They’re not even funny while they’re getting it wrong. They are not Clarkson, May and Hammond so why even try? There is only one May and Hammond and FFS, no-one actually wants to be Clarkson, why would you even try and copy him anyway?
And they shit on the Lightburn Zeta.
And they shit on the Lightburn Zeta while showing a pic of the Zeta Sports.
And they shit on the Zeta Sports for having being designed by the washing machine people when it was in fact designed by Giovanni Michelotti.
Yes, it’s probably a bad idea to try cutting and pasting the concept with local ‘talent’. Talk about a hard act to follow. It is only the first outing though, and if they can let it develop it’s own flavour, and not just try to ape the original, it might eventually be OK.
I predict it will suck less as time goes by, but will never live up to expectations and get axed before it can learn to stand on it’s own two feet. Now if I could just get it together to see the bloody show…
You have to at least give them a chance. Consider the difficult position they’re in: If they’re too different people would complain; but if they’re too similar people would complain (and they are complaining).
Give them a few episodes to get into their groove, find their comfort spots, and make their mark. They have the potential to mould it into something all their own, but it will take time.
I’m sat here watching the first episode because of this thread. It’s like being in an alternate universe - same set, same titles, different blokes.
The bloke playing May’s role. How on earth did they manage to find someone with more of an odd and vaguely creepy uncle vibe than James May? Seriously, the guy looks like he’s sent there to keep him off the streets when the kids are going home from school.
The test track comes across on telly as being shit. Looks like a straight bit of runway with tires plonked on to steer around.
The challenge was quite good though, especially the first bit where the Clarkson-ish bloke went flying through the air.
I didn’t really follow why they bothered doing the sharkproof moke thing, with it only lasting about four minutes. It came across as being very pointless filler.
Did laugh at the No Sharks sticker stuck on the back, though.
The only thing that actively annoyed me was the holding up photos of cars. It’s okay when they’re sticking things up on the various walls but not when doing it while chatting to the star the the reasonably priced car. The cameramen ain’t quick enough to focus in on the photos and you can’t see what the fuck the car is. And, y’know, there’s a telly right there. Put the piccies on that and cut to it in the edit.
It’s not. The first episode has actually been filmed, and the series is set to begin in March From what I’ve been able to gather online, those at the taping who saw the interaction of the US Top Gear hosts, and the filmed segments, say it actually holds its own against the UK version. Supposedly the on-set banter of the UK hosts is scripted, while for the US hosts it’s more improvisational. I’ve seen it described roughly as “US Top Gear is to the UK Top Gear as the US Office is to the UK Office”. A bit different, but still good.
No doubt there will be cries of “It sucks compared to the UK version!” when it finally airs. It always happens that way.
I would guess more “prepared”. You can definitely tell when they’ve said something genuinely unexpected to the others, so the rest of what they say otherwise is, I think, anticipated. But I don’t think that necessarily means they are working from a script.
Erm, no, it isn’t. The US version of The Office completely misses the point of the UK one. In fact, US versions of any UK TV comedy seem to completely miss the point. Can you imagine a US version of The Mighty Boosh? I’m shuddering just thinking about it.
Having said that, the Top Gear format could certainly work in the US, so I’ll be interested to see how it works out.
As for Top Gear Australia: I’ve never heard of any of the hosts, and since we can’t make a decent local anything in this country I’m not surprised to hear that the show is Made of Fail™.
The UK version is brilliant, and there’s not real need for an Aussie version, IMHO.
I watched it, reminding myself throughout that the early episodes of the original series weren’t world-beaters either.
For me, the slavish copying of the set and format pretty much killed it; how are the three hosts supposed to not be May/Hammond/Clarkson clones when they’re put in something that so closely mimics the original? It’s setting them up to fail.
And a note to the camera team; I know the original show does some fun stuff with filters and stuff. They do it well. But, for fuck’s sake, can you quit it with the constant readjustment of focus? Foreground, background, foreground, background, you’re giving me a headache!
Yeah, I’ll give it another few weeks - but I really don’t think the chemistry’s there. Even early on in the original, there was a strong hint of it, and it’s just not there now.