[Fmrl]

The Christmas special should have been in China rather than India - loved the Maestro/Montego, the three wheeler deathtraps, Chinese Stig, the Trumpchi, etc.

Top Gear China...

Top Gear China S1 EP6 Clip - YouTube

Typical Clarkson review of that Merc convertible - list all it's faults, slag it off, demonstrate the poor handling by spinning it, bring on a couple of competitor cars that are better/cheaper/faster, etc. Then end the section by saying how brilliant it is and how much he loves it.

[Chox1988]

By far the weakest episode so far this season, seemed a bit up themselves with a self indulgent fake movie shoot. And the stupidity act is very boring but it was still entertaining and watchable.

Episode was saved by the star in the reasonably priced car, he was a very good guest, he was much funnier than i was expecting. And that corsa .

[Captain_Danger]

Probably the worst episode I have seen in a while tonight. Really poor.

[HMHB]

Let's hope they put all the crap into one episode this season as it was total garbage as far as I'm concerned

[amd mad]

Agree so so episode best bit james may but who's going to pay £25grand for a corsa ?!

[Battle]

Only redeemed by a very entertaining Star in the reasonably priced car.

The rest was utter garbage, fast forwarded as much of the fake movie shoot as I could until I caught up with live.

[Mr_Wistles]

The star (which I usually forward through) was very good. The rest however was utter tripe, that entire Sweeney part was painfully bad.

[Always-hungry]

Originally Posted by Captain_Danger

Probably the worst episode I have seen in a while tonight. Really poor.

Could not agree more, utter utter rubbish from start to finish, possibly the worst episode ever, dire

[C-J]

Originally Posted by Always-hungry

Could not agree more, utter utter rubbish from start to finish, possibly the worst episode ever, dire

Agree I love TG but last night was painful to watch very poor indeed

[larkone]

They have finally made my mind up - not watching it any more after that tripe. Tellytubbies has a higher intellectual content.

[Ron240]

Originally Posted by larkone

They have finally made my mind up - not watching it any more after that tripe.

It certainly wasnt a great episode, was actually quite poor to be honest.....but surely they are allowed to have at least one bad episode per series?
Assuming you are with the majority and agree that episodes 1 & 2 were pretty good, then would you really stop watching based on one bad episode?

Next week there is a review of the Ferrari FF, the team build mobility scooters that can tackle the British countryside, and the guest is Michael Fassbender.
Nope...never heard of him.

[Kebabhead]

Damn shame about the Jaq XFR

[HMHB]

Originally Posted by Ron240

It certainly wasnt a great episode, was actually quite poor to be honest.....

Actually there's the proof that it was very poor, I never thought I'd see Ron240 typing those words

[Jason56d]

Probably the worst episode in years. The Sweeney bit wasn't even funny, just cringe worthy.

I usually FF through the SIARPC, but I quite like Ryan Reynolds and he was good value.

Michael Fassbender has been in loads of stuff you may or may not have seen. He is on because he will be promoting his new flick no doubt, A Dangerous Method.

Michael Fassbender - IMDb

Hopefully this episode will be better than the last one!

[Ron240]

Originally Posted by JohnG

Actually there's the proof that it was very poor, I never thought I'd see Ron240 typing those words

Yep, i had to be honest about it, was a dog of an episode. I know i would have lost any credibility i might have had if i said i enjoyed this episode.
The Sweeney section dragged the whole thing down badly i thought. Its a shame because im old enough to remember the original first time around and am a big fan, so was looking forward to seeing what they done with this, but just found it dull and uninteresting.
Has actually put me off the new movie in a way....even though i was dubious about them being able to pull it off in the first place, because Regan & Carter will always be John Thaw and Dennis Waterman in my book. A virtually impossible act to follow.

[Ron240]

Originally Posted by Jason56d

Michael Fassbender has been in loads of stuff you may or may not have seen. He is on because he will be promoting his new flick no doubt, A Dangerous Method.
Michael Fassbender - IMDb

Looking down that list....you're right, i have seen him in one thing without realising it - Eden Lake. Good film.

[HMHB]

Originally Posted by Ron240

Yep, i had to be honest about it, was a dog of an episode. I know i would have lost any credibility i might have had if i said i enjoyed this episode.
The Sweeney section dragged the whole thing down badly i thought. Its a shame because im old enough to remember the original first time around and am a big fan, so was looking forward to seeing what they done with this, but just found it dull and uninteresting.
Has actually put me off the new movie in a way....even though i was dubious about them being able to pull it off in the first place, because Regan & Carter will always be John Thaw and Dennis Waterman in my book. A virtually impossible act to follow.

I know what you mean, I remember the original Sweeney fondly from all those years ago.

[Jules Winfield]

The whole "car chase" bit was without doubt the worst TG segment I've ever seen. Not only was it bad, it was boring. I almost turned the TV off before it ended, and I've never done that before.

The whole idea was flawed from the beginning and it's time Top Gear stopped treating its viewers like simpletons. Do they really expect us to believe that the film makers would let them put together the car chase scenes for their movie? So, they've barely introduced the segment, and we already know its fake.

