Ask The Best And Brightest: How Is Top Gear USA Working Out For You?
Jack Baruth’s prescient preemptive strike against the American incarnation of everyone’s favorite car show leaves little room for more full-length opinion on the new Top Gear USA. Which is a good thing considering I’ve only watched the first installment online (why get cable when you have the internet?)… and as far as this anglophile originalist is concerned, once was enough. But it’s certainly possible that I’ve missed signs of improvement. So now that we’re two episodes deep, let’s hear it from you: is Top Gear USA irredeemably mediocre, or is there reason top look forward to future episodes? And if your opinion leans towards the former choice, how the hell do we as Americans successfully combine our two great cultural loves, cars and TV? Because, as a nation, it’s hard to deny that our TV-shows-about-cars track record thus far is just plain embarrassing.
More by Edward Niedermeyer
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I found the first episode boring and didnt really like the hosts. Have yet to see the second because I'd rather watch The Walking Dead. Its my wife's opinion on the show that I found really interesting. She said she hated the first episode of Top Gear US. She then went on to tell me that she likes Chasing Classic Cars alot more. Interesting because just a few weeks ago while watching CCC she commented that Wayne is a pretty boring guy and the show overall is boring as well. So what does that say about Top Gear US? If car guys dont like it AND non car people dont like it, how much of a future does it have?
I am in the camp that thinks it's getting better, if Episode 2 was any indication, and I'm pleasantly surprised at how well Foust and Wood are doing in terms of talking to the camera and to each other. But Ferrara is god-awful. Which is really a shame, as he seems to have that urban everyman vibe about him. Wood has the rural everyman role covered, and Foust is certainly the driver in the group. But Ferrara has no business reading from a teleprompter. As a comedian, you'd think he would excel in injecting some levity into a discussion between the three, but he even looks scared/nervous in that situation. If TG survives to a second season, I think Ferrara will not be returning, and they'll find someone better (fingers crossed).
It's all down to the writing. It's the writers, or lack thereof, that leave TGUS wanting. The show clunks, sputters, stalls, and coughs its way through segments. Nothing clever or witty. Nothing insightful or poetic. Hell, it's as stilted as Motorweek but with low camera angles and powerslides. Then they add a couple bits ripped off from TGUK that, if you watch TGUK, fall flat. Hogwash with the need for "time" or "chemistry" to sort the show out. Until they get some writers that can, you know, actually write, this show will gasp and wheeze its way through its initial 12 episodes and be resigned to the dustbin of bad American TV show history.
Yes we can go back and look at the season 1 episodes of the UK Top Gear to see how far they have come. Why then is it that when a new car is designed that it does not look like Ford's Model A? Why would we expect the US top gear to rival season 1 of the UK? The Brits figured out what was needed, what worked, what did not. Dont give these guys a pass on just tossing together a car show with elements of the UK Top Gear. As the reply's show, they missed the mark. I say lets open their time slot for the UK version to be shown. I can supply you with a conversion chart for dollars to pounds if that helps. We could rename the US version to Tossers.