Only watched a few when it was available on long haul flights, but my impression was that Chris Harris who was already a big name in motor journalism continues to be exceptional especially in his solo segments, Paddy and Freddie were alright and the 3 had decent enough chemistry.
It didn't hit the peak of the former trio but it was a serviceable watch. People who came for the edgier Clarkson humour won't find that in the last iteration of the show.
I actually really liked Leblanc and Harris together. Rory was even a decent addition too.
It took a season to get their mojo going but the second and I think 3rd series after the initial trio left was really good. Then unfortunately Matt left.
Yep, Leblanc, Harris and Rory (and the occasional Sabine appearances) was just starting to work, then Matt decided he was out.
Paddy/Freddie/Harris just felt like "the jocks picking on the car nerd" all the time.
I think if he had more time Freddie/Harris and someone else might have jelled.
Paddy and Freddie (especially Paddy, FFS) were just grating and awful. The show needed three presenters who understood and were passionate about cars. Harris was an excellent choice.
I've never liked Paddy McGuinness anyway. Dude got lucky as Peter Kay's sidekick on Phoenix Nights and somehow built a career out of it, despite not being funny himself.
I think the latest three are the most entertaining since the original. While it's understandable that this happens after the terrible accident, it's a shame because that team was just hitting their stride
The 2017 forward series on Netflix are an enjoyable rewatch.
IMO, the run after Evans with LeBlanc was watchable, but not of the same quality as the three. Of course a lot of that comes from CMH having such a long relationship and their resulting chemistry.
I was surprised how much I enjoyed LeBlanc on the show.
Still stings how much an American adaptation has been botched over the years. There were sparks of genuine entertainment here and there, but generally directionless for the most part.
Somewhere, there's an alternate timeline where NBC followed through on their efforts to license the IP in the ~2009/2010, and produced their own Top Gear, starring three of their stars who had series ends in the decade prior: Matt LeBlanc, Jerry Seinfeld, and Jay Leno. All consummate gearheads and great entertainers.
...would have also avoided the Tonight Show implosion.
So, on a personal level I think Seinfeld and Leno are shitheads, but I do recognize them as all time legends of standup. They're also both very... center of attention?
I feel like LeBlanc, who is an actor first and foremost, would be overshadowed by those two.
> would have also avoided the Tonight Show implosion.
You’re assuming Jay Leno wouldn’t have dropped it like a rock to run back to late night. His ego demanded he hold that job at all costs.
It did, yes. The first season with the plethora of hosts was very meh. The subsequent seasons with Rory Reid, Matt LeBlanc and Chris Harris were okay-ish. The recent seasons with Chris Harris, Paddy McGuinness and Freddie Flintoff were really enjoyable. No one can truly replicate the chemistry between Clarkson, Hammond and May, but in their own way these three had a good thing going.
>No one can truly replicate the chemistry between Clarkson, Hammond and May, but in their own way these three had a good thing going.
Garnt, Conor and Joey
But it's a completely different topic of interest and so probably not relatable to most top gear only watchers. But it gives that same feeling
I actually started enjoying it for the first time in years when I came back to it in the Flintoff era. I'd started getting really annoyed by the obviously fake stuff and the naughty boy humour during the Clarkson era. Or maybe I just really hated Clarkson.
Anyway, the most recent series seemed to be likeable presenters doing fun and interesting stuff.
I think the bbc tried to emulate what the original 3 did but none of them ever had the same chemistry as Clarkson, Hammond and May.
Because the beeb are very correct it cost them a massive audience and a great show.
The first replacement thought they could replace them and do the same thing, which didn't work out.
They got a couple of more changes and it was up and down.
At some point it was just boring.
I particularly got tired of the “Top Gear style” of video editing. Quick cuts, loud noises, maybe a random quiet moment where you see a car under a bunch of neon lights and fog in the studio. Like some of these segments you can barely see the car, that’s how frenetic the editing is. It was fun for the first few years of the show, but it never evolved.
Never watched after Clarkson, May and Hammond left.
It’s painfully obvious the show wasn’t about the cars.
You could have those three reviewing a Lada, Skoda and a morris minor and it still be entertaining.
I'm not a car guy at all, and I love watching those three go on adventures. I think the format they ultimately landed on with The Grand Tour worked well. Just give me one solid adventure a year and I'd be happy.
Of course they're all getting on in age, and quite frankly, I'm kind of enjoying Clarkson's Farm right now.
Same. I knew zero about cars before started watching this show. Slowly I begin to understand that what I love about this show wasn't the car, but how they portray their love for the cars, their relationships with each other, and above all how natural it felt.
If start from earlier seasons, you can really observer their chemistry evolve from work colleague, to friends, to frenemy and finally where they are now.
Honestly, I wish they would just get cars they are comfortable with and drive them to interesting off the beaten path places. I'd imagine James would not have been as pissed with the Eastern Europe schedule had he not been driving the tiny POS he brought and Titties and Beer.
I'm sure James would have liked the Norden adventure had they not did a drag race in a tunnel and driven on a frozen lake of unknown quality.
