I bumped into him at SEMA this past year. You know, he's a genuinely nice guy. He was incredibly busy running around and what not but took the time to stop and engage everyone who wanted to say hi or just shake his hand.
I will say this. He has better "presence" off camera than he does on the show. I think he tries a little too hard to be funny on the show and it's apparent when you see how casually he interacts with real people rather than a film crew.
I have to admit, I'm a diehard UK TopGear fan and even though they have began to build some chemestry between them, I just can't warm up to the US version. Especially since all they really do is regurgitate the British format. If you ask me US Top Gear comes off a bit too contrived and almost laughable.
I feel almost embarased for those guys at times -BUT- it almost feels like they're trying to insult our intelligence like we have no clue that there was ever a properly funny English version of the show.
Wow... It's late and I'm rambling. I should probably try to get some sleep. I always have trouble sleeping... I wonder if they have Top Gear US on Netflix... Yeah... That aught to do it. :biggrin5:
As much as I was hoping for this show to succeed, I confess that I agree.
Maybe it's unfair to compare to the original, but over the years I've come to expect the silly stunts to be window-dressing for some sort of underlying, fundamental philosophical question that, if not timely, is at least somewhat interesting. I struggle to find that in the USA version of the show.
At the end of each vignette, I'm usually asking myself, "Is that it? What was the point?"
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