General Top Gear

Who has been watching the current series so far?

It is, as always, great fun. I enjoyed the Car Rugby (with Stig as the ref in a police car) and the Car vs Transport Race from the most recent episode.

The new Kia looks good, the auto-parking thing was really cool.



I am suprised they still manage to keep it fresh and do new stuff every series. Many other shows might have become stale by now.

 

Really enjoying the current series! Never wanted to play car rugby so much in my life!

I like use of BIG celebrity's in the reasonsbly priced car segment. Was quite surprised by Amy McDonald. Almost made me want to by one of her cd's!

 

I like Amy McDonald. She reminds me of Kirsty MaColl

I would LOVE to know how they got permission to tear up the Twickenham pitch. I can only guess that the pitch was due to be replaced. That Kia does look quite good though.

But the segments reviewing cars are still the most boring parts of the show!

 

I only ever watch it for the challenges and races. Always entertaining!

 

They should do the same for Old Trafford since the pitch there is apparently due to be replaced at the end of this season.

I don't mind when the show sometimes reviews cars regular folk can actually afford and need for real life. It will help me when I decide to get a car to know what is good and what is not so good.

 

Love it. Always look forward to the specials.

 

Last nights episode was rather splendid. Granny mobile was excellent!

 

The Range Rover segment was rather dull, but whilst the Grannymobile was superb (love the squeaky ball!), it did actually raise a good point about new cars being suitable for the elderly.

 

Indeed, too much fancy stuff now that many may not comprehend (or need). The simply made car is a rarirty now, going from A to B in comfort should be the key, not 94 different settings for stuff and sat-nav and whatnot.

I liked the Range Rover bit, if only to marvel at the future of autonomous driving.

 

I really have been enjoying the series so far! Last night's was great, probably the best so far of the current series.
One of my personal favourite episodes is the one where they race across London and Hammond is on the bike, great stuff.

 

Quite looking forward to the next two episodes (Christmas Special). Still not sure why the beeb decided to do it this way though.

 

Good first part of the Africa special, rather amusing given the choice of car by Clarkson & May.

 

Loving what they have done to the interiors! Clarksons could almost pass for a decent hotel room. For midgets.

 

I'm getting sick of the formulaic studio shows. They're still fun, but I always record them to watch later, spinning through anything that's dull and / or trying too hard (the spontaneity of the early years has completely dried up). So generally that's... any super car review done by Clarkson, the 'news', and the Star-In-A-Reasonably-Priced-Car (yaaaawn) segment. Some of the challenges have been poor recently, too. I'm usually through the 60 minutes running time in a little over half an hour. The specials, however, remain jewels. Sure the Indian one a year ago (or so) was poor, but otherwise they're still wonderful. If I were in charge I'd put the studio show on hiatus for a few years and push the budget into two or three specials (of a couple of hours each) every year.

 

Completely agree on the supercar stuff. It's fast, and it's run by a computer. We get it.

But I do enjoy the star in a car bit, and the news.

I'd suggest you don't bother with the show, and wait until the next "Challenges" DVD comes out

 

Great show!

I love the Saturday marathons on BBC America. I like to put it on while completing the honey-do list. They will play episodes from 2005-2008 all day to the point were the misses says "we have already seen this one". It's that bad

 

I agree with Everton in terms of the studio stuff being a bit generic now. I still like Star in a Reasonably Priced Car & the Challenges and the Races and the overseas stuff but I want to see fewer samey reviews of endless samey supercars and more of ones regular people can actually buy (given that mostly regular people watch the show).

 

I'm not crazy about the show but I like Clarkson's rant column in the Sunday Times. I've seen a few shows all the way through. There was one that a guy I worked with at the time attended with his then-fiancee. He was in a couple of audience shots so I watched it when it was shown.

 

I'm not saying I'm bored by the supercar reviews, I'm bored by Clarkson's supercar reviews. He's a parody of himself these days. That works elsewhere on the show, but not when he's reviewing a supercar. You always know where he's going with it. Hammond and May - on the odd occasion they're permitted to do one - are much superior.

The news is too often a series of poor jokes with Clarkson taking the opportunity to offend - or play on the perception he should be offensive. Either way, it's tiresome. May seems to the the only one aware of how corny it's become.

The challenges are sometimes still good to watch (although that thing where they drove around a circuit whilst being 'shot at' by an aircraft was soooo tedious). Other pieces that aren't reviews or outright challenges are still good, too. Plus there's no way I'm paying for a Top Gear DVD.

 

I think the biggest "problem" is that they are old. So it comes down to do you want new presenters? Personally, no. It's not at that stage yet. There are poor segments, but that has always been the case, and the good is still very very good. The special, the car rugby, the car for old people, the small car. It's still good.

 

I don't think the show was ever as uneven as it is now.

 

Just out of curiousity - has anyone gone to one of the theatrical live shows?

 

Changing presenters might be bad for the show.

May, Clarkson & Hammond are all good friends who have a laugh and that is largely why the show works. They have differing opinions too, but ultimately it's 3 guys driving around being silly which is what has made the show enduring for so long. If say you fired Clarkson and brought in someone new who didn't know May & Hammond so well then the chemistry of the team would not be as solid and that affects the end product.

 

The second part of the African special was fantastic. More of that please, BBC. Less of Clarkson fawning over whichever celebrity has come onto the studio show to hawk their latest film.

 

I was disappointed that they didn't fall in the river