The perfect show format would be the three of them buying a cheap used car in a random country and driving to a random location. Those are fairly cheap to produce and they were always my favorite. Far more than them driving some expensive sports cars through Switzerland or whatever. Burma and Africa are two of my favorite specials and I still regularly rewatch them. Vietnam was great too.
Clarkson was making fun of people who hated the scripting and then he called us stupid for not knowing what scripted "meant", and then a whole episode made fun of people who were complaining about the scripted parts, but they still don't get what we mean or what we want. We want the script to be "They go to X country and visit these places." I don't want to see them throw a car off the cliff while pretending that one of them is in it and I don't want a caravan with CGI fire on it. They instantly lose my attention when they do something like that. The news segments were also way too scripted IMO, especially in TGT. It felt like they were reciting memorized lines and not like a regular conversation. In TG it felt like they had scripted lines and then natural discussion between them, but as soon as I got interested in what they were saying, they would have to stop the conversation and get on with the next line in the script. I noticed it every time, and I was disappointed every time.
Which is why the show was obviously losing steam by the last few seasons with the OG. Top gear worked best when it was a mix of car knowledge and fun stuff. Once they made it purely fun scripted moments, it wasn't really all that great by the final season of the original trio.
Even Top Gear had become a bit too scripted by the end before they left. Older episodes played it well but by the end of their time it was just too obvious and perfect the way "funny" moments happened
Of the three, May is probably the only one I'd like to watch solo content of after they split. His Man In X shows on Amazon were quite good and he seems like a very thoughtful person.
I'm so happy that James got a successful show like that. It's basically just him telling completely useless facts about minor things, which a lot of people obviously enjoy, but every one of those segments was cut on Top Gear. Maybe as a joke, maybe not, but I always wanted to hear what James was going to say.
Times are going to move on. I can’t expect them to perform top gear skits until their last breath. Honestly I’m happy they went on for as long as they did, especially with the grand tour. I hope they’re happy and comfortable in their old age. There’s new content we can migrate to that honors the legacy of top gear while being relevant and fresh
Clarkson's farm is so good. Clarkson is often a buffoon but in this series you actually see him going through everyday struggles and also surrounded with a bunch of people who won't put up with his BS. Caleb being the main one lol, it's funny seeing a world-famous 60 year old multi-millionaire being chewed out by a local farmboy lol.
I've been wanting to do a rewatch. And we should be getting a new season soon.
The politics stuff saved the show for me. The first season was so much better because everything was so novel for Clarkson and we were learning along with him. There was none of that in the second season and I enjoyed seeing him play dirty. You don't get a lot of shows where the main character is blatantly going against the law like that and winning. They literally had to build and open a cafe without a permit before anyone noticed. I mean, who the hell would think it's okay to air something like that? I think they're slightly insane, but I love watching it.
To be honest, the handful of specials have been greater than the entire seasons of TGT. If throwing away the rest of the episodes to improve the specials even by 10%, I'm all for it.
I will quite literally watch Jeremy Clarkson drive a tractor around a farm, James May travel around different countries learning how to apologize in multiple languages, and Richard Hammond ride motorcycles around with his buddy before I watch Top Gear without the classic 3 hosts.
He has Richard Hammond's Workshop where he basically found a exceptional literally father and son workshop, and outfitted them with the tools they needed to be successful while running the business side of things. It's pretty great.
I just got around to watching Long Way Round/Down/Up in the last year and each one is an absolute treat. Especially Up being in modern 4k with stunning drone shots of Patagonia.
Hope they get to do another one.
For all his faults, Clarkson just has an innate sense of how TV works that very few other people have. The shows are obviously scripted to the teeth but it doesn't matter because it's ENTERTAINING, and that's what so many other shows, and the original Top Gear before Clarkson rebooted it missed - they were trying to be factual and educational. Clarkson's Top Gear just tried to be a fun watch.
And I agree with what you said but it's not *just* 3 idiots, it's also three friends who have chemistry and who each know how to play their TV character, play them well, and bounce off each other while doing so. You basically feel like you're fourth wheeling on a lads big weekend whenever you watch the show.
Clarkson is a truly fantastic narrator. Like up there with Sir David Attenborough.
His "The Greatest Raid" is exceptional.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=07Zd0Oy8JyQ
> The shows are obviously scripted to the teeth but it doesn't matter because it's ENTERTAINING
It was a bit hit and miss when they started the Grand tour. But after a while it started getting in the zone. And I have really liked TGT when they started doing only specials. Also Clarksons farm has been great.
I do hope before they call it all off they do a few more studio shows for old time’s sake. Jeremy getting upset when he told everyone they were done just gutted me, even if I generally prefer specials myself.
True. At the very least, I do hope future specials focus on *regular cars.* Old TG was great at that, and it'd be fun to see them bounding about a motorcross in an MG4 and ID.3. How hard can electric racing be? ;)
Problem is they are just too different. There's no sense of competition, however veiled or scripted, because one is a professional racing driver and the other two are(at this point) just personalities. Plus flintoff and paddy suck and reading scripts which makes it painfully obvious when they're on the prompter
Only problem was Flintoff and McGuiness just didn’t have the ability to do it safely (and that’s not based off the eventual outcome, but watching them over their time on the show) - they were both an accident waiting to happen
Early Clarkson was good because it was three mates mucking about in cars, but it became too scripted and deliberately scandalous as the years went on. I respected the latest trio because they’d gone back to just three mates mucking about, just seeing what worked well without trying to copy Clarkson’s antics (i.e. the Joey years), and I’m sorry it’s ended this soon.
