Top Gear

 This adventure is a look at my favourite TV show of all time, Top Gear. I spent most of my childhood and early teens watching this show long after it had ended. To be honest I find it quite funny as I get told that I'm like a combination of all 3 of the hosts, Jeremy Clarkson, James May and Richard Hammond.

Top Gear is a motoring show looking at new cars that existed at the time. The show people know and love ran from 2002-2015, although the show has its roots within the 1970s clawed Top Gear. Most episodes had a thrilling structure. It would begin with a challenge for the 3 hosts, Jeremy Clarkson, James May and Richard Hammond, usually revolving around old cars. Then they would leave the challenge on a cliff hanger to review a car and have a timed lap of the car around the "Top Gear test track". A smooth Segway into 'The News' was a 5 minute portion of the show that was the hosts just being themselves and talking about new cars, making fun of each other and making fun of people (Americans 90% of the time). This would be resumed by the challenge at hand before Jeremy Clarkson does an interview with a special guest. The guests would vary from Tom Cruise to Jack Whitehall with each guest being "hit or miss" for me. Finally the show would return to the challenge at hand, this usually had the funniest segment of the whole show, wether it be a the realisation that the challenge was useless (usually was), or one of the presenters died in a crash before reappearing to look at the scoreboard. The scoreboard was always rigged. The winner would usually end up wining by 1 point with one the hosts losing 1 million points just to earn 999,999 to lose by 1. Overall the show was a marvel of its age, combining fact with so much comedy that the fact became part of the comedy. The show's legacy will forever be the way it revolutionised the way we get our information of cars. Ever since the show's cancellation in 2015, due to Jeremy Clarkson punching a producer in the face, no reboot has been able to reach the peak of Top Gear. At one point 350 million people would tune in to watch the show weekly, during the emerging streaming era.

The show was catapulted into fame not for the wacky challenges, but for the specials they would do. The hosts would travel all over the world in cars of all kinds: exploring, annoying and reaching pointless conclusions to entertain the viewers. The best part about the specials was the locations of them. From the North Pole to Africa to India, the stunning views of the said locations would leave the hosts and viewers in awe. Looking back at the specials I realise that that was part of what made the specials so enjoyable, the appreciation of nature. The cars, or should I saw vehicles, made the special all the more memorable. My personal favourite is their East African special with estate cars. Estate cars are like normal 4 door cars, but elongated so that they are suitable for big families. They are not designed for going on rough roads, let alone baron mud land that is defined as a road. This is just one of the many specials that made the show stand out. Other popular specials are the Burma and Vietnam specials where the hosts were in trucks and bikes respectively. 

One cannot mention Top Gear and not discuss the numerous controversies that the show encountered. The controversy would usually come from one of the hosts (Jeremy Clarkson/Richard Hammond) saying something outrageous about people of a country. The most infamous case was the Patagonia special. Patagonia is a region in South America, typically referring to the two countries of Argentina and Chile. The trio were associated with Britain and all the British stereotypes and they knew this and capitalised on it as part of their image. When they met together at the begging of the special in their 80's V8's there was an issue they could not solve. Jeremy Clarkson's number plate was registered as H982 FLK, which would prove problematic. In 1982 Britain and Argentina went to war over the Falkland Islands, I won't go into details of the War as I hate any form of Warfare, but people died so there were and still are tensions already present with the mere presence of the hosts. The number plate was like a nuclear bomb in this tension. A wise decision was made to go to Tierra del Fuego, the location where a battleship departed into the War. I'm not going to go into any more detail on what happened, all I want you to know is that they knew it was risky to venture to Tierra del Fuego, and they payed the price for it. 

I am considering starting a new series that is not stem based as it is difficult to keep producing them at a weekly rate. I find myself reaching spontaneous bursts of energy and write a lot and publish them back to back. I hope that as the year goes on I can get more posts up and explore new series' like this one. I think I will make a TV show series on my blog page as an alternative for my viewers as I need some variety on my page. I really want some feedback on this and if my viewers would enjoy this new direction.