Top Gear
Comments
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Yellow Peril wrote:I know it's primarily about showing the general public cars they'll never be able to afford
No, it's an entertainment show that features exotica. People who think it is a car show are missing the point of it which is to entertain. If you care about boot size, economy and residual values then it isn't the show for you. If however you want to see some of the worlds finest cars, in some spectacular locations, filmed by some of the best camera/editing teams in the game then watch this, you can even turn the sound off if you don't like the presenters.
If it took itself too seriously then it would essentially become 5th Gear, which is a show that tries to show 'real world cars' AND be fun but in fact it is neither informative nor entertaining.
If people don't like Top Gear then don't watch it, I don't see why people get so upset about it and assume they are far better people because they don't watch it. It is perfectly ok to indulge in something that doesn't challenge the intellect from time to time0 -
A show which reviews real world cars and shows how practical they are is pointless anyway, if you are interested in making a car purchase there's a wealth of resources online and in print media, you don't need a television show to help you.0
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VTech wrote:Yellow Peril wrote:I know it's primarily about showing the general public cars they'll never be able to afford but I do get the impression that they are all so loaded that they do have contempt for anything with 4 wheels that costs below £100k
I used to like watching it but to be honest I haven't bothered to watch any of this series
Nail on head.
disagree, they cream in theri pants over the m3 for example. likewise many hot hatches.0 -
its quite good i think, agree it gets repititive and can be tired at times, but when they nail it, they nail it, the majority of the trips are really enterntaining and funny as are some of the reaces, despite the fact its mostly set up and scripted. but it is what it is, its not meant to be autotrader on tv, thats been done and failed. its entertainment themed with cars. thats it and at that it is good. it shouldnt be taken too seriously and 'real'.
persoanlly things like the vietnam, africa, US etc specials are execellent enternatinment with the car theme being very much a post scropt to be honest. if they continue to do these there is a lot of scope to carry on. they do get it wrong, like the indian special, but on the whole its lighhearted, funny ina schoolboy way entertainment.0 -
markhewitt1978 wrote:pinarello001 wrote:Its about me and my car and the money. When they were in Madrid, very little was given to the horrendous effects of the recession in Spain and they treated the place like a playground which is beyond contempt.
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Are you serious? Did you actually watch the segment at all? It was almost entirely about the affects of the recession!
This. It may or may not have been their aim (and it could be argued it was done disrespectfully or in bad taste) but I have to admit the ghost towns / ghost airport really brought home to me just how bad things are over there certainly far more than regularly hearing the unemployment / youth unemployment stats. I think it was actually quite cleverly done how they went to one of the areas that still had the super rich enjoying the excesses in life first before highlighting the state of the other parts of the country. I'm pretty sure it wasn't accidental and that in their irreverent way (whether you think that is funny / clever or not) they had actually set out to have that affect. I thought it was probably the best episode they have done for years unlike the hover van or last night's caravan destruction piece which are just regurgitated and predictable (even if I did chuckle at the 'woodland car park' bit).0 -
+1 Pross!
@GiantMike - some conspiracy theorist told me that the Tyrannasaurus in Jurassic Park was nt actually real once! I mean really...We're in danger of confusing passion with incompetence
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ddraver wrote:@GiantMike - some conspiracy theorist told me that the Tyrannasaurus in Jurassic Park was nt actually real once! I mean really...
I like stories, but I just don't like 'set-ups'. Is a 4x4 trip through Chile not interesting enough without having to add false jeopardy? And it's amazing how many race challenges finish so close. All that way and just minutes apart at the other end. Wow.0 -
double post FFS0
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I can't remember which car they were 'testing' but they added some excellent UFO special effects over the top. It was excellent work. About 3-4 years ago I think. Car was still driven by a fat c0ck though*.
* Yes, I know he's probably a really really nice bloke and that he's just a c0ck because he's on TV.0 -
GiantMike wrote:ddraver wrote:@GiantMike - some conspiracy theorist told me that the Tyrannasaurus in Jurassic Park was nt actually real once! I mean really...
I like stories, but I just don't like 'set-ups'. Is a 4x4 trip through Chile not interesting enough without having to add false jeopardy? And it's amazing how many race challenges finish so close. All that way and just minutes apart at the other end. Wow.
It's not difficult to plan a race to be close, the Tour De France team manage to predict the timing of 20 races to within 10-20 minutes every year..
The problem comes if you sit watching for "false jeopardy," To be honest I never noticed that the bit with the cliff was set up, no you mention it, it obviously was but I did nt care at the time. Just like I know that you can't reincarnate a dinosaur using fossilised Mosquito DNA but it did nt stop me enjoying the film (or the book).
I thought the bit with the diners was a stepette too far as that really was too inconsiderate to actually do, but imagine the b*ll*cks in the Daily Fail if it HAD been real instead!
