Re: The all-singing, all-dancing TV thread - Part Three : Thu Dec 29, 2011 1:19 pm  

Andy Gilder wrote:

The last of the Top Gear specials to have any genuine entertainment merit was the polar expedition - those that have followed have been little more than exercises in lazy racial stereotyping, padded out with amusing and totally accidental "mishaps" that weren't at all staged for comic effect.

There's only so many times you can do Jeremy blows something up, James gets hopelessly lost and Richard doesn't like anything foreign before it runs its course.

I must admit that I stopped watching Top Gear once it stopped being about cars and not about the egos of the 3 presenters, but is it not fair to say that it is now purely a TV version of Loaded magazine?

White, middle-aged, middle-class, casually racist blokes trying to be 'cool', when they are actually a million miles from being so, catering for people of a similar ilk?....

Re: The all-singing, all-dancing TV thread - Part Three : Thu Dec 29, 2011 1:24 pm  

Not to mention the whole "let's mess around with James' air conditioning / Jeremy's heater / Richard's seat" routine.

Re: The all-singing, all-dancing TV thread - Part Three : Thu Dec 29, 2011 10:05 pm  

top gear really needs to be put down now. the contrived 'hilarious accidents' are tedious and telegraphed and in the special tend to rely on lazy xenophobia. The annoying thing is if the production team binned the script and just left the three to their own devices their genuine friendship and chemistry would be far more entertaining. When TG does semi serious stuff it can be sublime but the producers seem intent on the staged crap, I suspect the growth and success in the states may have something to do with this. improve or kill it off. The only bit that worked last night was the scenes playing cricket with the local kids which at least felt spontaneous, the sort of thing that couldnt have been planned in a production office by some wanky middle aged producer

Re: The all-singing, all-dancing TV thread - Part Three : Fri Dec 30, 2011 1:01 pm  

rhino phil wrote:

I suspect the growth and success in the states may have something to do with this.

Doesn't the US have its own version of Top Gear, rather than taking the BBC one directly?

From what I've seen of Top Gear USA, it's three blokes in their late 20s/early 30s hooning around in cars and generally having a lot of fun doing so - what the UK version used to be like before it started trying too hard.

Re: The all-singing, all-dancing TV thread - Part Three : Sun Jan 08, 2012 11:37 am  

What did we think to The Bank Job?
I had to laugh when the two finalist faced with the prospect of sharing (Ooh! Perish the thought) the best part of half a million pounds, chose instead via shiftiness to give the money to the other three losing finalists.
A wonderful ending for the producers.

They don't give a sh/t who wins, that's why they introduced the dreadful 'cheats may prosper' Golden Balls type ending.
What was wrong with a proper play-off?

On second thoughts, it was an ending fitting for another ageist show like this one.

Re: The all-singing, all-dancing TV thread - Part Three : Sun Jan 08, 2012 6:41 pm  

aaaaand here we go with Dancing On Ice again X Factor finishes, 2 weeks later DOI starts, DOI finishes, BGT starts 2 weeks later, BGT finishes, X Factor starts 2 weeks later... when will it end?

Easily the best programme on TV at the moment is Sherlock

Re: The all-singing, all-dancing TV thread - Part Three : Sun Jan 08, 2012 10:26 pm  

Loving Sherlock. Pure genius. Gutted its the last one next week. I don't remember ever enjoying a drama on tv as much as this one. Don't tend to watch much tv but im hooked!

Re: The all-singing, all-dancing TV thread - Part Three : Wed Jan 18, 2012 2:45 pm  

Don't know if anyone managed to catch it, but last night's Horizon was very interesting and thought provoking. If only there was more stuff like that on the box. If you didn't see it, it's worth a look on the iPlayer. Quite enjoying Stargazing Live, too.

Re: The all-singing, all-dancing TV thread - Part Three : Wed Jan 18, 2012 5:42 pm  

Rock God X wrote:

Don't know if anyone managed to catch it, but last night's Horizon was very interesting and thought provoking. If only there was more stuff like that on the box. If you didn't see it, it's worth a look on the iPlayer. Quite enjoying Stargazing Live, too.

I enjoyed the extra half our of stargazing, when they fielded viewers questions, very comical in parts, but they survived.

Re: The all-singing, all-dancing TV thread - Part Three : Wed Jan 18, 2012 6:10 pm  

Stand-Offish wrote:

I enjoyed the extra half our of stargazing, when they fielded viewers questions, very comical in parts, but they survived.

I quite enjoyed Brian Cox's attempts to get any numpties to turn over to ITV or Celebrity Big Brother too.