The Decline of Top Gear

So it's finally happened. Season 14 of the popular tv-show Top Gear (also known as New Top Gear) has just started. I must say, as a Top Gear addict that I sincerely looked forward to the new season of Top Gear, but after watching the first episode I cannot understand why they even bothered. I have watched almost all episodes from season 2 and onwards, so I count myself as a hardcore Top Gear fan. And I'm not the only one, since the show has hundreds of million viewers all over the world. The problem with having such a popular tv-show is deciding when to stop. I thought Series 12 would be the last but then Series 13 was announced.

Top Gear has always been mad but before Series 12 I would describe the show as funny, factual and lastly mad, while I would describe Series 13 as funny, mad and lastly factual. Unfoftunately I think you can see where this is going. As many shows become popular they throw away the charm it had and go for crazy and uptempo with a more jokes per minute than before. This is why I wish Top Gear would have stopped at the peak (Series 12?) instead of showing us three middleaged men trying too hard to be funny and repeating the jokes that sells (blowing up things and smashing cars is probably more fun for an audience with an IQ below 100, besides it only contributes to the stupefication of the people).

I will force myself to watch the rest of Series 14, but honestly I wish Top Gear had ended with a big bang instead of this slow agonizing death (at least for the hardcore fans).

[Update1 27.11.2009] In episode 2 series 14 Clarkson, May and Hammond decide to build an electric car... and end up smashing it in a wood. Through bad acting they look stupid as they parked the car on a steep slope (without the handbrake) with some trees just beneath. If you're 4 years or older you understand that all this was planned. Just like the smashing of the Dacia Sandero in the first episode (stupid me, I parked a car behind a backing lorry...). Intentionally screwing up just to look like idiots is the current theme of Top Gear. What happened to "Ambitious but rubbish"? Now there's less ambition and more rubbish. However, they turned the show around at the end when they tried to make their electric car road legal (ambitious but rubbish restored).