Entries Tagged as ''

Australian Top Gear…. My Thoughts.

So last night was the first ever episode of Top Gear Australia brought to you by the kind folks at SBS (http://www.sbs.com.au/topgearaustralia/) and it was a show that had some very big boots to fill.

Now before I start I must say I am a HUGE fan of the UK version of the show.  As it is I don’t watch it on SBS as they are to far behind and have adds…. 🙂

So it was with much I admit trepidation that I watch the first episode of Top Gear Australia last night.

So the above show real shows all the slick stuff from the show… but not the show itself.   I guess I’ll spit out my conclusion first which is… “I will watch a few more eps”.  But now the reasoning…

The show is o.k but only o.k.  I never expected it to be great… re watch the first eps of the new format top gear and they are in fact a lot more stilted and forced than what we had last night.  That is the rub.  We are used to a format from a bunch of guys that have done 10 seasons (first season didn’t have Captain Slow) together.

They do seem to have some chemistry on screen and I think the producers have done o.k.  But it felt forced and there are major issues with timing.  Firstly the whole show felt rushed.  Not just a little, but a lot rushed.  The soft-roader challange had no real conclusion and it should have.  At the end of the day Top Gear does still review cars and they could have said Forester was better than X-Trail or the Toyota.

Overcoming Australia’s perceived lamelessness is another issue.  The “track” that was used for the Hot Laps was crap actually…  I didn’t see an overview of it and there are where not aerial shots of it to put it into perspective either.

Of all the presenters I think Charlie Cox was actually the weakest and Warren Brown was the strongest.  Charlie is meant to be the lynch pin that holds the group together and he failed in that. Plus him saying there is an add break now is beyond annoying.  The show is not broadcast live, so drop the pretence the audience is not that stupid.

But the show has potential.  They do need to find their own voice whilst upholding the production values of the orginal.  It could have been a lot worse and it wasn’t.