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Author Topic: Top Gear  (Read 25239 times)
Jeff Kelly
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Reply #35 on: November 24, 2009, 12:15:44 PM

Season 14 is already underway.

The first two episodes have been rather mediocre in my opinion however.
Oban
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Reply #36 on: November 25, 2009, 04:57:59 AM

Oh I don't know about that, causing a massive traffic jam in Oxford with an electric car made me laugh for a bit and then when they did the safety tests I laughed out loud for at least five minutes.

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Reply #37 on: November 25, 2009, 05:32:11 AM

The safety tests caused a few chuckles, but causing a massive traffic jam and the hillclimb test etc had me guffawing.

I'm satisfied with the start to this season, it does seem to me that they're a bit on the way up from the season 2-3 years ago ( think it was... whichever had the "build a 7 clone and race it" program), which I thought was their weakest season.

Cyno's lit, bridge is up, but one pilot won't be jumping home.
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Reply #38 on: November 26, 2009, 02:34:04 PM

I like the season so far; it doesn't feel as forced as a couple of seasons ago. The guys seem relaxed and the challenges are more realistic and entertaining.

The episode last year with the 'Buy a car for a 17 year old' was still one of the best in ages, Ravey Mayvey had me splitting my sides.

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Reply #39 on: November 29, 2009, 03:36:54 PM

Airship was epic  awesome, for real
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Reply #40 on: November 29, 2009, 04:46:51 PM

If I were hammond, then I would not be complaining about having to drive back and forth to keep up with May's choices of sites.

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Reply #41 on: November 30, 2009, 03:33:36 AM


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Jeff Kelly
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Reply #42 on: November 30, 2009, 08:45:53 AM

...and also epically dangerous.

I seriously hope that the whole segment was staged. If not it was most certainly the most stupid and possibly the most dangerous thing anyone of the three has ever done on that show.

Flying into the restricted airspace of an airport and crossing the path of a number of jet airplanes without manouvering capability put the lives of a lot of people seriously at risk so I assume that all was just clever editing because nobody could be that stupid and reckless.
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Reply #43 on: November 30, 2009, 11:21:49 AM

I seriously hope that the whole segment was staged. If not it was most certainly the most stupid and possibly the most dangerous thing anyone of the three has ever done on that show.

It had of been staged, I wouldn't doubt it was the top gear test track as it seems there is quite a few aircraft there time to time. As you mentioned some creative editing with shots of a real airport etc.

Oh by the way did anyone else pick up on the "we were away from our family's for six weeks", there's gotta be some major adventure coming up.
Jeff Kelly
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Reply #44 on: June 27, 2010, 02:39:25 PM

Just a friendly reminder that the new Series starts today
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Reply #45 on: July 01, 2010, 11:44:58 PM

That reliant robin bit was brilliant.
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Reply #46 on: July 02, 2010, 02:51:27 AM

I haven't laughed as much of a top gear episode in months. Awesome.

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Reply #47 on: July 02, 2010, 11:37:39 AM

I never really paid attention to this show because I'm not much of a car guy, but I caught an episode the other night while channel surfing, where they were told to find a car that's not a Porsche for under 1500, and run them through a bunch of challenges.  I laughed my ass off the entire time.

I want to watch more but my roommate warned me that most of them were not that good.  He pointed out that boring bit at the beginning of the episode that rattled off different new cars and specs, and said that most episodes were like that, interspersed with dashboard cams of guys going around a track saying shit like, 'whoa, that's fast.'  Is he wrong?

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Reply #48 on: July 02, 2010, 11:41:51 AM

Yes. It's a pretty entertaining show all the way around.

Haven't seen the new ones though because of the lag in being shown here in the U.S.

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Reply #49 on: July 02, 2010, 11:44:41 AM

Last few seasons have been pretty good, the very early stuff is generally a bit dull. If you really don't care about cars at all then there are bits of each episodes you'll want to skip. Definitely watch the specials though.

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Reply #50 on: July 02, 2010, 01:42:35 PM

I want to watch more but my roommate warned me that most of them were not that good.  He pointed out that boring bit at the beginning of the episode that rattled off different new cars and specs, and said that most episodes were like that, interspersed with dashboard cams of guys going around a track saying shit like, 'whoa, that's fast.'  Is he wrong?

I would actually say the newer episodes don't have *enough* car stuff in them. Most of the time it seems they are filling their episodes with random funny tidbits (like: can we pave a road faster than the ministry of transportation? What if we had 5000 guys doing it!?!?). So if you aren't much of a car guy, but like cool toys and British humor, it's usually fun to watch. (They've run the same direction MythBusters did - once they got popular and more $$$, they have become more generic - but they still talk about cars I've never heard of, and it can be interesting).

