NomoneyNohoney wrote:Episode 2 - sad to report, pretty boring
Yes, and I'm afraid the faults are largely a result of it being made in America by an American company.
The apparently unlimited funding (or certainly unlimited compared to the BBC) has meant the producer taking the lazy way out in thinking that spending pots of money on a production is an adequate substitute for high quality content. This is an American trait in films generally - concentrate on what it looks like rather than what it says.
By contrast, the financial limits imposed by the BBC meant that this wasn't an option, so they had to concentrate on good content.
The second half of episode 2 in the desert was just stupid. Not only did it have nothing at all to do with cars, but the whole concept was just an expensive exercise in total pointlessness. What was it supposed to be? Drama? Comedy? I kept thinking surely it must be coming to an end, but it dragged on ... and on ...
I did enjoy some of the the studio section, and thought the jokes about the idiot Zuma were very amusing. The conversation bit was reasonably OK, as well. But the celebrity death joke has already worn thin, the only saving grace being that at least we're saved from having to listen to the vapid self-promotion of the celebrity itself.
But I can't stand that idiot ex-Indy driver, Mike Skinner, who is one of the worst symptoms of the American ownership of the show. He may once have been a sort of racing driver but he's nearly 60, he looks like he's eaten excessive quantities of beefburgers and spouts redneck drivel that is just embarrassing. He may be able to drive a crude US muscle car round in circles but he just looks and sounds totally out of place driving a serious sports car, and it's an insult to a high performance car to put someone like him behind its wheel.
So yes, a very disappointing episode, and the sad thing is that as all the episodes have now presumably been made the public reaction can make no difference to future ones.
The only saving grace is that I read somewhere that episode 2 was actually the first episode to be filmed, and that episode 1 was made later. If true, then on the basis that episode 1 was much better it may be that the problems with this one were recognised and corrected in later shows. We shall see.
