Joe could well get his car advice from Quentin Wilson on a Sunday evening, but now with the rise in online car journalism and YouTube a TV based car show is just so far behind the curve its pointless. With the lead times of producing a TV show and fitting it into a schedule Top Gear would be reviewing cars up to 6 months after everyone else has already done it.

Take the Electric SLS. That was covered in Evo and online by Chris Harris about 3 months ago. No point in going into all the details about it now, so they take the more entertaining route of messing about in it with an SLS Black.

The business of 'proper' car reviews is handled by Top Gear magazine and all its rivals, the TV show is now all about entertainment.
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It annoys me people still don't understand this!

Why would anyone want to watch an hour long TV episode comparing the latest Astra diesel hatchback against the latest Ford Focus diesel hatchback...

It's an entertainment programme based around vehicles, I'm glad they keep messing about as it keeps me entertained. I don't want to see them build an amazing hovercraft come car, which works perfectly and they tootle along the river without any drama. Boring...

People are stupid
 
Quite enjoyed it, but the hovervan did go on a little bit - a lot of the pranks are getting predictable now - which is fine, but so far last week's episode was the best of the series so far. I'm enjoying this series more than the previous one.
 
Raymond Lin said:
Not a very good episode, the hoover car thing was a fun idea but Clarkson ruined it all, he is actually intentionally trying to sabatage their efforts. Getting out of the car when going through the gate and going back up the weir were both plain idiotic.
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Clarkson is the 'idiot', that's the whole idea.
 
Raymond Lin said:
Not a very good episode, the hoover car thing was a fun idea but Clarkson ruined it all, he is actually intentionally trying to sabatage their efforts. Getting out of the car when going through the gate and going back up the weir were both plain idiotic.
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Lol, never :p
 
As an avid fan over the years I can still see what people mean about the set ups and what not (the man in the rowing boat...quite cringeworthy how obvious of a set up it was and I'm sure it looked just like the director :p), but if you forgive these things it's still an entertaining show on the whole and there are still the few gems of real, spontaneous, humorous calamity.

The SLS's were brilliant and I think it highlighted for me that no matter how great an electric car can be performance wise, a battery powered car just doesn't suit every day life. (Limited range/horrendous charging times). Plus I couldn't live without a noise like the black's :o

Jackman was also a legend!
 
rossk26 said:
But it would be boring if everything went smoothly wouldn't it?

You really just don't get programmes do you? First GoT now Top Gear.
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Season 3 of Game of Throne is just a waste of time (8/10 episodes were pointless), who needs 3 scenes telling the same tactic on where Robb is going to attack? Who needs to see 3 scenes of the same torture? Who needs 5 scenes of them telling us where they are going yet not getting there? Who needs a accumulation almost an hour of screen time of a girl moaning on how badly she is treated, we get it Sansa that you are upset your dad got killed but it's been a whole year, move on already. If people can't see how they are treating the audience like childen with amensia (when the show is targeting at adults) then they are blind as a bat, if that's the idea then might as well watch the Nature Channel on polar bear hibernating, at least that's not something you see everyday.

Saying the book is better is not an argument. Saying there are more content in the book is not an excuse. Both of which means the show fails to live up to the book and not bring what you read on screen well enough. As a TV audience you don't need supplementary reading material to fill in the gaps left by the TV show, you never should do or expected to do.

Everytime I mention they are padding it out, someone will say there are LOTS AND LOTS more in the book, well, show me ! Where the heck is it?

On the other hand I actually think the people think GoT season 3 is great can't actually see pass all that glossy presentation to realise the show is failing to live up to its promises and feeding the audience too much filler material that could be condensed by 80%.

If by "I don't get it" is they are building up to the end...well the end has not even be written.

And in about 2 years, that crippled kid actor will be fully grown or close to, is he still going to play a young teenager getting a piggyback? That's why Peter Jackson cut Tom Bombadil, that's why he cut out the hobbits singing from the Fellowship. Movies & TV are not like books, you can't apply the same rules.

Back on topic.

As for Clarkson, there is a difference being a bit silly and being retarded. If Hammond or May got out of the Van leaving no driver he would have had right go at them for being stupid, just because he was the one being stupid people should just accept it?

I am not saying they should finish the journey but the whole thing was a stupid way to end the challenge, plus it went on for far too long.

Janesy B said:
Clarkson is the 'idiot', that's the whole idea.
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I notice you and Fox always quote my posts more than any other person, perhaps just beaten by Fox...do you like look out for it or something? :D
 
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As predictable as it was I have to say I still laughed at the antics with the Hovervan.

They have a formula and they're not afraid to use it that's for sure ;)

SLS stuff was pretty good.

Jackman came across as a "top bloke".

HEADRAT
 
Hovercraft stuff was a tad long but I still enjoyed it. LOL'd a lot when Hammond was getting soaked in the lock.

Hugh Jackman was good, I enjoy SIARPC when it's a decent celeb on.

SLS segment was good, looked like a last minute paint job though, body coloured grill looked horrendous!
 
If your are talking about the SLS Electric then the body coloured grill has always been painted the same as body colour of both the fluorescent yellow and electric blue SLS that I have seen on Web/YT.
 
rossk26 said:
It annoys me people still don't understand this!

Why would anyone want to watch an hour long TV episode comparing the latest Astra diesel hatchback against the latest Ford Focus diesel hatchback...

It's an entertainment programme based around vehicles, I'm glad they keep messing about as it keeps me entertained. I don't want to see them build an amazing hovercraft come car, which works perfectly and they tootle along the river without any drama. Boring...

People are stupid
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I'm not bothered about them being a car review show anymore - if I want an in depth review of the latest hatchback (or anything, in fact), I'll go to Youtube, as others have said - Drive, Evo, etc will be much better for that.

But as much as pratting about in home made vehicles provides a chuckle, the best episodes for me are the cross country races in Ferraris, McLarens and Lambos, or the "specials" where the cars are themed around the country and setting (Vietnam/motorbikes, Bolivia/off roaders etc).

I'm not bothered about seeing mundane cars, and I get that it's more entertainment than fact. But I'd like to see them exploit the awesome production values to provide that entertainment by driving about in the sort of cars that I'm probably never going to even see in the flesh, let alone drive, and in settings that I'd aspire to visit, whilst features such as the hovercraft are more fun filler :)
 
If you want to buy a car:
http://www.youtube.com/user/whatcar
http://www.youtube.com/user/carbuyer
http://www.youtube.com/user/autocar/

If you want to watch car reviews:
http://www.youtube.com/user/EVOTV
http://www.youtube.com/user/drive (esp. Chris Harris)

If you want car based entertainment:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/search?q=top gear

Problem solved? :p

Though I echo some of the comments they might want to consider mixing it up a little, super cars around Europe and building a funny vehicle might be a little stale now.

What else could they do?
 
The continued gullibility and naivety of too many Top Gear viewers for my liking is maddening. Stop over thinking things, most of it is preplanned but the jabbing banter and comradery are improvised/natural.
 
Fairly good episode, hovercraft segment was a tad too long but still entertaining First star in RPC I've not had to skip through due to boring banter or lack of interest.

the SLS's were awesome though, would love that electric system on something that wasn't a super car shell (something Japaneses maybe) ultimate sleeper car.
 
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