The new Top Gear. Life after Clarkson.

So I was sitting here thinking about what my next post should be about. At first I leaned towards how most mobile games tugs on my nerve with the bait and switch tactics of making everything harder to get the longer the game is out. But I felt it was both a dated topic and that I did not have much more to say about it than that. So I will leave it with… “Dear mobile game designers… Fuck you”.

So I went back to the drawing board, hence the lateness of this post (but if you are a regular… and I use that term loosely… reader this will in fact be an early post as it has not been weeks or months since the last one.) But I simply decided to talk about Top Gear, especially the new series that just wrapped a short season. Let me first make it clear that this is not the Clarkson era Top Gear, and I am very pleased with it. Enough DNA left to make it recognizable as Top Gear but a new dynamic and enough changes to inject some vitality in to a show that had grown staler than a month old loaf of bread.

Because let us be serious for a while. The old show was so predictable that you could predict each down to the joke. The car reviews were still good but the rest was cringe worthy at best and desperate for the most.

So this new show brings in a new set of talent since Clarkson made his exit with the other two stooges. The setup is much more reminiscent of the competing UK motorshow Fifth Gear. Beyond the core duo of Chris Evans and Matt LeBlanc taking the place of Clarkson, Hammond and May an expanded cast including a bunch of people I have no idea who they are… Apart from Sabine Schmitz do make the show have a bit more variety.

Beyond that most things remain the same, gone is the news segment, pretty much the only part of the old show I still enjoyed. And no longer having “a star in a reasonably priced car” they have “two stars in a rally-cross car” a segment that is about as hit or miss as the old one but at least it is something. Beyond that the show kept its car reviews of cars you will never even get to dream about and the story based challenges like “is a car, a bike or public transport faster across city X”.

Matt LeBlanc of course deliver a spot on impersonation of Matt LeBlanc and as expected by a seasoned actor hit all the beats. A sort of safe and toned down Clarkson. Big thumbs up from me. Chris Evans for me is not as good of a fit but I am sure that once he have a season or two beneath the belt he will stop chafing in the role. (Edit: Shortly after posting this i found out that Chris Evans decided to not continue on with Top Gear) The banter is still good and there is a warmth to it. BBC have toned down the toxicity that came to mark the later season of the Clarkson era and seem to work towards having the crew being more including and well… behave less like arsehats. Now I know some people liked the “edge” in the classic anti-authority vibe if sticking it to the norms and “PC Police”. But having Clarkson… A smart man… Acting like a punch drunk baboon for cheap laughs got old in the end.

This new Top Gear is very much a modern production, designed to offend no-one or at least as few is one can. But it was in my mind needed, the show had to be reeled back in before it was given some slack again. I am sure that BBC will now put the writers and showrunners to task going over the feedback and tweaking the show for the next season.

We fear change as Garth Algar put it. But sometimes change is needed and I feel that Top Gear was in need of such change. My recommendation is to give the new show a chance, go in with an open mind and enjoy the show for what it is.