OK...it's been nearly a month since the series ended...I think that is long enough for the dust to settle. So...Top Gear series 23, or as it is more commonly known - the first series of the latest Top Gear format since Clarkson & Co's departure. No, no and no again.
As you may have seen in the archive of this blog, I was gutted when the era of Jeremy James and Richard's Top Gear came to an end; I celebrated it for better or worse and I did cast some speculation about whether it could ever be bested, or if anything could even come close.
The new series confirmed for me, and for what seems like a considerable chunk of the viewing audience, that it could not and did not.
For my part I would go as far as to say that it set the brand, feel, appeal and general tone of Top Gear back by a long long way. Taking a re-heated shell concept and trying to embellish it with badly conceived and arrogantly executed add-ons that felt woefully last minute and almost completely cringe-worthy is not what I would call progression. In truth I wanted to give up on it after episode one, and felt similar urges throughout, yet stupidly hung on until the end hoping against hope that it would improve into some semblance of the Top Gear legions have come to know and love. For me, it did not. Now you may be saying at this point - what's the point in hankering for a show that is past,?One that is clearly separated from TG's future and - stop comparing the latest outing to something we will never see again (unless you are a regular viewer of Dave). And you'd be right. Part of the reason I hung on and watched the whole series is because I was open to being receptive to the novelty of new Top Gear, and the idea that I may somewhat enjoy it. But sadly 9 times out of 10 I did not. At times it made me wistfully sad and hankering for the old days, but a lot of the time it just made me angrily despondent about how cacking awful things were.
There were inklings of things that I liked; precious few saving graces. The production values and the plethora of awe-inspiring cars has not changed, though why should it for the Beeb's flagship motoring entertainment show. And contrary to reservations I had, I found Matt LeBlanc to be quite the revelation. Yes his American, brash and occasionally big-headed Hollywood mannerisms did jar with me and did not seem to fit with the Top Gear ethos, but his petrol head nature and enthusiasm was obvious and infectious and he was clearly the pick of the presenting crop.
Yet apart from that...not much else floated me boat. Again there was idea after rehashed idea from the old series, given a half-arsed respray and presented at a different angle that just didn't work. The "epic" challenges, the star in a car segment (come on - "rally-cross" instead of Reasonably Priced ain't fooling anyone!) the races, the Stig, the writing (or apparent lack thereof) and even some of the plain old auto tests were just obvious carbon copies taken from the old series, juggled around and presented in a supposedly new and fresh way, yet somehow seemed to be constantly trying to hark back to the good old days of yesteryear. The results were tragic, not fresh or interesting at all, woefully predictable and did nothing at all for the image or appeal of this supposedly brave new world of Top Gear.
And speaking of the presenters, yes LeBlanc was good, but good God he was one of many! Again I think this is a massive clanger dropped by the production team, as before you even judge the individual presenters themselves, the fact that you have six of them is just baffling. Once more I feel it was a case of not knowing where they wanted to take the new show, trying to hark back to old themes, whilst trying to please everybody; presumably by fetching in a presenter for every demographic you could think of.
So let's go through them then.
Matt LeBlanc: As I say, good, solid, approachable, oozing petrol head class and unexpectedly his Hollywood glamour and charm didn't clash with Top Gear as much as I thought it would.
Sabine Schmitz: I applaud the idea of getting a female presenter, and I applaud the idea of getting a kick-ass German driving legend, and former Top Gear cameo specialist too. But she was given nowhere near enough screen time and when she was featured she was made to appear very stylised and almost faked in her tone and delivery.
Eddie Jordan: Again sounds good - former F1 legend to present a big car show. Yes Eddie Jordan did provide a modicum of comic relief and down to earth ruggedness, but again barely any screen time did not lead to any tapping into of the man's knowledge, ability or appeal.
Chris Harris & Rory Reid: These two I put together because they seemed to jointly be the biggest afterthought ever. Yet ironically they represent for me the biggest missed opportunity in terms of fresh presenting. They were not even introduced until half way through the series, and it seems like they just seemed to be plonked there to again widen the demographic and to play very much the back up band to what was apparently the main event.
Yet the biggest and most glaring f**k up for me (and seemingly again for most of the viewing nation) throughout this entire venture of new Top Gear was presenting Chris Evans as star host of the show. Do not get me wrong - before episode one aired I was quietly optimistic about his appointment - I had no real opinion of him from other ventures, he was a renowned petrol head, and his passing appearences on old Top Gear seemed sound.
But give the man the job of fronting new Top Gear and boy oh boy does he turn into the most self-absorbed, loud, clichéd arrogant prick I've seen on TV for a good long while. His road tests seemed to again feature re-heated innuendos and clichés (stuff you wouldn't find in even the worst of Clarkson's back catalogue) always shouted and done with very little finesse - which I either took to mean he was treating audiences like idiots or seemingly he had delusions of grandeur that he was delivering gospel. The same can be said of his celebrity interviews and his general studio demeanour in between. Not once did he seem anything other than self-obsessed, self-absorbed, pathetic and generally a provider of terrible viewing. I am so glad he resigned quite quickly after the series ended, though I imagine not out of the pure unadulterated shame which is severely warranted.
As I said a year ago when Top Gear as the fans knew it ended; the old guard were not perfect. Yet they fashioned a format and an ethos that managed to delight fans globally for over a decade. To see all that cast asunder and almost obliterated by a load of poorly conceived, poorly executed, arrogant and almost infantile ideas that some people have had but are broadly unequipped to carry out is not only anger-inducing it is also quite sad. I have no doubt it was the financial success of Top Gear gone by that motivated someone at the BBC to green light what eventually became this car crash of a mess (pun intended). Now all we have to do is wait and see whether they and Top Gear itself can survive long enough to regret it.
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