Last night Mens Stuff watched the new Top Gear with Chris Evans for the first time. We went in with low expectations and sadly the show failed to meet even these. We did try to keep an open mind and these are our thoughts.
On TGI Fridays, Chris Evans was acceptable we admit. He suits that sort of inane brainless drivel when there was nothing else to watch on a Friday, but a show like Top Gear commands a lead presenter of a different calibre, some with stage presence, charisma and charm. Unfortunately Evans doesn’t truly possess any of these qualities and seemed totally out of his depth. He would make a good announcer or a presenter for a fluffier show, but we feel that he just doesn’t have what it takes to be the main man on TG! It was obvious at points that Evans was emulating Jeremy Clarkson’s style, and we salute him for trying but it just didn’t work. That squeaky voice fails to command an audiences respect. He doesn’t possess the reassuring gravelly tones of Clarkson, the soothing melodic voice of Richard Hammond or even the geeky but lovable uncle type voice of James May. It was horrendous to listen to – hearing Evans shout in a weaselly little voice like an over excited child. It was painful. Our ears are still bleeding.
Photos From The BBC
Anyway enough of bashing poor Chris Evans for a minute, we are sure he did his best under what must be very difficult circumstances. It was a tough job to take over from Clarkson and co and was going to be a massive challenge.
Lets move on to Matt Le Blanc. His appearance on the show was simply ‘Joey from friends larks abut on Top Gear’. We loved Joey in friends but he seems such a mismatch with Evans and there was zero chemistry between the two.
We did find ourselves laughing at times, but unfortunately this was at how bad the show was, not because we thought it was funny! Matt Le Blanc kept yawning and making comments such as ‘This is as good as it gets’ and ‘This is abysmal’ we couldn’t help but nod in agreement and feel as if they were Freudian slips!
Ok so the presenter dynamic just doesn’t work. We can see what they are trying to do which is appeal to an America audience, but the two together just aren’t entertaining in any way.
To have pulled this off they should have completely changed the format but instead they have kept it pretty much the same, leaving audiences no option but to compare the new presenters with the old. Furthermore the content for the show was appalling! The race to Blackpool between Joey…(oops sorry we mean Matt) and Chris in Robin Reliants was pitifully dull. We honestly couldn’t have cared whether they got to Blackpool or not. It was a pointless race and overly dramatic given that no one really gave a damn. Matt’s car didn’t work from the offset so he sat on a tow track making wise cracks that failed to deliver any real humour.
The show didn’t get any better than this. Well Matt did warn us at the offset “This is as good as it gets!” He wasn’t lying! The show then descended into a Britain versus America theme with American muscle cars in an attempt to impress an American audience. By this point our will to live was diminishing rapidly and we couldn’t wait for the show to finish.
It’s worth mentioning that there were some great guests on the show – Top TV Chef Gordon Ramsey and Dawn of Justice’s evil genius Jesse Eisenberg (Lex Luthor). We watched with baited breathe…we breathed out again in disappointment. Evans really didn’t get the best out of the guests. There was no entertainment, no humour and absolutely no flow. He just jumped from one thing to another without the smoothness of Clarkson’s presenting style or his easy manner.
So for us former avid fans of Top Gear who watch the old shows over and over – we won’t be watching the new show again as we found it a totally cringe-fest from start to finish. In fact it annoyed every particle of our beings to the point of despair!
Clarkson and his wonderful team must be rubbing their hands in glee right now and cackling manically….we note: They were too busy filming their brand new show ‘The Grand Tour” to comment!
Perhaps the BBC were hoping for a ratings war with Clarkson’s new Amazon show, but there really is no war. The Grand Tour has a massive budget and three of televisions finest presenters. Top Gear has already dropped in ratings by 4 million and has 2 mediocre presenters and some very poorly executed ideas! Perhaps it’s time to slam on the breaks and try something else!
