Top Gear America - My highly anticipated thoughts
(For the record, i'm kidding about the title)
The problem with Top Gear UK's 2016 reshuffling of the presenters, was two-fold. On one end, we were provided with Chris Evans who tried way too hard to be the new Jeremy Clarkson. He saw the magic the previous presenters had, and wanted to replicate it. This came off as way too much, cringy, and just plain uncool. On the other hand was Matt Leblanc. He was cool, he was a car guy, and he knew it. So he didn't try at all to become excited or intense. This left way too much missing from what we previously had.
Simultaneously The Grand Tour was born. This was a big budget, high emotion spectacle with excellent chemistry brought on by three old friends sticking together. The cars mattered even less than in Top Gear, and we just wanted to see more of those three.
But something was left missing; i.e. a true car show about cars and their history, with just plain good hosts. There are plenty of good youtube creators out there doing good work, but not with the budget, or the TV mindset of the BBC.
I believe that is what the latest iteration of Top Gear America provides. Three cars guys - all with vastly different backgrounds, and natural chemistry. Of course they're not Clarkson, Hammond, and May, but we can always go back and re-watch old episodes of them if that's what we want.
Dax Shepard provides such an excellence and professionalism to the show that keeps things on track and in gear, while Jethro Bovingdon's sophistication comes through in his superior skills and performance knowledge. Rob Corddry keeps things consistently comical, and provides the chemical bonding of the group, thus differentiating the show from other "purist" shows that miss out on the fun. All of these factors come together to provide what I think is perfectly right down the middle. It's not Chris Evans shouting at the camera, or Matt Leblanc mumbling in the rain. It's just good ole' top gear. A reflection of a serious addiction us gearheads have about a subject that should never be taken too seriously.
I don't know in what order they filmed, obviously, but episodes 4 and 5 were the big hits for me, including the laugh-out-loud awesomely Top Gear moment of the Explorer on the logs, and the back-and-forth of the three starting to really come together.
My one big complaint is that they don't seem to finish their stories. In the first episode where they are set to do a "roadtrip across America" in supercars - that isn't the plot at all. Then, when they purchase 3 "future classics" to compete with regular banter about who will get more money for them, the story just dies out and there is no final act.
I hope the show gets picked up for many more seasons, because I think it could be really great with these exact hosts and team.
The problem with Top Gear UK's 2016 reshuffling of the presenters, was two-fold. On one end, we were provided with Chris Evans who tried way too hard to be the new Jeremy Clarkson. He saw the magic the previous presenters had, and wanted to replicate it. This came off as way too much, cringy, and just plain uncool. On the other hand was Matt Leblanc. He was cool, he was a car guy, and he knew it. So he didn't try at all to become excited or intense. This left way too much missing from what we previously had.
Simultaneously The Grand Tour was born. This was a big budget, high emotion spectacle with excellent chemistry brought on by three old friends sticking together. The cars mattered even less than in Top Gear, and we just wanted to see more of those three.
But something was left missing; i.e. a true car show about cars and their history, with just plain good hosts. There are plenty of good youtube creators out there doing good work, but not with the budget, or the TV mindset of the BBC.
I believe that is what the latest iteration of Top Gear America provides. Three cars guys - all with vastly different backgrounds, and natural chemistry. Of course they're not Clarkson, Hammond, and May, but we can always go back and re-watch old episodes of them if that's what we want.
Dax Shepard provides such an excellence and professionalism to the show that keeps things on track and in gear, while Jethro Bovingdon's sophistication comes through in his superior skills and performance knowledge. Rob Corddry keeps things consistently comical, and provides the chemical bonding of the group, thus differentiating the show from other "purist" shows that miss out on the fun. All of these factors come together to provide what I think is perfectly right down the middle. It's not Chris Evans shouting at the camera, or Matt Leblanc mumbling in the rain. It's just good ole' top gear. A reflection of a serious addiction us gearheads have about a subject that should never be taken too seriously.
I don't know in what order they filmed, obviously, but episodes 4 and 5 were the big hits for me, including the laugh-out-loud awesomely Top Gear moment of the Explorer on the logs, and the back-and-forth of the three starting to really come together.
My one big complaint is that they don't seem to finish their stories. In the first episode where they are set to do a "roadtrip across America" in supercars - that isn't the plot at all. Then, when they purchase 3 "future classics" to compete with regular banter about who will get more money for them, the story just dies out and there is no final act.
I hope the show gets picked up for many more seasons, because I think it could be really great with these exact hosts and team.
- piplucas7
- Feb 22, 2021