:incazzato: Dont ruin my show! i watched an episode and almost shot myself in the foot due to "Tanner Foust's" boring personality.
LOL... after watching Top Gear on BBC for years and years, and having to wipe tears from my eyes from laughing so hard, I agree... top gear US is about a bad as they come!! EVERYTHING on the show sux.. the editing is bad.. jokes are lame.. driving and evals are stupid. Oh well.... Just me......................................... Thumper
Unfortunately that usually happens when a producer tried to copy a formula....So much of what make THE Top Gear great is due to the hosts, and their interaction, and quirkiness.....In Britain, the format just works, but in the US, it needs to be Americanized...not just copied!
Episode 4 was just meh... The truck bit was pretty good, Tanner is starting to not be so scripted and is letting his lack of personality show. Thats OK in my book cause now we are starting to see more Tanner and less writer. MB SLS AMG was eh. Adam was himself but the segment was just poorly done. If you look close during the slides around the buildings you can see there is someone else driving too. Adam needs to learn to drive to get any cred from me. Paintball segment had so much potential but was really bad. Another thing that annoys me to no end is the little crap the HD pulls. The ad's for other shows in the bottom corners are distracting. I'll keep watching but only from the DVR, there are just way to many commercials. These break the flow of the show and make one want to reach for the remote to see what else is on. In the good news dept there is a new Top Gear UK special to be aired on Dec 21 in the UK. You know I'll be on the torrent as soon as possible to post for your enjoyment.
In the good news dept there is a new Top Gear UK special to be aired on Dec 21 in the UK. You know I'll be on the torrent as soon as possible to post for your enjoyment. Ah, at last a little Top Gear holiday cheer! Thanks Nathan!
Haven't seen episode 4 yet, but just watched episode 3 with the $1000 cars, and thought it was pretty good. I liked the sappy voice-over at the end of the hoonage, where they described the bond between car and driver, saying even with a junkbox, we manage to form an affection for our cars because they act as vehicles for our ideas and desires. I'm a car-lover, Willing to keep watching, hoping they'll find their stride. _Dave_
From Autoblog.... Top Gear USA just not doing it for you? Well, here's some potentially good news: Speed Channel has reportedly inked a deal with Mandt Bros. Productions to pilot a new automotive television series (currently untitled) hosted by Adam Carolla, Pulitzer-winning journalist Dan Neil, former NBA 'baller John Salley and Matt Farah from The Smoking Tire. Consider our interest piqued by the cast alone. We've seen Carolla do his thing – including witnessing the taping of the un-aired pilot for the defunct NBC Top Gear project, which has nothing to do with the current iteration on History – and he definitely knows and loves cars. Moving past the headline-generating Adam Carolla, we've long been fans of Dan Neil, and John Salley was rather good on The Best Damn Sports Show Period. Finally, Farah has carved out a nice niche and has garnered a fan base of his own on The Smoking Tire. As far as the show's format goes, it sounds similar to the Top Gear model with "news and conversation centered around cars, as well as pre-recorded features shot on the road." It could be interesting, but we'll take our usual wait-and-see approach... This could work!
that cast alone sounds better than TG:A. I don't mind TG:A, it does have the cars and it is interesting to watch on the DVR. It's nothing remotely close to the original obviously.
The initial Ford Raptor spot was good and Tanner started talking to us like he was a car(truck) guy again. When the spot came on about the HALO jumper, I told my wife it will be stupid if there are shots of him in the sky after they built him up to be so wonderful. If he is so wonderful that they can't even show his face, then the jumper with the camera had to be better since he did what the jumper did, plus film at the same time. But overall, it was still way better than any of the other TG USA spots. The paint ball could have been neato but it got really lame really fast, especially since it involved the two idiots. The SLS was really bad because the idiot has no idea what he is saying, just reading a script. The Stig in the truck was pretty good. Overall, this was the best TG USA and I can only hope it continues to improve. It will improve even faster with the removal of those other two idiots, keeping Tanner but only after slapping him around a little to man him up.
Saw episode 4 last night, and enjoyed it! The Raptor segment was awesome UNTIL they did the HALO stuff... I laughed out loud when Foust was driving the truck down the 2 lane blacktop and was talking about how roads don't matter with the Raptor, and then just cranked the wheel hard right and drove right off the pavement into the scrub at high speed. I think he gets it! Liked the idea of the paintball thing, but it wasn't set up very well. Still mildy entertaining. The Long Island comedian guy was way too stiff in earlier episodes, but is getting less annoying for me. I'm no fan of Kid Rock, but at least he's reasonably well-known, and seems like a car guy. I thought his faces during the big star small car were pretty funny, but I couldn't understand what he was saying during half of the interview. I liked that he was speechlessly growling in response to the suggestion that he might own a Prius! Overall, I think they're moving in the right direction. I like that they're trying to make it worthwhile to have a Top Gear USA by finding some real American perspective on things. _Dave_
I agree that Top Gear America is not Top Gear BBC but I did not expect it to be that good. Top Gear BBC is one of the top rated shows in the world. I am enjoying TG-A more each episode and I think it continues to improve. If I had not seen TG-BBC, I would think TG-A is pretty good. I laugh alot during the show even though it is sometime lame. Driving the Caddie around the moto-x track was great.
Dump Tanner, and get someone with their own personality. And really Tanner if your jumping a truck like that you need a helmet cause there is no way you wouldn't smack the ceiling when it landed.
I watched last nights episode. I feel Tanner is trying to have comebacks like Jeremy Clarkson... that's not going to happen.
Enjoyed Episode 5, and I feel like these guys are definitely finding their stride. Still a little too derivative of Top Gear UK, but keep in mind that much of their audience has not seen this stuff before... _Dave_
Episode 5 - My Thoughts So far this was the best in the run, that said they still have work to do. Tanner is getting less and less stiff with each new episode. I'm seeing to many references to TG UK though. The running into the back of cars, yeah, thats a Hammond thing, not so much for Tanner. The GM Car thing had a lot of potential but in the end it was mostly just silly. In the long run though this might be good as they are feeling their oats and interacting with each other. This should help build more chemistry between the three. Star in Car Interview was a lot better. The star was at least interesting for a change. The News bit was way to short and way to scripted. If they are going to do this then it needs more time and they need to figure out who is going to fill that single seat. The seat also needs to be lowered, the interviewer is towering over the rest of the people. Crowd interaction sucks. One of the sports in watching TG UK is spotting the hotties, yeah, I said it... The crowd on the TG US set is to far away and not involved, they are just set dressing and not an integral part of the show. If they keep getting better at this it may become a more watchable show. Still hate that History has to run so many commercials and break the show up the way they do. Come on powers that be at History, you can set new ground here and stop forcing so many ads at us and kill off all those scrolling self promotion ads in the corners, they are just distracting. Thank you for DVR's.
One more point I noticed as I was watching last night. What was with the choice of using an Eric Clapton tune at the end of the GM spot. All this talk of buy American and they end the piece with a bit of Brit music?