My favorite weekly BBC show right now is The Graham Norton Show, it is usually quite funny and he has more interesting guests than lame-o late night shows.
« Last Edit: July 02, 2010, 01:44:17 PM by Viin »

- Viin
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Reply #51 on: July 02, 2010, 03:06:51 PM

I never really paid attention to this show because I'm not much of a car guy, but I caught an episode the other night while channel surfing, where they were told to find a car that's not a Porsche for under 1500, and run them through a bunch of challenges.  I laughed my ass off the entire time.

I want to watch more but my roommate warned me that most of them were not that good.  He pointed out that boring bit at the beginning of the episode that rattled off different new cars and specs, and said that most episodes were like that, interspersed with dashboard cams of guys going around a track saying shit like, 'whoa, that's fast.'  Is he wrong?

I love Top Gear, a lot, and really am not much of a car guy at all.  That said, there's basically three types of Top Gear episodes:

- The Specials.  Always amazing.  No reviews or Star-in-a-Reasonably-Priced-Car.

- The Challenges and Races.  Like the one you watched (Season 6, Episode 2), there's one long item along with a smaller piece either on a new car or "something random".

- The rest.  A lot of "something random" but a lot of my favorite segments come from those types of episodes: the more "out there" car reviews (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QEaSZMYV498), the Reliant Robin piece from this last episode, the presenters' Moms help review small cars one from a while back.

The car reviews definitely have gone more towards raw entertainment/artsy value than "sensibleness" but I find even the more recent straight ones (like this one from last season) supremely fun to watch.

If you don't though, then I really would suggest watching some of the specials (Polar, Bolivia, the second US one) and episodes with cheap car challenges which even after the billionth time are still great.

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Reply #52 on: July 02, 2010, 05:19:03 PM

If you want to look for the better ones

The Specials: US, Vietnam, Arctic, Bolivia, Botswana (The US and Vietnam ones are by far and away the best of these)

The Challenges:
 - Buy a car for a 17 year old (Part 1, I can't find parts 2 and 3 that work, sorry)
 - Ford Fiesta Road Test (Part 1, Part 2)
 - Killing a Hilux (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3)
 - Amphibious Cars (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3)

I'll add some more later when I have time.

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Reply #53 on: July 19, 2010, 01:44:36 PM

Oh wow, the motorhomes challenge had me cracking up badly all the way through.

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Jeff Kelly
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Reply #54 on: July 20, 2010, 12:54:47 AM

I grew tired of those segments. The motorhome one especially.

1. Those segments are obviously heavily scripted
2. Clarkson's Citroen Burj Al Arab was a clear road hazard. If it would have toppled over on the motorway other motorists could be severly hurt, or even killed. So either they are completely reckless or things are not what they seem(TM). Either way I'm out just with the last ridiculous segment where May turned his car in a blimp which also either was completely reckless and could have potentially endangered a lot of innocent people or was fake.

It also serves no purpose at all except giving a few laughs. They should stick to other segments like their road trips or something like the Hylux destruction which at least are interesting and a little bit informative except just childish.
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Reply #55 on: July 20, 2010, 03:34:00 AM

They mentioned a few times during that segment that they had to go ultra-slow because of Clarkson's car, and they never showed it going a) particularly fast or b) swaying very much.

Still, it's not like things haven't gone wrong on Top Gear.  Hammond nearly died, The Stig had that Koenigsegg crash, Clarkson's suffered tons of injuries (£100 Car Challenge, Lorry Challenge, Nissan GT-R to name a few), and May crashed into someone during their Romania trip.

Really though, this is a show that's supposed to be fun.  The Star-in-a-Reasonably-Priced-Car doesn't have any educative value either, but it's an integral part of the show, just like the random super car segments, The Stig, and yes, segments that begin with "How hard can it be?".

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Reply #56 on: July 20, 2010, 05:07:11 AM

So either they are completely reckless or things are not what they seem(TM). Either way I'm out just with the last ridiculous segment where May turned his car in a blimp which also either was completely reckless and could have potentially endangered a lot of innocent people or was fake.

Things are not what they seem.  It's a heavily produced, valuable TV show that's not above using a little trickery for a laugh.

May did turn the car into a blimp, that wasn't fake, just the possible danger.

