Top Gear Episode 3 review

The real problem with Top Gear is the writing and that they chose the wrong Chris. Chris Evans spits out specs on a car and says "WHOOOAA IT'S FAST!" Chris Harris tells a story. It's engaging, we want to know more. His words and his voice match the quality of the cinematography. This show is how most of us live out the fantasy of driving or owning these cars, often in exotic locations. Harris, the camera crew, and the editors have a way of making that fantasy immersive. Evans shouts us back to reality and makes it feel like a (really) bad episode of Fifth Gear.

I wanted so bad to like Leblanc in this but the writing is awful for him. I don't know if he does it himself or someone else does but I'll give a few examples from Episode 3:

  • He starts out with his comment that we get to see Evans enjoy his lunch twice. There's the joke, we get it, he threw up. We want to see his misery, hahahaha, great. But then he continues and has to go further by saying "Once on the way down, and once on the way up." No, Matt. We got that. It was implied. You've ruined the joke. Better luck next time.

  • When they come back to the studio and the audience is clapping for the footage, they're clapping for Sabine and the car. Leblanc doesn't need to do the "Ladies and gentlemen, Sabine Schmitz and the Audi R8!" announcement to get more applause. She's in multiple episodes and doesn't need the special guest treatment. Just move on.

  • When Sabine is announcing The Stig, the "haha we'll get her to say it in German!" idea was idiotic. No one got it and no one laughed. But instead of moving straight into the lap, they had to give Joey... Er... Matt, a silly comment to make. Don't use Sabine as a presenter. Let her do her thing and drive fast. If you're going to have her announce the stig, let her do it, but for god's sake give her some practice reading cue cards, she was struggling. And Matt, she gave her quick rundown of what she liked and didn't. Don't ask it again so she has to awkwardly repeat part of it and don't do the "So... Thumbs up?" crap. Again, just move on.

  • When Harris is back in the studio with the R8, Matt's "So you like it? Would you date it?" lines were garbage. The old show was silly but not childish. That line was low hanging fruit and took zero imagination to write. Do better.

  • Leblanc needs to stop saying "This film..." "Our next film..." We get it, there are segments. He needs better segues. This way of announcing is amateurish, like he's hosting a student film festival. If you're not enough of a wordsmith to at least come up with something slightly more creative to transition with segments then you need to pass the torch already.

An extraordinarily easy transition and way of making the show cohesive is that the former cast had driven many of the cars that each other reviewed in the individual segments. So they'd bring a car back, have brief chit-chat about the car, the one who didn't drive it but was presenting the next segment would say "It really is a great car, but moving on <whatever comes next>." In this series it seems that none of them have had any time in the cars each other are presenting. That leaves them with the only option of saying "So you liked it?" instead of having any common thread of discussion.

Beyond that, the "best first car" segment was so lame in Episodes 1 and 2 that I skipped entirely over the celebrity section of Episode 3. I may go back to it since the video in OP says it's the best so far this season, but I don't expect to be wowed.

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