Top Gear

Top Gear returns to form; haters missing out

I spend some of my spare time helping out as a moderator on Reddit’s r/TopGear, and ever since the first episode of Top Gear Series 23 came out there’s been a lot of haters throwing their opinions around. “Top Gear is shit, I’m never watching it again,” one would say. “It is like when you have a friend who thinks they’re really good at impressions, but they’re really, really not,” said another. So here we are, three weeks in, and half the world’s apparently followed up with their threat and stopped watching. Top Gear’s ratings are down, and some might say that’s a good thing.

Let them go. Because what Top Gear needs to do is not just chase ratings, but instead stick to their original goal of providing deeply entertaining films about cars – which is what made it such a success in the first place. Chris Evans getting sick, Matt LeBlanc getting a high-speed tour of London in the Hoonicorn, Chris Harris’ first appearance on the show, Sabine Schmitz driving the Audi R8 V10 Plus at Laguna Seca, and Rory Reid comparing hot hatches easily made Episode 3 the best one so far.

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Chris Harris’ Ferrari film was truly something special, Rory Reid’s hot hatch comparison was a solid effort, and even the “Stars in a Rallycross Car” segment was genuinely entertaining, even if it did run for almost 20 minutes. Finally the film with Matt LeBlanc and Ken Block in the Hoonicorn Mustang site-seeing through London was also genuinely entertaining, with LeBlanc carrying on with a natural humour that we’ve been enjoying since Episode 1.

The third episode of Top Gear Series 23 was easily their best one yet, and if you get over the fact that Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May are no longer on it, you might just enjoy watching it too.

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4 comments

Kian June 15, 2016 at 2:55 am

The 3rd episode was much better than the first two. But it’s not back on form yet. Far from it. The only thing that was truly good about it was Chris Haris review of the Ferrari, That’s because Chris Harris is the only one there who is genuine. All the rest of them are really phonies. Top Gear is about brilliant British Comedy. I’m afraid Rory Reid does a very boring car review which there are a lot of them on youtube. Matt is not bad but he heavily depends on the writing (as he is an actor) and the writing sadly isn’t any good. Chris Evens is trying to be Clarkson and it’s not working, He needs to stop trying to be Clarkson. Clarkson’s interviews with guest stars were truly funny. Even the plugs he did for them was really amusing. Chris Evens is rubbish at it. It’s painful when he asks the guest to introduce each other. And comparing their cars, oh that’s embarrassing.

The trio’s Top Gear was good because of its comedic nature and the three really funny but different characters. The new Top Gear fails to give us any interesting character. Alright, Chris Harris is an amusing character kind of similar to Clarkson, but as he says on his own twitter account, “Not as funny as Clarkson”.

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amvj June 14, 2016 at 5:32 pm

Okay this one is way better than 1st episode. However, it still lacks the joy of the original Top Gear. The former three were silly and funny yet they provide more information about the cars than you image. I am not saying TG need to conduct tests like the boring Motortrend or Autocar UK.

Evans is just whiner and looks like he does not have much automotive knowledge. Now the Top gear is like some other main stream Internet car videos. It does not have the uniqueness that once Top gear was known for.

Matt, Rory and Harris – are okay but they dont have the unique reviewing capability like Clarkson or May.

Sabine and Evans – They both are worst. Sabine can drive fast but she doesn’t look like a good reviewer.

Eddie – Why they recruited this guy ?

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Scooby June 14, 2016 at 8:41 pm

Eddie , exactly why is he there he looks so far out of place especially with that baseball cap on backwards on EP 2 , looks like a guy who’s far to old to be in a nightclub .

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Dean June 14, 2016 at 7:49 am

Top Gear wasn’t a car show for millions of viewers, it was some politically incorrect entertainment loosely based around cars. All is not well with the rebooted Top Gear for them, and rightly so. I hope the new viewers love it and wish the new Top Gear team all the best going forward but I’m abandoning ship, I’m not a hater, it’s just not what I signed up for with Clarkson and the gang.

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