frankzappayay

Starts promising but they just drag everything out so much. I think it is so well made and acted that it distracts people from how uneventful and slow it is. It's like a really good 2 season show dragged out across several and the quality and believability goes out the window because of it.

It is a bit interesting, but only really the novelty of seeing people grow up from kids to elderly. The actual content itself is disappointing though. They only get to spend a few minutes on each person, so you don't really get to know them as people. They ask the same few questions in each movie, and they aren't interesting enough questions and not enough depth.

It is also very one dimensional. The series tries to make a point of how bad the British class system is, with the upper class kids forced into their top end jobs but with no appreciation of the simpler things in life. And the working class kids the exact opposite.

Also none of them have interesting lives, or interesting outlooks. Only one of them is interesting which isn't enough, and you also don't get to see enough about any of them. It would have been better to have fewer people and a more in depth look into their lives. One of the more interesting people refused to continue with the show so was only in the first couple of movies.

Overall semi interesting but not good enough. Not deep enough to be useful to a sociologist, not interesting enough to be entertainment. Also it is overall pretty dark and miserable which is a shame because the first episode was so happy, but it quickly takes a dark turn and stays that way until the end.

I'm British so I grew up watching the UK show and still do.

I saw this US version on the internet so I thought I would see it just out of interest. I enjoyed it. It's pretty much a carbon copy to me, so they can't really go wrong. It has decent music, it has the arty camera angles and stuff, it has the interesting cars and some fun things they do with them (like racing a chopper or whatever), it has the studio audience, the races around their own track, and the Stig. It's all there, and it's just as fun as the UK show in my opinion.

I admit that the hosts are a bit lacking, and could definitely use a bit more enthusiasm, but they are not far off. They seem to lack some chemistry between too, but this is season one. Surely that's the kind of thing that might develop as time goes on? Maybe once they hang out a bit more, they will learn to like each other more, maybe develop some nicknames or whatever. I hope so, because in my humble opinion, I think they did a really good job with the conversion. To me it was just like watching the UK version but with a slight US twist. They didn't do anything wrong and they didn't change anything for the worse, so I think it's destined to do well. If they can just enthuse the hosts a bit more (or replace them if worst comes to worst), then they have it nailed.

p.s. I hope it does succeed because it might be able to have a bit more US stuff on it than our British show. I know Europe is amazing for making cars but the US has some brilliant brands too and they also have those big 'no-screwing-around' trucks which you don't see much of here. So a US show that mixes both would be great.