Similarly, Hammond's "thick" schtick is wearing a little thin. Does he really not know who Ray Winstone is? He's been on the show before, in the reasonably priced car bit. It was so blatant, so obvious and desperately unfunny. Likewise the caravan explosion. It's been done before: they "accidentally" blow up the wrong thing, then try to blame each other for the perceived "mistake", when it would be obvious to a four year old that it was entirely intentional. Top Gear in this regard is rather like Michael Bay: he blows up anything that moves, they blow up any caravan they see.

There was far too much sitting around in caravans thinking of "ideas", and far too much time was spent focusing on Nick Love (director's) utter disdain for what they were doing. Yes, he doesn't "like" you very much and he swears a lot. Would he really daub green paint on your cars? I doubt it.

One thing I really don't like about Top Gear is their wanton destruction. It can be amusing if it's done right, but this was not. They destroyed a perfectly decent Ford Focus for absolutely no reason whatsoever. They ruined one Jag and at least one other Focus, and tore the back end off another Jag. High-end Jaguars are not cheap cars. Focuses are hardly bargain basement nowadays. The destruction of the Focus was particularly offensive. It didn't add anything at all. They fire a car out of a cannon and attempt to cut it into some other filmed footage of another Focus doing a rather pathetic jump.

It would have been far better if they'd had Ray Winstone or "Plan B" on as a guest next week to publicise their film. They could have showed the trailer and afterwards said something like "That's how the professional film makers do it. 'It can't be that difficult', we thought. So we had a go at recreating it ourselves". Stop treating the audience like morons. They are not.

How can Top Gear go from making a segment as brilliant as the Aventador/Noble/McLaren one in the first episode to this dross is beyond me. Did they just give up?

The only bright spots about this episode were James's Panda/Corsa segment (which was quite entertaining: I think I'd go for the Panda as well) and Ryan Reynolds (who was a very good guest).

[Jenn]

Was it not obvious that the car chase bit was wholy meant as comedy? Hammond pretending not to know who Ray Winstone is, Ray Winstone pretending to be confused about Hammond's directing and pretending to getting annoyed at him, the Director pretending to be angry...

I wouldn't have thought for one second they seriously thought anyone would believe it was true.

[HMHB]

The main problem was that it just wasn't funny and also Hammond must be the worst actor there's ever been!

[Jenn]

I think they were trying to do silly comedy where you laugh at how stupid they look and how bad the acting is. Rather than them being obviously funny and good.
That's my only explanation.

[HMHB]

It failed miserably though and was just **** !!

[Jenn]

To be honest I've found Top Gear to be that way for years. Fake challenges and scenarios that aren't funny or informative.

I've not watched it for ages because it's like that and only caught the end of that episode while flicking through the channels.

[sniffer66]

The only benefit of Sundays show is that Ryan Reynolds has gone up in my estimation. I always thought he was arrogant and up himself found him a great guest and very funny

[SimonH]

Amazed how many people who don't like the show keep watching and even take time to then post about it as well.

Also folks, talk about miss the point, of course Hammond knows who Winston is... Truly stunning people are asking that, you're not getting the show at all.

Get it through your heads, this is a light entertainment now and has been for a long time, the VT's are sketches,mthat is what it is.

I laughed a lot at the grumpy director stuff, but then I don't sit around thinking , was that real?

Stop watching if it pees you off.

[HMHB]

Are you under 14 because that's where I think this kind of "humour" is best aimed at

[nwgarratt]

Last episode was the worse TG one ever. I only liked the Ryan Reynolds bit.

[meltonboy]

Ok, so i think that we all know that Hammond really does know who Ray Winstone is - it was just not that funny when he said it. RH is not a convincing actor, especially this "stupid boy" routine that is written for him.

It was a poor section that was just not entertaining, funny or informative. Unfortunately it dominated the episode, so made the episode poor and feel like it was 2 hours long.

But it was just one slot and for me i have enjoyed the other parts of the other episodes, so i'm happy to keep watching.

I should admit that i'm not that interested in cars (i live in zone 2 London) and chose not to watch cars in other programmes that are actually programmes about cars.

For me, this is a sit-com with 3 entertaining blokes with cars a context. I don't watch old Dad's Army shows for to learn about Britain in the second world war, I watch them beacuse the dialogue is funny.

It was just that one long slot wasn't funny at all. No big deal.

Funnily enough i normally FF all of the the star in the car bit, but watched and enjoyed the interview.

MB

[SimonH]

Originally Posted by JohnG

Are you under 14 because that's where I think this kind of "humour" is best aimed at

Thanks for sharing your infinite wisdom on the TG demographic.

When you've got something worth adding to the grown ups conversation other than "14 year" old childish personal digs, be sure to comment.

[HMHB]

Originally Posted by SimonH

Thanks for sharing your infinite wisdom on the TG demographic.

When you've got something worth adding to the grown ups conversation other than "14 year" old childish personal digs, be sure to comment.

My pleasure. As soon as you stop telling people what to watch and what not to watch. It works both ways

Edit - I do think that my original post came across as an insult, it wasn't meant to sound so harsh and it was a late at night post. I don't like being told to get something in my head and stop watching something!!