Ah. Good.
Nice to see them back together.
I couldn’t tell you guys that I would be on amazon till today, isn’t it great news?
Umm. Yay?
There will always be jobs for violent, misogynistic, racist, drunk, abusive buffoons, recycling the same, sad, pro-war, anti-poor, anti-environment, poor-downtrodden-white-middle-aged-middle-class-men schtick so long as the ratings are good.
Stop watching. It’s tired and old. Like the presenters. Put them and us out of our misery.
I resemble that remark. >:)
Many, many of the words from that remark are me also!
There won’t always be a job for me though…
Tired and old? have you seen the last episodes? They’re classic Top Gear as good now as they were ten years ago, if not much better.
You can argue a lot of things about Clarkson, but the quality of his work is unimpeachable.
The thing is, it had been going too long but was still very profitable. But they had basically run out of ideas and the usual formula in that condition is make bigger bangs, cruder jokes and insult more funny foreigners. The Argentine episode was a bit cringeworthy, though as we are assured that the number plate in question was simply a completely amazing coincidence that nobody had noticed, unfortunately, it can’t be questioned without inviting the interest of my learned friends.
The technical expression is “jumping the shark”.
John Cleese got of out Fawlty Towers before it got formulaic and the Pythons stopped after 5 years. Have I got News for You was actually very fortunate over the Deayton scandal - the idea of changing the presenter rather than the panel was a bit genius and kept it going. Losing Clarkson may mean that the new BBC version will go onto a lot of success and Clarkson and Co. may fare as well as the Amazon phone.
All I can say is that there was an episode in the most recent season that had me laughing so hard that my wife had to come in from the other side of the house to see what the hell I thought was so funny. I can’t remember the last time that happened with this show.
Isn’t this just a show where they talk about cars?
Stewart Lee rips on Top Gear
It is a comedy show that tangentially, occasionally has cars.
It’s quite possible that Clarkson has worked with a good editor-- one who in the past has learned the difference between “this is bloody brilliant” and “this is racist nonsense”. Or perhaps Clarkson thinks he knows how to push buttons to get his way.
We’re also all assuming that this new show is “Top Gear” without calling it that.
I’m not so sure (but I could totally be wrong. clearly.).
Here’s why:
I can’t imagine that the lads aren’t ready for the next thing- that they, too, are a bit tired of some of the old bits and are looking for a chance to re-invent the thing. Look at old-old Top Gear (original series) stuff, and you’ll find virtually no connection to the newer version (minus Clarkson [in a totally different character, mind you], cars, and the name). Or, for another example, look at original Mythbusters vs. new version (minus Grant, Tory, and Kari). I think the latest incarnation is a stronger show than the original (though I miss the other three sometimes).
I guess I’m trying to say that I hope this is an evolutionary move and not a sad attempt to re-create the thing. I hope this is the next thing, and not the same thing.
Clarkson, for all this faults, is not the character he’s been playing- and while I will make no excuses for his poor behavior that got him canned, I will point out that his life was at an especially bad point. He can be thoughtful (just as May can drive fast and Richard can do more than cook beans…) and I hope this new show continues to be funny and fresh without leaning on the past as a crutch.
Hope!
No I haven’t seen the most recent episodes. I have enjoyed it in the past though. I watched it and enjoyed it. Sure there was a bit of cozy pipe and slippers on, and “the bantz” will always get a bit… samey. But they had a real geek enthusiasm and some good humour. They were generous with guests. And they didn’t ram their politics, their tiresome old git politics that you would let your granddad away with (because… he was deaf. And an old racist anyway that you couldn’t really reform at this stage. And drunk.* ) but the thing is they really started to ram their tedious politics in. They thought it was clever. And unfortunately they don’t actually have anything clever to say about anything. They are presenters of an entertainment show that has geeky technical “challenges” set up to deliver an entertaining story.
So I stopped watching it as the moments of entertainment dropped away and the endless preaching and ramming their reactionary agenda took over from it. Perhaps the ratio was always the same but it was funny and relatively fresh. But once it became tired and old and smelled of ready rubbed and whiskey and stale urine and old slippers the humour, such as it was, faded from view.
*I think I mean my Nana here more than my grand dad, she was the bigot, but whatever
Speaking as somebody who has watched every episode from the last… 5-7 years worth of shows, at the very least… I have no idea WTF you are talking about here.
Well, I’m relieved that I don’t feel the need to sign up for Prime as Amazon still doesn’t have any shows that I want to see.
