Top Gear Season 17

It is almost that time again. June 12 26th the 17th season of Top Gear UK starts. The marketing gurus at the BBC have finally decided to run the same season in the USA on BBC America as in the UK. Last season this meant a 2 week lag time, but considering the editing needed that was pretty good. Now I’m seeing daily posts on my Facebook feed reminding me that it is coming back with some big social media campaign and we’re only a week away.

I am somewhat jaded about this season though, because of a lot of controversy that has surrounded the show and the presenters in the off-season. I have also been watching this show for far longer than most people (since 2004) and think it has been some of the best TV ever created.  One thing should be clear about this list, I love Top Gear and have been telling everyone about it for the last seven years, so these issues may be different than the way you feel about the show not having a long history with it. Some of my concerns to think about before you set your DVR/TIVO to record the season and commit yourself to 10+ hours of TV:

1. Jeremy Clarkson is an arse. We all know this, and he amplifies the rudeness of his character for laughs most of the time even if it isn’t his real personality. There is also a charismatic charm there, but he seems a whole lot less charming lately. There have been reports about evidence linking him to dating a female crew member on the Top Gear MPH Tours (he is married). He even wrote about it in a printed piece in 2010 thinking nobody would get it.  Well this whole issue kinda spoils it for most women fans of Top Gear. Most women find a charming guy that is married kinda interesting but a charming cheat isn’t going to work out for anyone. The mystique is lost. This whole thing was clumsy and a mess for someone that has been grooming his career for decades. The only twist I can think of with this story is to possibly meet Chelsea Handler if he does decide to get a divorce. With his wife having been his long time manager, this whole issue has put Top Gear in a precarious position knowing they still have to work together.

2. Richard & James have had as many TV series going as Jeremy made in the last 25 years. Therefore, I think they’re stretched a bit thin. I also think they’re both losing the newness of the experience that create the genuine reactions on camera that really resonated with the audience. (if you’ve seen one Bugatti, you’ve seen them all) Jeremy entertains but the people relate to James and Richard. But with so many super cars of their own now, is this really exciting anymore? I kinds feel like they need some time off to get back to their roots of why they are not Tim Allen or Jay Leno and why that made them great presenters.

3. They’ve possibly run out of new things to do. The show has even used some of my anonymously posted ideas (Bonneville salt flats)  Possibly because they thought of them too. But if I’m no pro are they scraping the bottom of the barrel? I do think they have created some of the best TV in history, but that is such a high mark to meet again and again. I foresee cross promotion coming with all Top Gear country teams (UK, USA, AUS, RUS, CH) pitted against each other in some kind of epic battle of automotive wonder, with subtitles of course.  I think they need to start looking further from car entertainment ideas and into other types of shows/experiences and bring the cars into them in order to keep the originality high.  The USA Show has a lot of possibility because it is new, and I am almost more excited about their prospects than the UK team right now.

4. There are BBC budget cuts. And it is hard to coordinate script writers, the best cameramen & editors on the planet and all the special effects and projects that go into the show on a smaller budget. Those sweeping helecopter shots aren’t cheap and all the automakers use them in their commercials now too. Heck Jeremy Clarkson may have to start doing his own driving. (check the windows when they show exterior shots of the car, grayed out, it’s not the rainy weather either).

5. And last but not least, They’ve run out of tricks. The comment from Ben Collins about wearing a curly wig to do Jeremy’s power slides hit me hard. I know Jeremy Clarkson is good at managing Top Gear because he has done many different shows on UK TV over the last 25 years. Heck, you’ve looked up the Motorworld show? Far less interesting, and in one he rides a motorcycle (very well btw) around the track at the F1 race in Monaco. Jeremy has had a lot of time to figure things out and evolve into what Top Gear has become. But I think the word is out about  how pre-planned and manipulated things are to get them on camera and ultimately what seems like reality but is not. I’m not sure people are going to be so fiercely loyal to a show that manipulates things so heavily and has abandoned the accidental funny that used to happen. Some people might call this jumping the shark.

The one thing that Top Gear UK has in its favor is that there is rarely if ever any good TV on in the summer in the USA. True, people are outside and not in their living rooms as much in the evenings while it is warm outside, but the DVR saves you while most shows are off season and you don’t have to compete for an audience.

