Top Gear Australia

I've stuck to the CHM era of Top Gear pretty much my whole life, thinking every other variation or era of the show simply wasn't good. True for the most part, but after giving the 2024 reboot of Top Gear Australia a chance, I'd say it comes fairly close to the old Top Gear we love. That's not to say it's perfect, it still has some faults, but for what it is it's pretty entertaining. My only real complaint so far is how the humour is sometimes, not all of the time, a little forced feeling. But not every joke comes off that way, so it doesn't derail the program like some of the Evans era humour does.

I don't think Top Gear Australia can serve as a full replacement for classic TG. That show was unbeatable lightning in a bottle. But as a new, fresh edition of an old format, it's pretty alright. Fun to watch alongside the oldies or for something a little different.

The first thing that sprung to mind within the first couple of minutes while watching this was that the program was trying way to hard to impress Top Gear fans. I mean sure, it is a daunting task to take on the duty and try to outdo the fabulous UK version but please! enough already.

The problem is that nothing was fresh, inventive. There was no new material, no new sets and no new personalities that would've, obviously, added much needed variety to the Australian show. It seems the BBC have tried to fool the public into believing that the great Jeremy Clarkson, James May and Richard Hammond can be easily replaced by a bunch of dull gits and everything would be great. How wrong they were! Where was the Australian wit? The individuality? The humour?! *Yawn* B-O-R-I-N-G. The segments were pathetic and over dramatized and for the love of God, shut Steve Pizzati up! Put us out of our misery BBC and run this down with a Geewiz and bring back the UK Top Gear pronto!

With great expectation I awaited the arrival of our home grown version of a wonderfully entertaining programme. Lo and behold what we got was a gallingly scripted piece of bile. Sure looking at cars that we can purchase here was interesting, prob more so than the exotic versions tested by the English counterpart, there however ended the enjoyment. Where did they dredge these presenters (well two of them anyway) up from, Charlie COOK, the Jeremy wannabe, without any presence, any semblance of humor, quite frankly he would be better suited to hosting one of those makeup shows gracing our screens mid morning. Steve Pizzati is immensely annoying, and dare I say it, that is prob his most redeeming feature. He constantly clamors for camera time, interrupting the others with feeble attempts at humor, then having the audacity to laugh at the unfunniest of unfunny jokes. Is that whining voice of his natural, surely not. I found Warren to be the most likable of these characters, shark stunt aside. On the face of it he appears to be the only candidate available with an ability to ad-lib. I can only hope that when a pecking order is established within this trio that they can then stop competing with each other. "What were they thinking" is original, and prob should be explored further on the programme. I know it is early days and I sincerely hope that these issues are addressed, if not this show could be destined for the "also rans" bin very quickly, a shame given the lack of a decent motoring show in this country since the halcyon days of "Torque" with Peter Wherret

Gad, what an abomination. They hold an open casting call, creating the impression they're actually looking for good presenters, and instead they overlook all presenting ability and go for 3 dreary motoring columnists with all the wit and charm of Peter Lorre and all the dashing good looks of George Formby. Where was the humour? All we got was three ill-at-ease middle aged twits with no personality hooning around on some sand dunes, pretending to enjoy themselves and guffawing hysterically at every whimsical comment. How about Charlie explaining the technical details of a car's transmission by doodling a diagram in the dirt? I mean really, does your average Top Gear fan give a Peter Luck how the car works? And what exactly was the point of the shark stunt, and what did it have to do with cars?? About the only joke I can recall from the entire show was some nauseatingly unfunny quip about Victoria Police "busting a cap in someone's ass", which was followed by a round of self-congratulation and an appeal to the bemused audience for applause. Oh and of course there was the obligatory attempt to imitate some of Clarkson's outspokenness, by taking a cheap and unfunny shot at the government over their luxury car tax.

Maybe if they'd tried to do something a bit different, rather than just imitating all the personality traits of the original hosts, it might not have looked so bad. As it is, they look like really bad Cliff Richard impersonators in an Elvis impersonator's competition. The bloke who plays Richard Hammond, Steve Pizzati, got on my nerves too. I can only imagine how grating that whiny soprano and irritating cackle will be by the end of the series.

I was actually considering auditioning for the James May role when they had the casting call, but I wouldn't have gotten it as I'm way too funny.

I'm sure the BBC execs are sharpening their axe as I type. It's rather amusing that the only original segment was titled What Were They Thinking, as it summed up my reaction to the BBC's decision to commission this steaming pile.

Tonight on SBS saw the debut of the local version of the hit U.K motor show Top Gear.

I'm a big fan of Top Gear. I love the antics of Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May oh I should mention The Stig as well. I love the fun segments and especially and this is the key here I love the sense of humor of the show. You see the main reason the UK Top Gear is so popular is because of the personalties and the wit of the hosts.

Top Gear Australia has none of that. The hosts of TGA (Charlie Cox, Warren Brown & Steve Pizzati) have no charisma and have the sense of humor of a office manager. Plus they trying too hard to be like Clarkson, Hammond and May with embarrassing results. SBS has put a lot of money into this show and left out the main ingredient on what made the UK version popular. I knew they would do this. I just knew that some suit at the network said 'Hey that car show is popular lets make our own version. It will be great cause it has Aussie cars and content and we will measure in Kilowatts' without sitting down to watch the original.

The U.S have done the right thing and have the UK crew film exclusive content just for them (With a lot of fat jokes I'm guessing). What SBS has done have taken a show and lot of people liked and what they have done is made a piece of junk that no one really asked for in the first place. A disaster.

I can imagine Jeremy Clarkson seeing this show and making fun of it in the latest season of the UK Top Gear (To air in Australia sometime in 2022) A huge thumbs down.