A new cast has been announced, BBC.com.
Matt LeBlanc has been doing intros on clip shows. Gotta admit he’s kind of annoying.
I am completely underwhelmed. I like Sabine mostly because she always reminds me of my old German girlfriend from when I was stationed there. Other than that, meh.
I kinda feel sorry for them. James, Jeremy, and Richard just happened to click together, and their chemistry together is a lot of what made the old show. The new cast isn’t going to have that chemistry, and they are going to be torn to pieces by comparisons with the old show. It is possible that the new cast will form a different chemistry of their own that ends up being popular, but they are going to have a tough time getting there, if they ever do. You can’t engineer chemistry like that. It either happens on its own or it doesn’t, and most of the time it doesn’t. On top of that, their fan base is comprised mostly of folks who want what they can’t give. It’s not exactly an ideal situation to walk into.
Sabine has been on the show before and she has a good on-screen presence. The rest of the cast is a bit underwhelming to me, and I don’t think Sabine can come anywhere close to carrying the show.
I really like Top Gear, but I don’t have much hope for this new version.
Everything about it will be so different, they should’ve just bitten the bullet, cancelled the show, created a new one from the ground up (which is what they’re doing anyway), and not invited the comparison. They can’t win.
I stopped watching last year. Seems Jeremy, et al were just going through the motions. I hope the Amazon Prime show is better. Won’t be watching the “new and improved” TG though.
That didn’t just happen though. Check out some of the episodes from the first couple of seasons. The camaraderie took awhile to build up to what you see in the later seasons. James May wasn’t even in the first season.
The old Top Gear cast had the luxury of time to build their on-screen relationship organically. Something the new Top Gear won’t be getting. Expect the new cast to have specific roles (the slow guy, old curmudgeon guy, peppy can-do girl etc.) from the very beginning.
Reviving this zombie to let those in the US know that the retooled version of Top Gear with Matt LeBlanc, Chris Evans and others will premiere tonight on BBC America.
Well, it was ok, not great, but not bad either.
There is a bit of…something… that was not there, not sure what until someone names it.
I have seen plenty worse episode in the Clarkson era, and these were becoming more and more common, and personally I thought it had pretty much jumped the shark in the last series.
Matt was the cooler one, and it worked, Chris was not quite right, he was not at his best, although there were a few hints here and there.
I could not fathom the guests, they were a completely unlikely pairing, so much so that I wondered if they had ever met before, and it just didn’t work. If they are going to pair up guests, they need to have something between them - these two were just too different but not opposites, its more like they were unconnected.
I’ll bet either of them on their own would have been a better option.
They should have got a band on and given them all a go, or maybe a few players from the newly Premiership titled Leicester City - that really would have been more interesting and would have got a few more la times down.
I would say (and have said) that the original trio of Clarkson, Hammond and May had chemistry. Not romantic chemistry, of course, but they worked well together and against each other. For example, in the way that Clarkson seemed to genuinely annoy the other two.
They can’t mention catering, they got “custody” of the stig, Jessie Eisenberg was a bit huh, and Gordon Ramsay should have been the sole guest.
Over all, it was hard to judge the show, as its been on so long with the original crew, that anything the new crew does, is going to seem copy-catish. I’m not even sure that they can use the reasonably priced car, they went with a rally mini and changed the layout of the track.
The road trip and challenges seemed like boxes you check, including the end running up the mountain. Nothing really new.
The top gun stuff at Fallon Nevada, seemed to just be a rehash on the gunship chasing the car around to get a target lock.
And no car news, industry or vehicle specific other than Gordon’s Spider.
Not sure how long the Beeb gives it, but I think it will probably need at least another season to get into its own.
Declan
Matt LeBlanc?
Well, none of us ever would have been invited to the test track any way.
Still, now I know that all I’d have gotten was a trike and a pair of keds.
Not that he did anything wrong, and you did not get the feeling that he was the faux james or faux richard or jeremy and I assume that he was brought on for BBC america.
Declan
I thought it just didn’t work. They stayed very close to “old top gear”, but Evans and LeBlanc just seem very far off from the Hammond, Clarkson and May (which is no surprise).
Evans was annoying and shouting all the time, while LeBlanc just seemed very out of place (maybe because he is an American*). There seemed to be no bond/chemistry between them at all. I didn’t once get the feeling they were having fun during the challenges.
*He just seemed distant, serious and humorless, which coincidentally is very much like the American that visited my place of work last week and totally wouldn’t get on board with the jokes and sarcasm that is kind of standard there (he seemed like a perfectly fine guy, but just stayed extremely courteous… all the time).
Haven’t watched it yet so will reserve judgement but the cast seems just so desperately box-ticking to me.
You can here the words of the BBC’s diversity department ringing in the production company’s ear"make sure there are some ethnics, women and foreigners in there"
Whereas the previous incarnation just had three middle-aged white men dicking around.
I haven’t seen it yet either, but surely you don’t think that [Sabine Schmitz](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sabine_Schmitz\) was a diversity hire? On the other hand, I believe she’s the only woman in the group, so presumably she is who you’re referring to.
Still, she is a professional motor car driver, has driven the Nürburgring more than any other person (male or female), hosted a German program that’s similar to Top Gear, and has appeared on Top Gear alongside Clarkson, Hammond and May. That looks like a diversity hire to you?
That’s refreshing. We are supposed to be the obnoxious ones.
Matt Leblanc seems to be quiet and private in real life. In interviews he comes across as nice but kind of dull and uncomfortable. I don’t see him as an obvious choice for the show because of that. Really the only reason why he’s there is because on previous appearances he proved to be very serious about cars and is a pretty damn good driver.
The biggest complaint against old new Top Gear has been that it exemplified British lad culture, which some critics would deem “problematic.” A big deal has been made of the new more diverse cast. I’d say diversity has been a huge factor in selecting the cast. Doesn’t mean they’re up to the task. Schmitz and Chris Harris are professionals that know what they’re doing. Don’t really know anything about this Rory Reed fellow.
Assuming diversity was a key factor, it’s really odd that the more “diverse” members were relegated to the behind the scenes after-show, Extra Gear.
In short, yes.
I have no doubt that, at some point in the deliberations, someone in the BBC said that there must be a women as a presenter.
I could be wrong of course, it may just be that the perfect line up also happens…purely coincidentally of course…to tick all the necessary boxes.
You shouldn’t be so shocked at this. The BBC have form. They decreed some time ago that comedy panel shows should always contain women.
Personally I’m against quotas of any kind for any reason. Pick the talent that works regardless of gender, ethnicity, sexuality or any other criteria. I don’t give a shit.
The debut show was about 97% white guys, measured by words spoken anyway. Sabine got the rest.