So, will you still be watching? I want to but I’m a bit scared it won’t be like it used to be.

New Quarterlife TV Show on NBC ROCKS!

I have been reading for months about this new show Quarterlife and how because of the writer’s strike, it got a shot at airing on network TV when it had only been an online show before that point. I ran into the Quarterlife show the other night on TV by accident and thought I would check it out. I was surprised that despite being 32, and not the target of the show, I really liked it. I specifically remember being 25 and having a quarterlife crisis (term coined by John Mayer in a song) and going through some things with being on my own for the first time, with my first job, dating woes and dealing with being a full on adult for the first time. Plus leaving all childhood frivolousness behind is a somewhat scary thing. No more silly stuff? No more hip clothes? Will I just be a boring blah worker that never gets anywhere? All my friends too had these thoughts.

I found that the show Quarterlife represented these feelings pretty accurately. The content of the show was very genuine and right on for that age group and I watched earnestly remembering that time in my life. I thought it was funny and clever and very dramatic and true all at the same time.

they were open and honest about everything from sex to work to relationships and I found it refreshing, although the show moves at a very fast pace. I had to speed up my brain just to keep up with all the cuts to different angles and fast dialogue. Quarterlife does seem very real though and the actors are pretty good. (although one girl that blogs is reeeeaaallllyyy overacting)

Then I saw online that people were calling it a failure because it only had 3.9 million viewers. I don’t know if that is really bad since I saw no online or offline campaign promoting it and I am online all over the place. How would that 20-30 yr crowd that doesn’t watch TV know it was going to be on? Did they do any WOM marketing? Duh? if you don’t invite them and tell them it’s coming no one will show up.

I think this show has all the elements of a West Wing for the Millenials but about personal politics rather than national politics. I think it should stay on the air and they should give it some marketing boost, and maybe a tripod to anchor the camera better in some situations. Anyway, I just thought it was important to say that I watched the show and I liked it a lot and it should stay on air at NBC and online.

I know that the commerical spots were sold with X amount of audience guaranteed and if they miss that point the network has to refund or give away more free ads to compensate for it. But maybe this show was not positioned right, promoted right or sold right by the network. I thing the writers, actors and developers of the show did a great job and the show may get shuffled around, but should certainly stay on the air.

TopGear Season 10 Episode 4 Review – Drive Across African Desert

This week’s show was not the funniest one ever. It was really about jaw dropping risk and edge of your seat drama in a more serious sense. I was drawn to the show’s risky challenges of driving across most of the continent of Africa in old used cars and was suprised that they were able to pull off as much as they were. Many times they even decided to reveal the team of 20 people or so that were traveling with them to ensure saftey, fix the cars repeatedly, film everything and manage camping all along the way.

I think this is good because the idea that they really travel on these far away expeditions by themselves is beginning to get a little hard to believe. In fact those of us that have been watching for a few years now are pretty wise to the idea that they have a huge crew to make these situations which look unplanned work. Sure it’s not scripted but it is very planned out. So that was nice to see and it is always cool to see them demolish some cars and run them on the frames only.

And it was nice to see that James was right for once that his Mercedes (not merc, that is a mercury guys) was really quite good in the challenge and held up the best overall minus the weight issue in the salt flats. That wouldn’t be legal here or in europe probably so it’s good they did it there. Anyway check out the site and see clips from the show.

American Gangster Film – Denzel Washington – Oscar Contender?

Everyone was in a buzz about the film American Gangster back in July and it wasn’t even ready for release yet. Now it is open this weekend with Russel Crowe and everyone is saying that it is a well done film that is worth watching and could go to the Oscars. I am always excited about breakout films and good quality entertainment in general because there is not enough of that out there these days. Anyway here is the trailer, I think I would see it if I had the time to go to the movies. Maybe next weekend.

