Here's Why Top Gear's Problems Don't Mean It'll Suck
You’ve almost got to feel sorry for Chris Evans. The man is under immense pressure after taking over presenting Top Gear from Jeremy Clarkson, James May and Richard Hammond, and by the sounds of it, it’s all going terribly at the moment. To cut a long story short, Evans already crashed a car, some high ranking staff have left, other staff don’t know about cars, and the overly-paranoid BBC won’t leave him alone to make the show.
This news was, predictably, met with quite a bit of joy from the old TG faithful, who believe nothing could ever live up to what the three wise men - well, two wise men and Jeremy - offered up. But it’s not really fair, nor is it justifiable, to slate the new car show before it’s begun. It’s having teething problems, but let’s wait until we’ve seen an episode before we pass judgement.
Making a television show is a long and complicated process, and there are a lot of factors that must align for a show to be great. The team working on Top Gear is almost entirely new, and like in any other walk of life, when you throw a group of people together, there will be personality clashes. There will also be disagreements about which direction is best for the show to succeed. The restructuring that appears to be taking place right now is likely just a natural evolution of personnel.
It’s important to remember that all of this mirrors what happened when Jeremy Clarkson and Andy Wilman started putting together a revamped Top Gear all those years ago. Anyone who’s read former script editor Richard Porter’s book will know that that show had its fair share of problems. In the end, the pilot episode was an absolutely huge failure, and the first episodes only just fell together. And even they suffered personnel issues, with presenters not working out just one of the myriad problems faced by the crew.
So if Clarkson’s efforts also started out by looking like a failure, there’s no reason to think that Evans and friends won’t be able to turn their effort around as well. And let’s be honest, if the rumours are true that Chris Harris will be getting on board then we know that it has a great chance of doing exactly that.
Chris Evans has said in the past that he doesn’t want to try to copy what the old show did, and instead he’s going to make it all about cars again. Harris would be the perfect man to help him do that, by bringing a fun personality with geeky knowledge and insane talent behind the wheel to the show.
And then there are the rumours about Sabine Schmitz and David Coulthard, who might not quite have Harris’ bubbly personality, but also bring incredible knowledge and talent to the offering.
It’ll be fascinating to see what they all come up with. The first series will likely be a bit of a mashup of styles as they all find their feet, but don’t write them off just yet. It won’t be Top Gear as we know it, but that’s what the Amazon Prime thing is for. It might actually be quite nice to have Top Gear focusing on the cars again…
Comments
As long as Chris Harris keeps doing this, I will watch!
http://www.thextremexperience.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/chris_harris-laferrari.gif
Please Chris Harris please keep doing YouTube!
I think The Stig is the only wise men in TopGear
Stig is not even human
I think they should kill The Stig off. Leave the old TG behind.
I think thats the worst thing I’ve ever heard in my life
bad idea homie
In a way, you’re right. The new TG a) couldn’t pull the whole Dtig thing off, and b) they don’t need him anyway. They have enough talent in the presenters, (Obviously not Evans… :P) to be able to scrap the Stig entirely.
However, they will keep the rights to him, even if they don’t use him. Just so Amazon Prime can’t get their hands on him and use him on their show.
i tought it was one wise man that no one ever has seen it speak or it’s body, one hamster, one lunatic who is obsessed by hammers, power and speed and one old fashioned man that lives in the 50’s with his cats.
The teething problems 4 m herald something interesting is a foot. So question is will new Top Gear remain a show that speaks it’s mind regardless of the consequences or pander to the whimsy of the unimportant.
Chris Evans sounds like a hoover and that is why it sucks.
Top gear’s condition right now is like dodge charger. The classic one (JC,JM,RH) is cool, charismatic muscle car, then there is the new one (this one in question) which is a 4 door sedan, but that sedan has 700hp, which is awsome but not actually the same.
Now my personal opinion is, both of the generation of the show is awsome, but in different way and i think its actually not the same anymore and should have different name
Nicely said.
Am I just being paranoid or is it really suspicious to be a mediahack? I mean they have hugely professional creative staff and are not exactly on a tight budget, they clearly in need of attention. Any kind of attention. Even these ‘bad news’ and rumours give them loads of publicity, and in the showbiz it does not matter if the news are positive or negative, true or fake as long as they keep them in the limelight.
As long as people dont expect it to be the same as Top gear with clarkson and co it will do good. It needs to start as a new show not following the same tyoe of format which the new 3 cant re create.
Just put a show together with Vicki Henderson, Tiff Needell and add Haris to it.
Oh wait.