Top Gear Australia
Top Gear Australia
| 29 September 2008 (USA)
SEASON & EPISODES
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  • Reviews
    Inclubabu Plot so thin, it passes unnoticed.
    Ameriatch One of the best films i have seen
    Spoonatects Am i the only one who thinks........Average?
    Fairaher The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.
    mindbender2302 When reviewing Top Gear USA (TGUSA) I said that watching that show was like chewing gum that's already been chewed and stuck under a bench in the New York Grand Central Station for an year.What TGUSA lacks in every department, Top Gear Australia (TGA) makes up with wit and chemistry that is only second to that of the Top Gear UK (TGUK) cast.The first few episodes were a bit shaky with that old guy and the guy with the Village-People-moustache, but after 2 seasons and some reshuffling I think they have come up with a setup that totally has potential.Unlike in the USA, they actually have "wilderness" and "unexplored land" in Australia, which have been shown to be good sources for driving challenges, and some of the segments were original - like driving a V8 touring car in city streets and driving tiny three wheeled cars into a safari park (ok, TGUK did a similar one too - but the UK cast didn't get surrounded by lions or charged by a mommy-rhino or get crapped on by monkeys with red asses!!!) Also, the seal of approval for the TGA was given by the TGUK in the "Top Gear Ashes" episode...So, hope for promising future for this show.
    miss_niss The basic concept of Top Gear is to talk about cars in an entertaining way that attracts even those who know nothing about cars. The hosts are the ones who make the often rather boring car stuff funny and interesting, and it is for this reason that the Australian version fails. Charlie, Steve and Warren are pale imitations of their British counterparts.The ideas are OK, testing utes in a mine for example was a good use of the Australian setting. But the problem is that the presenters just aren't funny. Their jokes feel forced and consistently fall flat. Warren is like that old moustached uncle whose history lessons and bad jokes you try to avoid at Christmas. Charlie tries to be the elitist arrogant version of Jeremy Clarkson but lacks the same biting wit. Steve at least seems to have expertise as a driver and as the youngest, is the most appealing. But he's not that funny either.The British version succeeds because the banter between the hosts feels natural and the situations (although often set up or scripted) are believable. This is not the case in the Australian version. Take for example tonight's episode where Warren "randomly" stops mid-trip to look in an antique shop. Comically, the other hosts drive off. It didn't look spontaneous, it looked contrived.Fans of the original will be disappointed.
    lanimae61 It's not often one can think of nothing nice to say, but this is one of those times. BBC took a great show with genuine characters and turned it into this no-hoper, tragic wanna-be, poor mongrel cousin. Instead of witty banter, we get the falsetto "please shut the hell up or I will throw myself off the gap" Steve Pasati. Not to be out done, we aimed for the quick witted Jeremy Clarkson and got this annoying pratt (who is more like that awful Tiff Needle from the OTHER motoring show). If he tells us one more time how great a driver he is and how long he has been doing it professionally, I am going to hunt him down and glue his lips to his exhaust pipe and run his motor at 70,000 million revs or until he bursts or the engine flys apart in sympathy, whichever is sooner. Lastly, where the hell did they get the night club bouncer from? The puerile comments are meant to echo those of the British trio, but for the most part is just silly. The tests are boring and the challenges look ridiculous. NEVER try and imitate something like this which relies so heavily on personality. I wonder if the same idiot who thought this was a good idea also sold "Kath and Kim" to the seppos? Whoever it is needs shooting then drawing and quartering then shooting again then burying in a bog to be dug up again in a few gajillion years as peat to then be thrown on a fire and toasted til golden brown. At least then you might have something slightly useful. The worst bit is that if they weren't trying to be someone else, it might have had half a chance. Get new sets, new scripts and new presenters and try it again, better still DON'T! Just watch the British version and chalk this up to a dreadful nightmare. YUK!
    frozen170180 After just having watched the inaugural episode of Top Gear Australia I must say: It wasn't bad.....for a start. However, it could have been MUCH better: And here's why.First Point: Why not start with the comparison between the FPV F6 and the HSV GTS (I think it was the GTS) and BLOW us all away??? Ohhhhhh what an opener that could have been!!!!!! And oh what a letdown it was settling for a soft roader comparison instead (I know these cars are popular with us Australians, but so are our TITANIC battles between Ford and Holden)!!!! I feel slightly ripped off having had SBS play scenes from the F6-GTS comparison only to have Cox announce 'what you've all been waiting for' will appear next week (And yes you can bet I'll be watching next week).Second point: The comparison between the soft roaders....was it a comparison or just 3 dudes having a play? There was no discussion at the end of the comparison between the three hosts as to which car won the day....even if the hosts do end up disagreeing at the end it's still nice to know.Third Point: The Franchise. Yes Top Gear is borrowed from the UK version, and it needs to follow a certain formula. But there is no way in hell that Charlie Cox, Warren Brown, and Steve Pizzati can be expected to manufacture the sheer charisma that their Top Gear opposites in the UK have. They need to be left alone to create something of their own. Jeremy Clarkson, James May, and Richard Hammond have this truly wonderful-to-watch magic style of their own that should not be attempted to be replicated as I saw in Top Gear Aus: Just won't work, the Aussie hosts will just end up looking like clunky fools, and the show will be ridiculed. Charlie Cox should not be billed as Australia's version of Jeremy Clarkson, there can only be one Clarkson. Warren Brown should not be billed as Australia's version of James May, there can only be one May. And Steve Pizzati...I didn't get the feeling the show was trying to manipulate him into being an Aussie Richard Hammond as much as the other two were. I had the fortunate opportunity to see Warren Brown compete in a Peking to Paris drive, recreating a trek that was made at the turn of the 20th century. He was brilliant in that, so I suspect that if allowed, these Australian hosts are capable of coming up with a magic of their own.Forth point: The test track. The camera angles were bad, I didn't get a feel for how the cars were responding to the turns or get a feeling for just how quick they were racing around the track (The Skyline didn't look as quick as it so obviously was), the track didn't seem long enough, and it all seemed like a bit of a blur.Fifth point: Weren't you lot hamming it up a bit with the chop up and pasting of footage when you dipped Brown into the sea with those sharks? It was crap! That entire part of the show wasn't as scary as it could have been. I think it's fair to say.....you lot made a meal outta that one :PConclusion: Top Gear Australia has a lot of work to be done to it to get it rolling smoothly, mainly camera work on moving car footage around that track, the track itself should be slightly longer, hosts need to be left to develop a personality of their own, but all in all, it passed..only just!