Is
that distant sound the bell of doom tolling for the end of Top Gear?
Do
you like Top Gear? Since its total transformation into the 'new format'
nine years ago it has gained massive international popularity. But I think
it is utterly doomed.
Don't get me wrong, I enjoy the show, it makes me laugh, it entertains, sometimes it even says something intelligent and educates, although that is a bit of a rarity these days. The script is absolutely inspiring, genius even, and really brings across the passion that the whole team have for the subject matter. Although that tall chap, who used to be considered an authority on cars, seems to have turned himself into a clown character with absolutely no credibility what so ever, in fact if he says a car runs on fuel made from potatoes I just don't know if he is joking or not, he cant even get the torque figures right and has been seen to boast about being ignorant. That's really annoying, and quite stupid. The rest of them are good though, well done chaps.
But that clown chappy sums up one of the problems, there is less and less actual information in the program, it has become purely entertainment vaguely involving cars. Which is fine in itself, but the thing is that the world has changed over the last ten years, cars are no longer seen as cool by the new generation, its becoming a thing of yesterday, a bit like pipe smoking.
Can you imagine a new chain of high street tobacconists specialising in a vast array of unique gentleman's pipes, spreading through the world and gaining popularity like Starbucks did? Or even weirder the idea of an international prime time TV show all about doing entertaining things whilst smoking a pipe, celebrity pipe smoking and pipe performance comparison charts, as tested by a tame professional pipe smoker? There may well have been a time it would have worked, but the world moved on, and it is going to be the same with cars.
Look at modern car adverts; there is absolutely no factual information in them, they are not about cars any more because most people are just not interested, so the ad has physically impossible stunts and ridiculous and utterly irrelevant story lines involving dull children going on holiday or ice skating robots. The things that sell cars are MP3 connectivity, media suites, ease of ownership and finance packages. In fact most car buyers really don't have any interest in driving at all, they would rather have a phone call or text someone who they never really talk to. One day they will be happy, one day the car will drive itself and they can sit on the back seat playing with themselves on Playstation 42 or what ever.
Ah, I hear you say, 'but Top Gear is enjoyed by young and old, so your talking crap', well quite possibly, but many people watch the show expecting to see something even more amazing than the last time and sooner or later they will be disappointed. Just have a look at a show from the first series, see how tame it is compared to how it is now, and that's a hec of a rate of improvement to maintain.
Make no mistake, I think they have done a fantastic job, they have succeeded in upping the stakes every time so far, and just when you think they can't possibly think of something more wild and daring they pull an astounding spectacle out of the hat, such as driving to the north pole, or driving bangers through Bolivia, who can forget the Reliant Robin space shuttle, or the rocket powered mini. What they have accomplished is amazing, and will probably keep playing on Dave for ever, destined to be repeated until drunk men in bars across the world can repeat them word for word, much like Monty Pithon sketches.
And that is a very interesting parallel, there were only a few Monty Python shows, possibly because eventually they reached the end of the road and it was time to move on. What they did will remain great, but to make more of the same would not be so great. And it may well be the same with TG.
Whilst I am sure there will still be some astonishing programs to come, eventually they will have done as much as can be done on a TV program, maybe they will win LeMans, maybe they will send James May into space on a rocket powered Allegro, but eventually there will be an end, and it will be soon.
I suspect the real talent in the production team will see this coming and retire from the show in order to 'pursue new opportunities' or some other suitable euphemism for running away before it all turns to poo.
I have enjoyed the series immensely, apart from that tall idiot, and look forward to every new program and its fantastic entertainment content. But if I want to see a program that is actually about cars and tells me something useful, then I watch Fifth Gear instead. I just hope that Fifth Gear don't try to emulate Top Gear, that would be their demise too.
Don't get me wrong, I enjoy the show, it makes me laugh, it entertains, sometimes it even says something intelligent and educates, although that is a bit of a rarity these days. The script is absolutely inspiring, genius even, and really brings across the passion that the whole team have for the subject matter. Although that tall chap, who used to be considered an authority on cars, seems to have turned himself into a clown character with absolutely no credibility what so ever, in fact if he says a car runs on fuel made from potatoes I just don't know if he is joking or not, he cant even get the torque figures right and has been seen to boast about being ignorant. That's really annoying, and quite stupid. The rest of them are good though, well done chaps.
But that clown chappy sums up one of the problems, there is less and less actual information in the program, it has become purely entertainment vaguely involving cars. Which is fine in itself, but the thing is that the world has changed over the last ten years, cars are no longer seen as cool by the new generation, its becoming a thing of yesterday, a bit like pipe smoking.
Can you imagine a new chain of high street tobacconists specialising in a vast array of unique gentleman's pipes, spreading through the world and gaining popularity like Starbucks did? Or even weirder the idea of an international prime time TV show all about doing entertaining things whilst smoking a pipe, celebrity pipe smoking and pipe performance comparison charts, as tested by a tame professional pipe smoker? There may well have been a time it would have worked, but the world moved on, and it is going to be the same with cars.
Look at modern car adverts; there is absolutely no factual information in them, they are not about cars any more because most people are just not interested, so the ad has physically impossible stunts and ridiculous and utterly irrelevant story lines involving dull children going on holiday or ice skating robots. The things that sell cars are MP3 connectivity, media suites, ease of ownership and finance packages. In fact most car buyers really don't have any interest in driving at all, they would rather have a phone call or text someone who they never really talk to. One day they will be happy, one day the car will drive itself and they can sit on the back seat playing with themselves on Playstation 42 or what ever.
Ah, I hear you say, 'but Top Gear is enjoyed by young and old, so your talking crap', well quite possibly, but many people watch the show expecting to see something even more amazing than the last time and sooner or later they will be disappointed. Just have a look at a show from the first series, see how tame it is compared to how it is now, and that's a hec of a rate of improvement to maintain.
Make no mistake, I think they have done a fantastic job, they have succeeded in upping the stakes every time so far, and just when you think they can't possibly think of something more wild and daring they pull an astounding spectacle out of the hat, such as driving to the north pole, or driving bangers through Bolivia, who can forget the Reliant Robin space shuttle, or the rocket powered mini. What they have accomplished is amazing, and will probably keep playing on Dave for ever, destined to be repeated until drunk men in bars across the world can repeat them word for word, much like Monty Pithon sketches.
And that is a very interesting parallel, there were only a few Monty Python shows, possibly because eventually they reached the end of the road and it was time to move on. What they did will remain great, but to make more of the same would not be so great. And it may well be the same with TG.
Whilst I am sure there will still be some astonishing programs to come, eventually they will have done as much as can be done on a TV program, maybe they will win LeMans, maybe they will send James May into space on a rocket powered Allegro, but eventually there will be an end, and it will be soon.
I suspect the real talent in the production team will see this coming and retire from the show in order to 'pursue new opportunities' or some other suitable euphemism for running away before it all turns to poo.
I have enjoyed the series immensely, apart from that tall idiot, and look forward to every new program and its fantastic entertainment content. But if I want to see a program that is actually about cars and tells me something useful, then I watch Fifth Gear instead. I just hope that Fifth Gear don't try to emulate Top Gear, that would be their demise too.
Ralph Hosier is an independent automotive engineer and motoring writer, his views are not necessarily those of RHEL, they are his personal views and based largely on conjecture, idle speculation and bad dreams, probably caused by eating cheese before bedtime.
Ralph
Hosier