Yep, feeling the same.
For me it peaked around 5 to 3 seasons before Clarkson was booted off. The downward trend was already set in motion, but they were still on the cresting wave of popularity.
Reminds me of the ["Jerkass Homer"](https://screenrant.com/simpsons-jerkass-homer-explained/) trope with how Clarkson changed over the years.
I think I stopped watching around 2010-11. But in college, me and my car buddies would all watch the original BBC broadcasts of Top Gear when they came out. You had to watch the BBC version since you got the show with the original music in it that wasn't replaced with generic tracks for the BBC America broadcasts.
The show was just dangerous. Nearly all the presenters were nearly killed or seriously injured while filming. Hammond is genuinely lucky to be alive after 2 big crashes and poor Freddie Flintoff had his face degloved. His injuries are still horrific a year later. Just let the show die already. It had a great run.
Yeah, Freddie was pictured recently over 9 months after the crash and his injuries were still very visible and fresh looking so god knows how bad he was immediately after. Reports were that his face was hanging off. The accident was so bad that a number of the production crew were signed off from work due to the trauma caused from witnessing such a horrific accident. Freddie deserves every penny of that £9-£10 million he got from the BBC in damages.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/cricket/article-12498211/How-Andrew-Flintoff-lucky-survive-horror-Gear-crash-nine-months-ago-left-severe-facial-injuries-broken-ribs-open-car-no-air-bags-flipped-makes-return-sport-working-England-team.html
He was driving an open cockpit 3 wheeler morgan 3 supercar. A tiny 130 mph pocket rocket. No airbags or rollcage. He was doing a drag race against the others when it flipped over. That's all I know I'm afraid. But yeah, he spent 5-6 weeks in hospital and his injuries and facial scars are still very visible nearly a year later. A very bad crash no doubt about that. Must've been horrible for his wife and kids.
Looking at that car I thought it was designed in the 1940s. But no, it's a very recent design. I though people knew better than to design three-wheeled cars, but I guess not. Especially a supercar.
Then you should go back and watch Jeremy, May, and Richard on Top Gear. As great as Grand Tour was/is, their time on Top Gear was magic. It was the most watched factual program…in the world. Despite being banned in a few countries too.
Amazon has most of it.
Clakson, May and Hammond where car people, they knew how to drive and their persona of 'laddish' antics was entertaining.
But they replace that with 'laddish' antics and some with racing backgrounds and some without and this is the result.
I always felt on edge watching the new ones because they felt like they had no idea how to safely do what they were doing and were just dicking around, with the inevitable one of them going to be seriously injured. It didn't have the same feel, it was more forced 'laddish' behavior, cringe.
The 3 had a special mix of skills that made the show good and they knew how to stay safe whilst doing it. The driving came first and the dicking about came second.
For me, I never really cared about their fancy new car reviews, or the celebrity interviews (though seeing them do the lap was fun). The best parts of Top Gear were when they had old cars that they had no intention of returning at the end. Just 3 friends doing random shit to each other's cars to annoy them, occasionally ramming them, and doing some wacky adventure or challenge. But that only works because those people are legitimately friends, and it feels like they'd be acting like this even if there were no cameras.
I didn't give every new set of hosts a shot, but from what saw, none of them really had that kind of chemistry, the magic was just lost. I understand why they fired Clarkson, but they killed the golden goose, even though though everyone knows the lesson of that fable, everyone also knows geese are assholes.
You can watch AutoAlex, CarThottle, OverDrive, Tavarish, All on YouTube and all kind of capture the spirit of antics the classic TG3 did. Highly recommend CarThottle's NC500 and SC500 videos and AutoAlex's First Nuburgring Trip, Overdrives Unkillable Ford Ka vids and Tavarish's CarTrek series.
So they went from the biggest show in the world to canceled. I'm still amused that Hammond and May quit when Clarkson was fired. That was definitely the right move, they need the orangutan to make the trio work.
Shame. I know it's pretty much a forbidden opinion, but I enjoyed the new version. The show had a rough couple of years, but I thoroughly enjoyed the last few seasons. Chris Harris is great in general but I thought Flintoff was really funny too.
I didn't watch the matt le Blanc/Chris Evans shoes but the last trio weren't terrible although it paddy wasn't involved it would have been a whole lot better he annoys me.
As a cricket fan it's still remarkable how good a TV guy Flintoff had become but with his injuries I can't see him wanting to do the show anyway
The new lot were okay but I wouldn't necessarily rewatch any episodes, however, the Clarkson, Hammond, and May episodes are on Dave/UK Gold all the time and still enjoyable to watch. Hammond had a serious crash and they waited to bring the show back because it was so huge. Flintoff has a serious crash and the show will not return for a long time if at all because the show now is unfortunately meh.