Criticising Top Gear for being unrealistic is like criticising Last of the Summer Wine for not being a rapier like insight into the plight of old people in rural areas, or one man and his dog for not dealing with the decline of farming in the 20th century...We're in danger of confusing passion with incompetence
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When they did a recent road trip in America they said that they'd applied for visas on the basis of filming a factual TV programme. However the immigration office refused saying that they'd seen Top Gear and it was Entertainment, not factual. Seems the Americans were right about something for once
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ddraver wrote:It's not difficult to plan a race to be close, the Tour De France team manage to predict the timing of 20 races to within 10-20 minutes every year..
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The producers have said that when they do a e.g. car vs public transport (which they don't do very often!) then they plan out the public transport timetable, and then plan out how long it should take by car and set it up in such a way that the outcome will be close; but when the 'race' is on, it's done non-stop.
They'll then go back after it's completed and do the external shots etc, so the only footage of on the day will be the in car shots.0 -
markhewitt1978 wrote:They'll then go back after it's completed and do the external shots etc,
I'd always thought that the camera crew must drive really fast to get ahead of Clarkson to set up the camera, get the shot and then overtake him again, often wondered what they were driving...............
Seriously though everything gets planned ahead. When they did the Top Gear Groundforce one-off special, in the show they make a hash of one area of the garden and on the spur of the moment decide just to concrete it over and make a driveway, they phone a ready-mixed concrete company, the truck turns up and hey-presto it's concreted over. In reality it was all planned and a fortnight in advance of filming, they were working out what type of concrete to order, how much they'd need and who could supply it.~~~~~~Sustrans - Join the Movement~~~~~~0 -
I'm still angry over the one where Clarkson decided to drive from the most Westerly point on the British mainland to the most Easterly point and actually set off from Cornwall. The silly man!
Faster than a tent.......0 -
I took the kids to watch TG filming stuff for next week's show in Milton Keynes the other day. Simple set up - 3 x F1 cars against a couple of ordinary road cars. You'd think the shot of the F1 cars accelerating from a roundabout past these road cars would be a 5 minute job yes? We hung around for an hour or so and left, happy with seeing some F1 cars blasting around a bit of MK; the road closure was in effect from 6:00 - 6:00, so maybe they moved onto other stuff after we all left. When it's shown on Sunday that hour or so will become a few seconds of footage but there's a good chance it'll be very well shot, brilliantly edited, will make the point that the producers are trying to make and will be entertaining.
Clarkson Twittered yesterday after the 'story' in the Sunday papers that the diners being blown over was staged, to comment that he now believed that Basil Fawlty's car didn't actually break down when he beat it with a stick. He could be right you know.0 -
Rolf F wrote:I'm still angry over the one where Clarkson decided to drive from the most Westerly point on the British mainland to the most Easterly point and actually set off from Cornwall. The silly man!
You sure it wasn't most Westerly in England? As it's quite a drive from Ardnamurchan!0 -
CiB wrote:Clarkson Twittered yesterday after the 'story' in the Sunday papers that the diners being blown over was staged, to comment that he now believed that Basil Fawlty's car didn't actually break down when he beat it with a stick. He could be right you know.
It's interesting because a lot of people really like TG because of the high jinx that the chaps get up to. Taking a van onto a river and making a real mess of things and upsetting people is the foundation of the show, because only 'those 3' could get away with those antics. If it's staged, all of that goes.
It's like me posting on here that I went to a night club and pulled the whole Swedish netball team and I then post pics of them half-naked in my hotel room. From that you would form an opinion about me and life. If the real truth was that I'd paid some women to make out they were the Swedish netball team and they only made out I'd pulled them, then that's an entirely different story.
With anything, you like to know what's real and what isn't. A film is a creation of a story, I know that. A documentary should be fact, obviously. Entertainment that pretends to be 'real' but is 'set-up' is actually bogus. What else is bogus, and does it detract from the entertainment value when everything you see is probably just actors and editing tricks? For me, it does. Once some of it is bogus, it's all bogus and then if I watch it I spend all my time looking for the bogus bits.0 -
its not a documentary though. you pulling the swedish netball team isnt for the public enjoyment or a tv show, its for your own pleasure. you dont get paid to do it for tv ratings.
some people dispute the scene in alabama? (deep south anyway) where they get chased out of a filling station by some hicks, when they have 'gay' slogans on their cars. i assume it was staged, but even so it was funny as fook.0 -
the playing mantis wrote:its not a documentary though.
I know. I divided TV in documentary (truth), fiction (made-up) and 'entertainment' (TG-type programming).0 -
GiantMike wrote:I can't remember which car they were 'testing' but they added some excellent UFO special effects over the top. It was excellent work. About 3-4 years ago I think. Car was still driven by a fat c0ck though*.
* Yes, I know he's probably a really really nice bloke and that he's just a c0ck because he's on TV.
Complete guess, Lexus LFA?
edit: maybe.. https://vimeo.com/599830730
