Top Gear America

[Soup du Jour]

For those who don't know, Top Gear is a car show that was started in the UK and has become one of the biggest shows on the planet. Recently, the land of liberty took the franchise and started it's own version of the show which premiered tonight.

Did anyone check it out? What did you think?

I thought it was miles ahead of the Australia series in terms of the hosts and their interactions and the filming looked on par with the UK series. I am looking forward to what's next.

[Soup du Jour]

The first two minutes are a good preview for the show

[Dabram]

i dunno..

i don't care about cars, but i love top gear for the interaction between the 3 hosts and the childish shit they do..

the american preview seems to promise some fun/childish action, which is a plus, but other than that those 3 guys presenting appear to be pretty lame and lacking personality.. hard to tell in a few min watch ofc, but probably won't bother to watch to find out, i have no desire for a second top gear.

still there's been worse shows that tried to copy top gear

[Fit of Rage]

I watched the whole thing last night. It was a lot better than I was expecting. I am surprised that the viper was able to beat all the lamborghinis though.

[soup]

Just watch the original show, same cars, more money put into it, better footage, funnier,...


why copy a concept when the original still has over 300 million people watching it


oh and you guys aren't even remotely funny

[Blocks]

Heh, I went to the taping of Sunday night's show last month. I'm in a few of the studio shots.

The hosts seemed like cool people off-camera, they were joking around and telling stories. They did confirm that some of the shots are staged -- for instance, for the Viper/helicopter chase, they ran it once for-reals, which is the result that you saw, and then went back and did some reshoots for dramatic effect.

All in all, not bad. Doesn't compare to the British version though, but that's a tough shadow to be in.

[Galleleo]

So I downloaded the first episode earlier, but didn't get around to watching it until now.

It's fucking terrible. As far as camera work goes it's roughly the same as the original, but the hosts are boring as shit. It's like you're watching a daytime soap opera. In the UK version you get the idea that it's genuinely 3 guys having the time of their lifes just mucking about in super expensive cars. In this one you get the idea that it's 3 terrible actors having problems reading a script and faking emotions. It's just stale and bleh.

It's a shame because the idea for the viper vs. cobra and stuff was nice and the preview for the rest of the season seems it has some interesting ideas for things they do with cars, but the hosts are so boring I couldn't sit through another episode.

[Soup du Jour]

I'll be honest, I've stopped watching the show since about episode 6. The only presenter I really enjoyed was Tanner but to go as far as saying it was terrible is an overstatement.

I think the big difference is in the music/sound. Whoever is finding and editing the music for Top Gear is brilliant.

I hope it continues so it can evolve to something better just like the original Top Gear did. Have you ever seen anything from season 1? They had that useless fat guy in place of James and the format was completely different. I'd bet you'd be calling that show terrible if it just came on right now.

I'm going to keep watching the first few episodes of each season because I think America/American cars/American car history has enough meat to produce a quality show.

[Galleleo]

I know they changed formats in the original Top Gear, but guess what, it's the original Top Gear, they had nothing to go on. They created this show.

These guys are doing a terrible job imitating it. Because let's be honest, that's what they are trying to do, imitating the British version. They are even trying to come up with analogies, only they are terrible.

[WuTang420]

what would have been 100% better would have been not making the US wait till the british season is over before putting it on bbc america. being a huge fan of the real top gear the american version is just blasphemous

[Money]

no one will ever top Top Gear UK, teh aussie one is TERRIBLE and teh US one isnt as bad as teh aussie but i agree with galleleo the hosts are what make the show and teh US hosts just dont cut it, yet

[Zeebu]

iron chef america isnt nearly as cool as the original iron chef either

[Jerome Scuggs]

skins

the only way i would watch an american top gear is if they got larry the cable guy and jeff foxworthy to recreate all the stunts. no training, no re-shoots, just raw american humdingery. plus the exciting chance to watch those redneck faggots explode on tv

[Mobey]

First TGUSA episode was mediocre, but seriously TG... USA... just, no.

[vaped]

All versions of the show are boring. Fuck these elitists showing off the money they make off of the common man.