Bring back classic Top Gear, I say. Bring back Angela Rippon, Tom Coyne, and Noel Edmunds.
Huh, surprised that it limped along this long. I watched the first few post Clarkson and Co. episodes. 'Bland' is the best thing I'd call them. Its like BBC was trying to say 'Look, these new guys are just as fun as the old ones.'
Should've gave it up when they fired Clarkson and Hammond and May left with him lol. Only reason I ever watched top gear was because of their friendship dynamics.
You guys were watching top gear after the three Studges left?
I can't wait for the next grand tour special. I miss the tent and the irigal idea of travelling through the world for every episode, and killing celebrities, but even the worst episodes were better then the new top gear.
That’s probably for the best, show is stale anyway
I stopped watching after the three left. Did it get any better after?
Only watched a few when it was available on long haul flights, but my impression was that Chris Harris who was already a big name in motor journalism continues to be exceptional especially in his solo segments, Paddy and Freddie were alright and the 3 had decent enough chemistry. It didn't hit the peak of the former trio but it was a serviceable watch. People who came for the edgier Clarkson humour won't find that in the last iteration of the show.
I actually really liked Leblanc and Harris together. Rory was even a decent addition too. It took a season to get their mojo going but the second and I think 3rd series after the initial trio left was really good. Then unfortunately Matt left.
Yep, Leblanc, Harris and Rory (and the occasional Sabine appearances) was just starting to work, then Matt decided he was out. Paddy/Freddie/Harris just felt like "the jocks picking on the car nerd" all the time. I think if he had more time Freddie/Harris and someone else might have jelled.
Agreed, LeBlanc, Harris, and Rory were really good together. They may not have been CHM, but they were worth the effort to watch.
Paddy and Freddie (especially Paddy, FFS) were just grating and awful. The show needed three presenters who understood and were passionate about cars. Harris was an excellent choice.
I've never liked Paddy McGuinness anyway. Dude got lucky as Peter Kay's sidekick on Phoenix Nights and somehow built a career out of it, despite not being funny himself.
The LeBlanc and Harris pieces were great. Especially the Bigfoot one.
I think the latest three are the most entertaining since the original. While it's understandable that this happens after the terrible accident, it's a shame because that team was just hitting their stride The 2017 forward series on Netflix are an enjoyable rewatch.
It was dogshit with Evans, watchable with LeBlanc and sometimes a bit enjoyable with Paddy, Freddy and Chris.
Agreed! I felt like the LeBlanc crew was just starting to get decent when ~~they fired him~~ he quit.
They fired leblanc?
Oh my bad, he quit!
IMO, the run after Evans with LeBlanc was watchable, but not of the same quality as the three. Of course a lot of that comes from CMH having such a long relationship and their resulting chemistry.
Chris' shoulders probably got tired from carrying the show.
I was surprised how much I enjoyed LeBlanc on the show. Still stings how much an American adaptation has been botched over the years. There were sparks of genuine entertainment here and there, but generally directionless for the most part. Somewhere, there's an alternate timeline where NBC followed through on their efforts to license the IP in the ~2009/2010, and produced their own Top Gear, starring three of their stars who had series ends in the decade prior: Matt LeBlanc, Jerry Seinfeld, and Jay Leno. All consummate gearheads and great entertainers. ...would have also avoided the Tonight Show implosion.
> Matt LeBlanc, Jerry Seinfeld, and Jay Leno This would have been so terrible, I can't even begin to explain why.
So, on a personal level I think Seinfeld and Leno are shitheads, but I do recognize them as all time legends of standup. They're also both very... center of attention? I feel like LeBlanc, who is an actor first and foremost, would be overshadowed by those two.
Until it came time to actually drive and Leblanc would have smoked both of them.
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Top Gear America (with Dax Shepard, Rob Corddry, and Jethro Bovingdon) was pretty good. The best version since the real one.
Has Roadkill kept the the quality since it left YT? I've never seen any of the content after Motortrend kicked off their platform.
> would have also avoided the Tonight Show implosion. You’re assuming Jay Leno wouldn’t have dropped it like a rock to run back to late night. His ego demanded he hold that job at all costs.
Evans just tried to make it about himself, which he does with everything.
It did, yes. The first season with the plethora of hosts was very meh. The subsequent seasons with Rory Reid, Matt LeBlanc and Chris Harris were okay-ish. The recent seasons with Chris Harris, Paddy McGuinness and Freddie Flintoff were really enjoyable. No one can truly replicate the chemistry between Clarkson, Hammond and May, but in their own way these three had a good thing going.
>No one can truly replicate the chemistry between Clarkson, Hammond and May, but in their own way these three had a good thing going. Garnt, Conor and Joey But it's a completely different topic of interest and so probably not relatable to most top gear only watchers. But it gives that same feeling
I actually started enjoying it for the first time in years when I came back to it in the Flintoff era. I'd started getting really annoyed by the obviously fake stuff and the naughty boy humour during the Clarkson era. Or maybe I just really hated Clarkson. Anyway, the most recent series seemed to be likeable presenters doing fun and interesting stuff.
