StanBalaban Posted May 29, 2016 Share Posted May 29, 2016 Just now, AVFCDAN said: Calling Leblanc dreary is a bit harsh for me, I thought he played it alright in terms of tone. Did you want him to be the brash and shouty American he could have been? Chris Evans took over that role with aplomb. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Avfc96 Posted May 29, 2016 Share Posted May 29, 2016 1 minute ago, AVFCDAN said: Calling Leblanc dreary is a bit harsh for me, I thought he played it alright in terms of tone. Did you want him to be the brash and shouty American he could have been? No, there was just so little enthusiasm from him. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StanBalaban Posted May 29, 2016 Share Posted May 29, 2016 2 minutes ago, sexbelowsound said: Better than original Top Gear. Bit harsh on Quentin Willson and Chris Goffey don't you think? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sexbelowsound Posted May 29, 2016 Share Posted May 29, 2016 Just now, StanBalaban said: Bit harsh on Quentin Willson and Chris Goffey don't you think? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StanBalaban Posted May 29, 2016 Share Posted May 29, 2016 (edited) Grauniad Live Blog was better than the show. Quote After a film about Chris Evans driving around wildly and trying to avoid a laser gun, we’re now being treated to a film about Matt LeBlanc driving around wildly and trying to avoid a photographer. It’s the same idea, which seems like a huge mistake for a first episode. Tomorrow: a film about Chris Evans and Matt LeBlanc driving around wildly and trying to avoid reviews. https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/live/2016/may/29/top-gear-chris-evans-and-matt-leblanc-launch-new-series-live?CMP=twt_gu Edited May 29, 2016 by StanBalaban Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
villa4europe Posted May 29, 2016 Share Posted May 29, 2016 They've got to knock the Brit vs the yank stuff on the head next week, it's too obvious and lazy 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chindie Posted May 29, 2016 VT Supporter Share Posted May 29, 2016 Just watching now. Chris Evans is a pretty irritating bloke . Chris Evans doing a caricature of Jeremy Clarkson can be dumped in a bin on the far side of Mars. Matt LeBlanc looks like he'd rather be neck deep in horse shit than in that studio. Sabine, as likeable as she is, is not cut out for this. Her English is fine, but she unfortunately speaks like she's hosting a Bavarian edition of Playschool whenever she has to act out enthusiasm. It sounds really really false. The studio 'banter' is worse than ever. They got away with it before because the personalities could carry it (just - Hammond was always bollocks at it). Now the only thing that would feel natural is if Evans and LeBlanc just awkwardly ignored each other. By week 3 they might have started hurling insults at each other and by the end of the series a knife fight could kick off with the Star Trek duel theme. They needed to cut the whole format loose. They were never going to. But they needed to. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Davkaus Posted May 29, 2016 Share Posted May 29, 2016 So apparently when they said "forget everything you know about Top Gear", they wanted us to literally do so, and not notice it was the same old tired bullshit they've been doing for years, without the redeeming features of the actors being quite good at it. Joey from Friends wasn't bad. Evans is as much of a word removed as I guessed he'd be. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
turnbull Posted May 29, 2016 Share Posted May 29, 2016 I've been decorating all day which to me is about as much fun as root canal work, and I enjoyed it more than tonight's "entertainment". Awful. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chindie Posted May 29, 2016 VT Supporter Share Posted May 29, 2016 Jesse Eisenberg looked like he'd like to join LeBlanc in the shit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heretic Posted May 29, 2016 Share Posted May 29, 2016 I wouldn't be surprised if the TG producers end up punching the cast. It was worse than the original TG that the BBC canned which was then revamped by Clarkson. The chemistry of the original three was so hard to top that this was always a virtually impossible ask and so it proved. The presenter line up made me think the show was produced by Harriet Harman. Talk about diversity box ticking. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
turnbull Posted May 30, 2016 Share Posted May 30, 2016 Just watched Extra Gear on line and TBH it's a much better effort than the main programme, apart from Evans being on it at the start that is. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jimzk5 Posted May 30, 2016 Share Posted May 30, 2016 Evans is a rocket polisher. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trekka Posted May 30, 2016 VT Supporter Share Posted May 30, 2016 I quite liked it Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr_Pangloss Posted May 30, 2016 Share Posted May 30, 2016 Chris Evans is a monumental word removed, almost as big a word removed as Clarkson. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Davkaus Posted May 30, 2016 Share Posted May 30, 2016 (edited) The cringeworthy introduction of LeBlanc with Evans screeching and running around the studio like an overly excited infant was enough for me to know I couldn't watch this every week. Clarkson is a dickhead, but he's a funny dickhead - his on air persona at least, he's a little less funny when he's punching people. He plays up his ridiculous opinions because he knows it winds people up, and it's entertaining. Evans is just irritating, he has no redeeming qualities. I'm not sure if they used an audience laugh/cheering track with the old Top Gear, but if they did, it wasn't obvious. The audience 'reactions' last night was like something from Britain's Got Talent. Edited May 30, 2016 by Davkaus 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
theboyangel Posted May 30, 2016 Share Posted May 30, 2016 (edited) Clarkson should be a Talksport presenter - he chucks in the odd hand grenade, sits back and watches middle england argue over it for days. He's very good at it. I used to watch Top Gear up until around 4-5 years ago but it soon become too formulaic, obviously staged and quite frankly up its own arse, trying to court controversy with glib racial undertones. Even the 'specials' became boring and plainly dumb. IMO It was probably a right time to call it quits with TG after the punch-up. In hiring Evans, the BBC have replaced one egotist, with yet another - however I find Evans less palatable and more egocentric than Clarkson. His radio breakfast show is one long self promotion, surrounded by sycophantic co-hosts - I can't stand it. I've never intended on watching the latest Top Gear, even though I quite like Matt LeBlanc (brilliant in Episodes). It was clear to me, under the helm of Chris Evans it was going to be more in your face, childish and trying to outdo the old presenters with ridiculous scenarios. Straight away, the production team thought it would be good family fun to send cars donutting around the Cenotaph - have a little respect! But will be successful, the BBC will pat themselves on the back and Evans will hoarde more money..... utter shite Edited May 30, 2016 by theboyangel Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blandy Posted May 30, 2016 Moderator Share Posted May 30, 2016 It was alright, I thought. For the first one, I guess they were going to play it safe to an extent. It was noticeable that in the challenge thing up the hill, they were more co-operative than the old one, which wouldn't have had them helping each other, or staying around when one broke down. So it was less boorish, but parts of it were too formulaic. Hopefully it'll find its own path over a few episodes, if it stops trying to be what it was in the old version. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cyrusr Posted May 30, 2016 VT Supporter Share Posted May 30, 2016 Watched it earlier, cringeworthy was an understatement. Chris Evans trying to be Jeremy Clarkson was not great, Matt LeBlanc trying to be James May was better but they were missing Richard Hammond. The jokes were largely childish and could bother to pay attention to Chris Evans, it felt he was just doing one large shout when talking; exceptionally off-putting. The whole thing felt forced and no I don't think I will watch again. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Genie Posted May 30, 2016 Share Posted May 30, 2016 It was bad wasn't it, I really wanted to like it because so many had written it off months ago but it was hard viewing at times. The 250 mile drive to Blackpool was just stupid and not entertaining at all, in fact the whole piece was crap. Chris seemed to try and stoke the studio audience up at every opportunity like a cheap pantomime. I'll watch next week because of the F-Pace review but won't really go out of my way to watch the others I don't think. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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