UK's Answer to MTV's JackA$$ (Top Gear, the Hamster and Oliver)
New year, new tv show to love.
Well, not a new show. I have been watching Top Gear on and off for some time but I've only recently watched it more regularly as--er--research during my stint writing Torchwood to fine-tune talking Brit and not like a ruddy American. ;)
Now, mind you, watching Top Gear and EastEnders by no means gave me a handle on the language differences but OMG, LOL, having just saw Top Gear's season ten, episode four, the Africa challenge, I can seriously declare I love Top Gear.
What is Top Gear you may ask? Well, BBCA markets it as Britain's answer to MTV's often puerile Jack_ss (I'm not even going to dignify it by spelling it out).
Au contaire, I think I may have to disagree.
I think Top Gear is a bit more polished than that. We have the sonorous Jeremy Clarkson, the deceptively solemn James May aka 'Captain Slow' and the enthusiastically contagious and irrepressible Richard Hammond aka 'The Hamster'.
It's a show, not quite talk show, not quite the geek-tified G4 marketed 30 minute block for the guy who'll wait on line a day for the newest sequel to PS3's Metal of Honor but somewhere in between.
If you haven't guessed from the title, yes, Top Gear talks about and reviews cars. Their first try in the 90s, they took themselves too seriously, reviewing cars the way you might review the newest European translation of Tolstoy. The updated version has them still reviewing cars but in a more boyish, "wheeee!", guy squee kind of way.
The show doesn't take themselves too seriously and frankly, they don't expect you to, either. They race the cars, pit challenges with their fellow presenters (ie: a hilarious challenge to once make their chosen cars float like boats...didn't work...lol), and have short, almost conversational interviews with the likes of Simon Cowell, David Tennant, Christian Slater. And oh yeah, afterwards, the interviewed has to race around the Top Gear. The difference here is they're having fun and have no qualms showing it.
The show is approached with the kind of glee that is catchy. It is a little destructive (they once catapult cars into a quarry in a mock game of darts) like Jack_ss yet it's all engineered to be mildly informative at the same time. I would say the closest equivalent is Discovery's Mythbusters.
The three are hilarious together, banded in solidarity when the producers of the show throw challenges at them. And as Clarkson would say, "How hard can it be?" Oh, usually hard, but oh, the LOLs you get watching them try.
It's silly, it's fandom crack and I adore it. The tipping point for me, however, was the African challenge. The three are told to buy a repo-car to travel across Botswana with. Clarkson chose a Mercedes, May chose a sturdy Lancer and Richard Hammond chose a boxy, little Opal called Oliver.
It was fun to watch them coax their worn cars through salt flats, sahara and dust clouds, but what really made the show was Hammond's almost giddy loyalty to his little Oliver even when the other two rib it.
At one point, Oliver got stuck in a river and Hammond is seen frantically running out of the little car, trying to push the car out, pleading "Float! Float, float!" with a final--what I call the 'angsty man cry'--"Oliver!".
It's...oh geez, you're sad and laughing at the same time.
I really don't have the vocabulary to describe this. It's one of those shows you watch without it really hitting you until that one moment that makes you sit up and take notice. Oliver made me sit up, made me go back on my Tivo and find the older episodes. It's just fun. Absolute, complete fun that reminds you of the days of when fandom was all "squee".
And seriously, how is it possible to be crushing on a tv-presenter like Richard Hammond? LOL
As Clarkson would joke self-decrepating at themselves: "Top Gear. Ambitious but rubbish."
Oh, but it is so fun to watch them try.
Well, not a new show. I have been watching Top Gear on and off for some time but I've only recently watched it more regularly as--er--research during my stint writing Torchwood to fine-tune talking Brit and not like a ruddy American. ;)
Now, mind you, watching Top Gear and EastEnders by no means gave me a handle on the language differences but OMG, LOL, having just saw Top Gear's season ten, episode four, the Africa challenge, I can seriously declare I love Top Gear.
What is Top Gear you may ask? Well, BBCA markets it as Britain's answer to MTV's often puerile Jack_ss (I'm not even going to dignify it by spelling it out).
Au contaire, I think I may have to disagree.
I think Top Gear is a bit more polished than that. We have the sonorous Jeremy Clarkson, the deceptively solemn James May aka 'Captain Slow' and the enthusiastically contagious and irrepressible Richard Hammond aka 'The Hamster'.
It's a show, not quite talk show, not quite the geek-tified G4 marketed 30 minute block for the guy who'll wait on line a day for the newest sequel to PS3's Metal of Honor but somewhere in between.
If you haven't guessed from the title, yes, Top Gear talks about and reviews cars. Their first try in the 90s, they took themselves too seriously, reviewing cars the way you might review the newest European translation of Tolstoy. The updated version has them still reviewing cars but in a more boyish, "wheeee!", guy squee kind of way.
The show doesn't take themselves too seriously and frankly, they don't expect you to, either. They race the cars, pit challenges with their fellow presenters (ie: a hilarious challenge to once make their chosen cars float like boats...didn't work...lol), and have short, almost conversational interviews with the likes of Simon Cowell, David Tennant, Christian Slater. And oh yeah, afterwards, the interviewed has to race around the Top Gear. The difference here is they're having fun and have no qualms showing it.
The show is approached with the kind of glee that is catchy. It is a little destructive (they once catapult cars into a quarry in a mock game of darts) like Jack_ss yet it's all engineered to be mildly informative at the same time. I would say the closest equivalent is Discovery's Mythbusters.
The three are hilarious together, banded in solidarity when the producers of the show throw challenges at them. And as Clarkson would say, "How hard can it be?" Oh, usually hard, but oh, the LOLs you get watching them try.
It's silly, it's fandom crack and I adore it. The tipping point for me, however, was the African challenge. The three are told to buy a repo-car to travel across Botswana with. Clarkson chose a Mercedes, May chose a sturdy Lancer and Richard Hammond chose a boxy, little Opal called Oliver.
It was fun to watch them coax their worn cars through salt flats, sahara and dust clouds, but what really made the show was Hammond's almost giddy loyalty to his little Oliver even when the other two rib it.
At one point, Oliver got stuck in a river and Hammond is seen frantically running out of the little car, trying to push the car out, pleading "Float! Float, float!" with a final--what I call the 'angsty man cry'--"Oliver!".
It's...oh geez, you're sad and laughing at the same time.
I really don't have the vocabulary to describe this. It's one of those shows you watch without it really hitting you until that one moment that makes you sit up and take notice. Oliver made me sit up, made me go back on my Tivo and find the older episodes. It's just fun. Absolute, complete fun that reminds you of the days of when fandom was all "squee".
And seriously, how is it possible to be crushing on a tv-presenter like Richard Hammond? LOL
As Clarkson would joke self-decrepating at themselves: "Top Gear. Ambitious but rubbish."
Oh, but it is so fun to watch them try.