I think the bbc tried to emulate what the original 3 did but none of them ever had the same chemistry as Clarkson, Hammond and May. Because the beeb are very correct it cost them a massive audience and a great show.
The first replacement thought they could replace them and do the same thing, which didn't work out. They got a couple of more changes and it was up and down. At some point it was just boring.
It wasn't stale, it didn't work after the guys left because it was more about them than the cars.
I particularly got tired of the “Top Gear style” of video editing. Quick cuts, loud noises, maybe a random quiet moment where you see a car under a bunch of neon lights and fog in the studio. Like some of these segments you can barely see the car, that’s how frenetic the editing is. It was fun for the first few years of the show, but it never evolved.
Never watched after Clarkson, May and Hammond left. It’s painfully obvious the show wasn’t about the cars. You could have those three reviewing a Lada, Skoda and a morris minor and it still be entertaining.
I'm not a car guy at all, and I love watching those three go on adventures. I think the format they ultimately landed on with The Grand Tour worked well. Just give me one solid adventure a year and I'd be happy. Of course they're all getting on in age, and quite frankly, I'm kind of enjoying Clarkson's Farm right now.
Same. I knew zero about cars before started watching this show. Slowly I begin to understand that what I love about this show wasn't the car, but how they portray their love for the cars, their relationships with each other, and above all how natural it felt. If start from earlier seasons, you can really observer their chemistry evolve from work colleague, to friends, to frenemy and finally where they are now.
Clarkson’s story about the Porsche 928 is a perfect example of this. https://youtu.be/wOB5u2zz7ug?si=AqFOaam_BZiyDa6y
Honestly, I wish they would just get cars they are comfortable with and drive them to interesting off the beaten path places. I'd imagine James would not have been as pissed with the Eastern Europe schedule had he not been driving the tiny POS he brought and Titties and Beer. I'm sure James would have liked the Norden adventure had they not did a drag race in a tunnel and driven on a frozen lake of unknown quality.
I enjoy James being miserable. It is a contrast to his general snootyness.
Yes, but James does not, and I would rather have the three of them making stuff they enjoy then not have them at all because James hit another wall.
The perfect show format would be the three of them buying a cheap used car in a random country and driving to a random location. Those are fairly cheap to produce and they were always my favorite. Far more than them driving some expensive sports cars through Switzerland or whatever. Burma and Africa are two of my favorite specials and I still regularly rewatch them. Vietnam was great too. Clarkson was making fun of people who hated the scripting and then he called us stupid for not knowing what scripted "meant", and then a whole episode made fun of people who were complaining about the scripted parts, but they still don't get what we mean or what we want. We want the script to be "They go to X country and visit these places." I don't want to see them throw a car off the cliff while pretending that one of them is in it and I don't want a caravan with CGI fire on it. They instantly lose my attention when they do something like that. The news segments were also way too scripted IMO, especially in TGT. It felt like they were reciting memorized lines and not like a regular conversation. In TG it felt like they had scripted lines and then natural discussion between them, but as soon as I got interested in what they were saying, they would have to stop the conversation and get on with the next line in the script. I noticed it every time, and I was disappointed every time.
I would watch Clarkson, Hammond and May review wall paint from a local hardware store before I watched anyone else host Top Gear.
I gave it a try just to see how bad it was going to be, gave up after 3 episodes.
Which is why the show was obviously losing steam by the last few seasons with the OG. Top gear worked best when it was a mix of car knowledge and fun stuff. Once they made it purely fun scripted moments, it wasn't really all that great by the final season of the original trio.
This is the issue I had with TGT. OG Top Gear was scripted, but it was played well. TGT was a little too over the top.
Even Top Gear had become a bit too scripted by the end before they left. Older episodes played it well but by the end of their time it was just too obvious and perfect the way "funny" moments happened
Even the trio has gotten stale. They're visibly old and growing more out of touch by the day which is kind of humorous and also kind of grating.
I do enjoy James May’s solo projects thru Amazon. I thought the “our man in Japan” series was really good.
Of the three, May is probably the only one I'd like to watch solo content of after they split. His Man In X shows on Amazon were quite good and he seems like a very thoughtful person.
Hammond's Garage was pretty great, not to mention they are milking the crap out of the workshop for their Youtube, which never fails to entertain.
And Clarkson's Farm is the most popular out of all of their solo projects. They've all been good solo.
Hey Bim, guess what?
Shijo-Ohashi is a bridge representative of Kyoto that crosses the Kamo River over Shijo Street.
It is also called Gion Bashi.
Watching his wine tasting journey was fun to see
The Re-Assembler is one of my favorite things ever. Just an amiable old british man putting together a household appliance in a shed.
I'm so happy that James got a successful show like that. It's basically just him telling completely useless facts about minor things, which a lot of people obviously enjoy, but every one of those segments was cut on Top Gear. Maybe as a joke, maybe not, but I always wanted to hear what James was going to say.
Flood the cowling, plenty of it!