TopGear Season 10 episode 3 review

This week’s top gear was even funnier than the last 2. I Know they are really all about serious cars sometimes and we do appreciate that. We learn things about cars we will never own, and it’s entertaining. Then we get to see Richard almost not park a car and Jeremy shoehorn himself into the smallest car ever built. These are the endearing parts of the show and keep us laughing with the ridiculousness of what they try and pull off. Here are some of the funniest moments from this week:

1. James describes all the things you can do with aTampon.

2. Richard tries to park a Lexus with the automatic park assist feature and lands it in the wall.

3. Jeremy drives the smallest car ever to work and then through the BBC. Its pure comedy.

There was also a segment about the one millionth lamborghini that no one will own with another name I forget because there are so many these days. They also review the Ferrari 599 which apparently isn’t a daily driver and isn’t spectacular enough to be a weekender either. I think the styling is a little reserved and doesn’t look the part. Something is out of balance about it, like the guy who designed the front end wasn’t the guy who designed the back end. They don’t match. James also drives a Rolls Royce convertible in a very cool elegant segment with some very nice views of the car against a beautiful dusk sky and city.

Till next week, we will be driving with the sport option turned on. (in the saab)

Climate Change is Real and What you can do about it.

I still hear people sceptical about whether climate change and global warming is really happening, depite the movie the Inconvienent Truth showing the data that proves it is very real. This is frustrating because not only is it real, we need to change our energy consuming ways quickly in order to prevent total disaster with living conditions and our oil powered economy on earth. People are not will ing to make changes in their lives or their businesses unless they really believe.

I think that educating yourself by watching some informational videos online is a good start if you really don’t believe in the earth’s situation being in danger. The Solar channel on energy policy TV has a lot of information about solar power and how it can help us find a clean alternative to oil. Solar power is the only alternative resource that we have enough of to convert into electricity and replace the amount of power that is currently supplied by oil. (we don’t want to go back to horses and carriages do we?) We need to look into develping small and efficient solar systems that every home in america can afford, buy and install themselves to supply power. The same should be available for businesses. These future solar panels will power the world.

Animoto

I have mentioned in previous posts that I am always excited to find new web sites and services and try them out in Beta. Its such a cool time when anyone can start up a web company and really do the things that only large companies with a lot of capital could do in the past. (The world reall is flat isn’t it?) One I found on an email alert a week or two ago was Animoto. They have a unique site that allows you to make slide shows that are cooler than slide shows. It has a lot of tools for manipulating the images that you would see in fancy editing for montages. In fact its less a slide show and more a montage that you end up making with the music, photos and effects all in a video form you watch. It looks as professional as some of what you see on TV. It’s pretty cool and way more sophisticated than regular old slide shows. Check them out and add them to your myspace and facebook pages.

Tivo Commercial Rankings for June 2007

There are rankings for everything else, so there may as well be rankings for TV Commericals that get playback on Tivo. My thought is that this is meant to counter the advertiser’s fears that Tivo is only for avoiding commericals and that the Tivo watching audience never sees any of them. (the data is captured from 20,000 random units daily, much like comScore collects web traffic data) I also think that advertisers like to think of their commericals as entertainment rather than advertising. I have to agree that some commericals are very entertaining. (probably not worth developing a network sitcome with, but entertaining)

So, without further ado, the top 10 commercials tracked by Tivo in June 2007 are:

1.  Wendy’s Restaurant                  House          29-May      12.1

2.  Bank of America Consumer Services   House          29-May      12.0

3.  AT&T Wireless Service               House          29-May      12.0

4.  Warner Bros Oceans Thirteen Movie   House          29-May      11.6

5.  Diet Coke Soft Drink                House          29-May      10.4

6.  MetLife Var Insurance               House          29-May      10.2

7.  Apple iPod MP3 Player               House          29-May      10.1

8.  Buena Vista Ratatouille Movie       House          29-May      10.1

9.  St. Ives Swiss Frml Apricot Scrub   House          29-May       9.9

10. MGM Mr. Brooks Movie                House          29-May       9.4

What these numbers mean, I am not sure. I understand that ratings on TV viewership convert to a number (in millions) of how many people viewed the show. I am not sure how these multiply out, and they don’t really explian it in the release. What I also don’t understand is why most of the top five are in the top five. None of those companies have commercials or products that are particularly interesting or popular right now. It might be that they bought the spot in the pod right before or after the end of a segment and when people were stopping, fast forwarding or rewinding they caught the commerical in too. I could see movies, music, ipods and maybe a new burger from Wendy’s getting some stop and watch action, but not the Bank of America, AT&T or Met Life commericals. That smells fishy.