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Reply #57 on: July 20, 2010, 05:22:08 AM

As long as they just don't go overboard on the scripting and acting like they did in the episode where they built the caterham. I've no problems with them taking the piss out of eachother, but I don't appreciate it when they overdo it to the extent they did when f.ex Clarkson knocked the caterham shell off the jacks.

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Reply #58 on: July 20, 2010, 09:50:22 AM

The south american episode was over-scripted; generally it's not too obvious though

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Reply #59 on: July 20, 2010, 09:55:39 AM

A lot of their road trips feel a bit overscripted but as long as it's fun to watch I won't complain.
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Reply #60 on: July 20, 2010, 10:00:10 AM

I don't care that it's scripted, so long as it's funny. And they generally always bring the funny.

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Reply #61 on: July 20, 2010, 10:22:23 AM

Yeah, the show is very heavily scripted, but its still very funny.  I enjoy watching it randomly.  Though god damn, Jeremy Clarkson has a hard time hiding his ultra British nationalist bent sometimes.  He's funny (like many republicans can be funny) but he lets it get in the way to much sometimes.

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Reply #62 on: July 20, 2010, 01:05:06 PM

Jeremy Clarkson has a hard time hiding his ultra British nationalist bent sometimes.

He's terrible at being a nationalist.

Quote
Perhaps you’re saying that you’re proud to be British? But what does this mean exactly; what are you proud of? Our provincial town centres with their Styrofoam carpets or those pastry-faced people who work in petrol stations; our National Health Service, our trains, our cricket team, our roads, our government, our wobbly bridges, our Millennium Dome, Rover, our Hutton inquiry, the British Library, British Airways, Britart, our education system, Will Young — what?

Had we been around between 1850 and 1875, when Britain was the workshop and the engine of the world, then maybe you could wake up every morning and bask in the hope and the glory and the pomp and the circumstance. Maybe then you could have put a sign in your garden saying, “Support our troops and Lord Palmerston”.

But now? All we have is our world-renowned sense of humour and I’m sorry, good though it is, I’m not going to spend £500 on a flagpole to celebrate Richard Curtis’s dab hand with a metaphor.

Quote
British. Look at the word carefully. You'll note half of it's an anagram of shit.

He has a simple gimmick of being politically incorrect.
« Last Edit: July 20, 2010, 01:06:48 PM by Arthur_Parker »
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Reply #63 on: July 20, 2010, 01:14:17 PM

And he really doesn't like Americans. But I don't think he's necessarily at the vanguard of that particular movement.

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Reply #64 on: July 20, 2010, 01:20:39 PM

Quote
He has a simple gimmick of being politically incorrect.
Ah, thats probably it then.  Between his constant bashing of all countries/cultures, along with the right wing political bent I've read in his articles, sort of figured he was just a standard nationalist.  But I guess he's just an asshole.   awesome, for real

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Reply #65 on: July 20, 2010, 01:24:12 PM

The world is full of assholes, we should treasure the occasionally funny ones.
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Reply #66 on: July 20, 2010, 02:51:45 PM

The world is full of assholes, we should treasure the occasionally funny ones.
Wow, that joke definitely didn't deserve that sort of reaction...

"My great-grandfather did not travel across four thousand miles of the Atlantic Ocean to see this nation overrun by immigrants.  He did it because he killed a man back in Ireland. That's the rumor."
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Reply #67 on: July 20, 2010, 03:09:43 PM

The world is full of assholes, we should treasure the occasionally funny ones.
Wow, that joke definitely didn't deserve that sort of reaction...
The world is full of overly sensitive asshats nonshocker.

As for the last top gear (I finally watched it), I can only say that it's right up there on the funny-o-meter. Loved it.

Cyno's lit, bridge is up, but one pilot won't be jumping home.
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Reply #68 on: August 02, 2010, 06:24:48 AM

6 episodes is now a whole season?  Ohhhhh, I see.

That said, episodes five and six were both really well balanced, the Ayrton Senna retrospective was particularly good. Tom Cruise was one of the most uncomfortable guests I have seen on the show though.

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Reply #69 on: August 02, 2010, 09:26:37 PM

6 episodes is now a whole season?  Ohhhhh, I see.

That said, episodes five and six were both really well balanced, the Ayrton Senna retrospective was particularly good. Tom Cruise was one of the most uncomfortable guests I have seen on the show though.

The Ayrton Senna piece makes me want to watch his racing. Very well done. This is my first time watching Top Gear and might go back to watch the other 14 seasons. Anyone know when it starts up again?

And yeah, Cruise doesn't do much for helping his crazy image.
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