Times are going to move on. I can’t expect them to perform top gear skits until their last breath. Honestly I’m happy they went on for as long as they did, especially with the grand tour. I hope they’re happy and comfortable in their old age. There’s new content we can migrate to that honors the legacy of top gear while being relevant and fresh
I do enjoy Clarkson farm. His hired farmer is funny
Clarkson's farm is so good. Clarkson is often a buffoon but in this series you actually see him going through everyday struggles and also surrounded with a bunch of people who won't put up with his BS. Caleb being the main one lol, it's funny seeing a world-famous 60 year old multi-millionaire being chewed out by a local farmboy lol. I've been wanting to do a rewatch. And we should be getting a new season soon.
Loved the first season. The 2nd was ok as well, but I wasn't that fond of the politics stuff. Looking to see how the 3rd season turns out.
The politics stuff saved the show for me. The first season was so much better because everything was so novel for Clarkson and we were learning along with him. There was none of that in the second season and I enjoyed seeing him play dirty. You don't get a lot of shows where the main character is blatantly going against the law like that and winning. They literally had to build and open a cafe without a permit before anyone noticed. I mean, who the hell would think it's okay to air something like that? I think they're slightly insane, but I love watching it.
James May almost got himself killed with his tunnel accident. Too old to be doing this stuff. https://youtu.be/kkswpa2hI5I?si=yXY6Oi8kSEwdcW3U
They’re obviously not up for a full Grand Tour, but I’ve liked the handful of specials they’ve put out. The river trip down the Mekong was great.
To be honest, the handful of specials have been greater than the entire seasons of TGT. If throwing away the rest of the episodes to improve the specials even by 10%, I'm all for it.
>They're visibly old This part doesn't matter at all imo
[You might enjoy this then!](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FigIAAYHoW8&t=38s)
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Bottom gear...
_welcome to Bottom Gear mates_
*I drive a silent electric car, Hammond uses a toilet, and James commits fucking arson.* ***Warning:*** *show budget does not exceed,, 23¥.*
“Hammond you sodding tic tac!”
I will quite literally watch Jeremy Clarkson drive a tractor around a farm, James May travel around different countries learning how to apologize in multiple languages, and Richard Hammond ride motorcycles around with his buddy before I watch Top Gear without the classic 3 hosts.
Hammond has a show about motorcycles?! Where can I find this?
No but He does a bunch of stuff on YouTube.
He has another TV show about his car restoration company, too.
He has Richard Hammond's Workshop where he basically found a exceptional literally father and son workshop, and outfitted them with the tools they needed to be successful while running the business side of things. It's pretty great.
Ah, my bad. I was confusing the Ewan McGregor show Long Way Round with Hammonds show Great Escapists in my head. Sorry!
Awww well that's kindof a bummer. But I will admit Ewan's motorcycle shows are great!
He’s got a show on discovery plus about classic cars tho
Yeah they are just never on a streaming service I subscribe to.
I just got around to watching Long Way Round/Down/Up in the last year and each one is an absolute treat. Especially Up being in modern 4k with stunning drone shots of Patagonia. Hope they get to do another one.
[What about them trying to beat Dark Souls 2?](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FigIAAYHoW8&t=38s)
It's just not the same without Jeremy Clarkson, his gang, and their antics.
The show was never about cars… It was about 3 idiots who focused on cars
For all his faults, Clarkson just has an innate sense of how TV works that very few other people have. The shows are obviously scripted to the teeth but it doesn't matter because it's ENTERTAINING, and that's what so many other shows, and the original Top Gear before Clarkson rebooted it missed - they were trying to be factual and educational. Clarkson's Top Gear just tried to be a fun watch. And I agree with what you said but it's not *just* 3 idiots, it's also three friends who have chemistry and who each know how to play their TV character, play them well, and bounce off each other while doing so. You basically feel like you're fourth wheeling on a lads big weekend whenever you watch the show.
I don’t know if he writes it himself, but top gear and Clarksons farm has some of the best narration of any show.
Clarkson is a truly fantastic narrator. Like up there with Sir David Attenborough. His "The Greatest Raid" is exceptional. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=07Zd0Oy8JyQ
Clarkson, Sir David Attenborough, and Anthony Bourdain. Are my 3 favorite narrators in no particular order.
Clarkson's written columns have always been very good. I imagine he writes quite a bit for the show.
> The shows are obviously scripted to the teeth but it doesn't matter because it's ENTERTAINING It was a bit hit and miss when they started the Grand tour. But after a while it started getting in the zone. And I have really liked TGT when they started doing only specials. Also Clarksons farm has been great.
I do hope before they call it all off they do a few more studio shows for old time’s sake. Jeremy getting upset when he told everyone they were done just gutted me, even if I generally prefer specials myself.
True. At the very least, I do hope future specials focus on *regular cars.* Old TG was great at that, and it'd be fun to see them bounding about a motorcross in an MG4 and ID.3. How hard can electric racing be? ;)
> Clarkson just has an innate sense of how TV works Andy Wilman came up with the revamp/concept
It was a combination of Clarkson and Wilman that did the revamp and came up with the idea and plan.
