TheMuffinMan

I did find that "I'm big and fat" comment by Rutledge just retarded.

neuronbob

This show gets the official neuronbob™

A little slow, yes, but the guys are just getting their chemistry together. I can see them improving a great deal. I plan to keep watching.

I liked the Lambo segment at the end the best. I'd be shaking, too, if I got to 180 mph on a short airfield. Tanner's excuse for losing WAS lame ("It was the tires, if I hadn't been drifting...")

The primary disappointment was that Mercedes sponsored the show. I was hoping that they would keep car manufacturers out of sponsorship for that show. I guess not.

Rev9K27

It's a work in progress.

lynk26

I agree, I think most of these people haven't seen the first episode of the UK Top Gear. Compared to that one, this one was awesome. I think we need to give these guys a chance to grow into their own. I went through this with the UK and US version of The Office. At first, I was like "WTF is this?" when I saw the first episode. As it went on, I got accustomed to the different style of humor, and I'm glad I stuck with it because now I like both versions.

In my opinion, I think it was a pretty decent start for Top Gear US.

TopGear

Show was pretty meh. I went in trying to be unbiased, but that didn't last too long.

Didn't like the viper film. Also, they need to figure out their in car camera mounts. I have less shaky autocross videos than their in car viper footage. That was hard to watch.

"Big Star, Small Car" (ugh), was a very boring interview. How can you make a Buzz Aldrin interview boring???

I was hopeful at the beginning of the Lambo film. The whole bull fighter bit was very well filmed. But the hosts proceeded to ruin it. And the standing mile? Pretty lame, and anticlimactic.

I thought Foust was a decent host, but the other two just got on my nerves, and seemed to have no idea what they were talking about. None of them were as bad as Jason Dawe at least

UK Top Gear was pretty rough its first couple of seasons, but it wasn't *this* bad. I'll watch a couple more just to see if it gets better, but I'm not too hopeful.

dombey

dude. I have to say it's worse than I was expecting.
I think where they went wrong was in trying to be too much like the UK version...like the viper chase...seen it before w/ the lotus and I guess the segment was ok...if you've never seen the UK version.

Calling the Stig The Stig just seems weird to me...and the explanations of everything are awful but presumably they'll only exist in the first episode.

Narration, commentary, and host rapport are all equally awful, but hopefully they'll loosen up. It's so rehearsed, like they are reading their lines...but with no emotion or improvisation or personality.

You can't argue with the cars, they're all hot and I'll watch it for that...I'm just hoping the talent gets more comfortable (and in a hurry before it gets canceled).

TopGear

Aside from the terrible, terrible, Jason Dawe, I think the first UK Top Gear was much better than this. I'm actually rewatching it as I type this.

For starters, Hammond and Clarkson had much better chemistry than the current US presenters.

It started with the fun and quirky Citron Berlingo Multispace film where Clarkson drives to the french booze superstore.

Then the short bit about the history of the GT40, which was well done, followed with the Zonda vs Murcielago, and that was just the first half of the show.

The SIARP was kind of boring, and the diesel running on vegetable oil was :yawn:, but Mazda6 review at the end was well done.

I will say that the production value wasn't great. The US version's first episode was better filmed, but that's the only count that it wins on.

ltswb

You guys complaining about the commentary during the laps make me LOL. The commentary in the UK version is horrible during laps. They say the exact same thing every time. Jeremy doesn't even feign interest in what's going on.

TommyDeVito

Which is why I skipped it.

TheMuffinMan

However it's better than

"Oh look its the big hand again" in a monotone voice 4 times in two minutes......