Top Gear USA

My friend said "you've got to watch this show called Top Gear. You'll love it even though you're not a car freak. It's awesome".

So I watched a couple and told my friend he was sadly mistaken. I didn't like the show at all. He was perplexed. What had I become?

It turns out that he was only referring to the UK show (and had never heard of the American show). I had never heard of either, and only stumbled upon the American show.

Now that I have since seen the excellent UK version, and he has since seen the wretched American version, the Universe has become stable again. My friend is no longer convinced I had become compromised by a body snatcher.

I do tend to agree with most of the reviews on here, but I would say that they only hold true for the first couple of seasons. I think I probably watched season one and two and remember the cringe worthy lack of chemistry between the presenters and the complete copy and paste job from the UK Top Gear, but what can you expect so early on? Now watching season five and I have to say it is a much better show, yes each episode is now just one long special/expedition, but I really like it. Yes it may be incredibly scripted and impossible to believe at points, but so is the UK show and it doesn't take away from the fantastic places they drive their high performance vehicles through! One problem with removing celebrity guests, fast lap time etc is that if you don't really enjoy the subject matter (for example drag racing, which I have zero interest in) there is nothing to give you a small break from it. Although it is many times better in its current iteration I hope they bring back something from the UK series.

I just rewatched the entire 6 seasons of Top Gear US and it was so much fun! These 3 were developing some fun chemistry and the format was perfect. 3 dumb guys buy 3 cheap cars and compete in challenges or show up with the most over the top vehicles. Either way it took the best of the UK Top Gear (Clarkson and crew) specials and had a US flare to it.

Why does BBC screw up everything they had done well?!?

I wasn't surprised that i was disappointed, but i was surprised at how awful the hosts are, Foust is the only one that deserves to be anywhere near this show, at least In TG UK, the guys are all car nuts, not some washed up comedians. This reminded me of a bunch of kids who stole their dads viper and only know stats about the car through the sales brochure. Not only was the hosting pretty terrible, the Lambo caparison at the end was the most boring, monotonous and uncreative thing I've ever seen on TG. TG UK could have made a comparison test with 3 Toyota Corollas far more existing and witty. The Brits just do some things better like tea, accents and Top Gear, I'll pass on the rest of the season and wait till January for the real Top Gear to come back.

Despite this show being wildly unpopular, I must confess myself a fan. I've been watching Top Gear for years, even in the old Jeremy Clarkson days and I love it to bits. Watched quite a few of the spin-off shows but never really enjoyed any of them.

US version makes its entrance and I'll obviously give it the benefit of the doubt. Season 1 wasn't very enjoyable, because the hosts don't have that instantly-loved chemistry of the UK guys plus they can't pull off the UK concept of reviews and the whole interview thing.

They quickly realized they needed to build the game solely on challenges, my favourite segments of the UK show. So every single show features fun and crazy challenges. The initial lack of great chemistry is made up by the content which admittedly is often taken from the UK show, however it's such a vague idea that is wildly different once you have different people, cars, circumstances etc.

As you work your way through the episodes, you come to love these guys. Rutledge Wood being that smiling, papa-bear type. Adam Ferrara being the loud New Yorker type that is slightly cocky but is prone to screw it up and Tanner Foust the professional race driver that is a more timid type that is just waiting to show off his abilities. It seems to work on some level!

Maybe I'm just crazy but the show being nothing but challenges and featuring some nice guys works for me, I really enjoy it and I'd rather watch an episode of this with challenges than one with nothing but interviews and boring car tests of the UK show.