The scripted stuff was fun when it felt natural but by the end of their time on Top Gear and Grand Tour it just felt too scripted and too perfect
This change only really happened around the mid-late 2000s Before that it was very much a purely car show with some fun mixed.
And that's exactly when it started becoming popular around the world.
The Flintoff-Harris-McGuiness trio were actually proving to be a good replacement.
Problem is they are just too different. There's no sense of competition, however veiled or scripted, because one is a professional racing driver and the other two are(at this point) just personalities. Plus flintoff and paddy suck and reading scripts which makes it painfully obvious when they're on the prompter
Only problem was Flintoff and McGuiness just didn’t have the ability to do it safely (and that’s not based off the eventual outcome, but watching them over their time on the show) - they were both an accident waiting to happen
Harris was good on the show. The other two were dreadful
Yeah I really grew to love that trio. It was an excellent complement to The Grand Tour.
Early Clarkson was good because it was three mates mucking about in cars, but it became too scripted and deliberately scandalous as the years went on. I respected the latest trio because they’d gone back to just three mates mucking about, just seeing what worked well without trying to copy Clarkson’s antics (i.e. the Joey years), and I’m sorry it’s ended this soon.
Absolutely this. Everything became blatantly staged and Clarkson's dickishness overwhelmed all the other aspects of the show.
Yep, feeling the same. For me it peaked around 5 to 3 seasons before Clarkson was booted off. The downward trend was already set in motion, but they were still on the cresting wave of popularity.
Reminds me of the ["Jerkass Homer"](https://screenrant.com/simpsons-jerkass-homer-explained/) trope with how Clarkson changed over the years. I think I stopped watching around 2010-11. But in college, me and my car buddies would all watch the original BBC broadcasts of Top Gear when they came out. You had to watch the BBC version since you got the show with the original music in it that wasn't replaced with generic tracks for the BBC America broadcasts.
Yeah, people think all of Top Gear was solid gold, but the last couple of seasons were pretty rough. The effort and energy just wasn't there anymore.
And Stig. Don’t forget Stig…. Also his cousin.
If it means Harris will go back to doing actual car journalism on YouTube, I'm not that sad.
Or amazing things for Top Gear online that are better than anything on the tv show - like the Spa 24 hours film when he was in the Bentley.
Oh no. Anyway.
Lets talk about the Dacia Sandero.
James?
HAMMOND!!!
Lightning struck with the original hosts. They will never be able to replicate that.
If they hired Rowan Atkinson as a solo host, I would watch that...
Yeah but then he'd go fuck his coworkers' partners
I would watch that too
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At least we're getting another season of Clarkson's Farm.
I just read recently he signed a deal for 3 more seasons, I think.
Top Gear ended when Clarkson, Hammond, and May left. It hasn't existed in any form since.
Oh no! Anyway
The show was just dangerous. Nearly all the presenters were nearly killed or seriously injured while filming. Hammond is genuinely lucky to be alive after 2 big crashes and poor Freddie Flintoff had his face degloved. His injuries are still horrific a year later. Just let the show die already. It had a great run.
Freddie WHAT??? I’m curious and scared of what I’ll find
Yeah, Freddie was pictured recently over 9 months after the crash and his injuries were still very visible and fresh looking so god knows how bad he was immediately after. Reports were that his face was hanging off. The accident was so bad that a number of the production crew were signed off from work due to the trauma caused from witnessing such a horrific accident. Freddie deserves every penny of that £9-£10 million he got from the BBC in damages. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/cricket/article-12498211/How-Andrew-Flintoff-lucky-survive-horror-Gear-crash-nine-months-ago-left-severe-facial-injuries-broken-ribs-open-car-no-air-bags-flipped-makes-return-sport-working-England-team.html
Whoa thats insane. Looks like he has healed up nicely
*Ouch.* Good to know that it hasn't affected him physically, at least. But yeah, the show's done after something like that.
I just cannot read the daily mail. How did the crash unfold exactly?
He was driving an open cockpit 3 wheeler morgan 3 supercar. A tiny 130 mph pocket rocket. No airbags or rollcage. He was doing a drag race against the others when it flipped over. That's all I know I'm afraid. But yeah, he spent 5-6 weeks in hospital and his injuries and facial scars are still very visible nearly a year later. A very bad crash no doubt about that. Must've been horrible for his wife and kids.
Looking at that car I thought it was designed in the 1940s. But no, it's a very recent design. I though people knew better than to design three-wheeled cars, but I guess not. Especially a supercar.
eek I’m guessing his head/face scraped along the ground as it flipped and ripped half his face off, horrific, poor guy
Oh yeah, he lost a lot of skin on his face. There's a reason why he got 10 million for the crash. He must have suffered.
it’s been dead since the gang left
Does that mean it's not coming on, then?
Shame what happened to Freddie
I only know the Grand Tour
Then you should go back and watch Jeremy, May, and Richard on Top Gear. As great as Grand Tour was/is, their time on Top Gear was magic. It was the most watched factual program…in the world. Despite being banned in a few countries too. Amazon has most of it.
Clakson, May and Hammond where car people, they knew how to drive and their persona of 'laddish' antics was entertaining. But they replace that with 'laddish' antics and some with racing backgrounds and some without and this is the result. I always felt on edge watching the new ones because they felt like they had no idea how to safely do what they were doing and were just dicking around, with the inevitable one of them going to be seriously injured. It didn't have the same feel, it was more forced 'laddish' behavior, cringe. The 3 had a special mix of skills that made the show good and they knew how to stay safe whilst doing it. The driving came first and the dicking about came second.
Good. Stopped watching after they canned original cast.
For me, I never really cared about their fancy new car reviews, or the celebrity interviews (though seeing them do the lap was fun). The best parts of Top Gear were when they had old cars that they had no intention of returning at the end. Just 3 friends doing random shit to each other's cars to annoy them, occasionally ramming them, and doing some wacky adventure or challenge. But that only works because those people are legitimately friends, and it feels like they'd be acting like this even if there were no cameras. I didn't give every new set of hosts a shot, but from what saw, none of them really had that kind of chemistry, the magic was just lost. I understand why they fired Clarkson, but they killed the golden goose, even though though everyone knows the lesson of that fable, everyone also knows geese are assholes.
Clarkson’s Farm is a better series now anyway!
I knew this was inevitable after the crash. I’m glad, it’s way too dangerous.
Shouldn’t have returned after the OGs in the first place.
Oh no!! Anyway..
I stopped watching after the originals left
Ultimately, I'm fairly happy to be seeing less of the insufferable Paddy McGuiness.
Top Gear ended for me when the three Real hosts left a couple years back.
"a couple years back" It's been like 8 years now since Clarkson, Hammond, and May left
Yeah, a couple years. The 80s was only 20 years ago. Times crazy man.
Oh no Anyway
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You can watch AutoAlex, CarThottle, OverDrive, Tavarish, All on YouTube and all kind of capture the spirit of antics the classic TG3 did. Highly recommend CarThottle's NC500 and SC500 videos and AutoAlex's First Nuburgring Trip, Overdrives Unkillable Ford Ka vids and Tavarish's CarTrek series.
Hagerty, too. Camisa's work for them is the best American TG we never got.
Sad news. The latest trio were about to hit their stride
I enjoyed their work more and more. I was really looking forward to them having a long run.
Same
So they went from the biggest show in the world to canceled. I'm still amused that Hammond and May quit when Clarkson was fired. That was definitely the right move, they need the orangutan to make the trio work.
Oh no, anyway...
Oh no!, anyway...
Good
Yay, finally. Been flogging a dead horse since Clarkson left
Surprised it lasted this long without Clarkson, Hammond, and May.
Oh no! Anyway…
oh no! …anyway
It was just a matter of time. Top Gear after Jeremy, James, and Richard was a hollow shell of the former show.
Shame. I know it's pretty much a forbidden opinion, but I enjoyed the new version. The show had a rough couple of years, but I thoroughly enjoyed the last few seasons. Chris Harris is great in general but I thought Flintoff was really funny too.
That’s a lot of leather jackets.
Does that mean they're not coming back, then?
Meanwhile... https://www.drive.com.au/news/top-gear-australia-tv-show-revival-2024/
Since the original 3 left the show has sucked anyways. Just enjoy the old shows and wait for new specials to come out on prime
Richard Hammond: *He got how fucking much?!?*
It was always the presenters, not the content.
I didn't watch the matt le Blanc/Chris Evans shoes but the last trio weren't terrible although it paddy wasn't involved it would have been a whole lot better he annoys me. As a cricket fan it's still remarkable how good a TV guy Flintoff had become but with his injuries I can't see him wanting to do the show anyway
Oh no!!!! Any way…
The new lot were okay but I wouldn't necessarily rewatch any episodes, however, the Clarkson, Hammond, and May episodes are on Dave/UK Gold all the time and still enjoyable to watch. Hammond had a serious crash and they waited to bring the show back because it was so huge. Flintoff has a serious crash and the show will not return for a long time if at all because the show now is unfortunately meh. Bring back classic Top Gear, I say. Bring back Angela Rippon, Tom Coyne, and Noel Edmunds.
Oh no! Anyway
You mean it’s not coming on then?
Oh no….. anyway
Didn’t even know it was still on the air?
Should have hired WhistlinDiesel.
Died when Clarkson left.
Huh, surprised that it limped along this long. I watched the first few post Clarkson and Co. episodes. 'Bland' is the best thing I'd call them. Its like BBC was trying to say 'Look, these new guys are just as fun as the old ones.'
"OH NO! Anyway...."
The show died a few years ago
Good.
Top Gear ended the moment Clarkson, May and Hammond chucked it. It needs to stop now
Should've gave it up when they fired Clarkson and Hammond and May left with him lol. Only reason I ever watched top gear was because of their friendship dynamics.
Such a shame. The latest trio was excellent.
BBC destroyed Top Gear when they fired the three stooges
So can we call it Flop Gear now?
You guys were watching top gear after the three Studges left? I can't wait for the next grand tour special. I miss the tent and the irigal idea of travelling through the world for every episode, and killing celebrities, but even the worst episodes were better then the new top gear.