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Show:		8.0
Picture:		9.0
Sound:		9.0
Extras:		1.0
Score:		8.0

Director(s):	Brian Klein • Nigel Simpkiss • Phil Churchward
Starring:	James May • Jeremy Clarkson • Richard Hammond
Genre:	Comedy • Documentary • Sports
Website:	http://www.bbc.co.uk/topgear/
Release Date:	January 12, 2010

List Price:	DVD - $21.99
Amazon:

No one could blame you if you imagined even for a second that a show about flashy sports cars wasn’t your cup of tea. Until last year I was in the same shabby, Winnebago [read: boat]. Usually, when someone says to me “It must be good, look at how many people watch it!” I laugh it off. Television programming tends to be more successful the more mindless it is, I’m sorry if you disagree, but more often than not it’s the plain-spoken truth. American shows like American Idol pat themselves on the back when they hit 38 million viewers per episode. Top Gear? It boasts 350 million viewers worldwide and frankly, I can’t blame a single one of them.

Hosts Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May love themselves a fast, sleek, beautifully styled automobile. They rarely agree on which car fits all those descriptions, but that’s half the fun. Watching them charge headlong into the producer-assigned “challenges” to push a given vehicle past its recognized abilities usually results in a large amount of fun. Maybe they’re forcing outdated Italian race cars to prove their merit long after their glory days, or perhaps they’re attempting to outfox a pack of hounds in a sports utility vehicle. Whatever the task, they tend to offer some amusing color commentary after the fact.

Even if Top Gear has begun to tilt slightly further towards being a comedy show with cars than a car show with comedy, it’s still wildly entertaining. In its eleventh season, Top Gear has made a noticeable effort to cut back on huge events like the cross-desert rally of the previous season, and in exchange features a single mission-per-episode format. If you follow the show regularly you’d know that that means every episode of the season is now essentially the same with no two or three episode arcs to break it up. With a simple six-episode season there’s not much need to break it up, so the omission of that multi-episode mission doesn’t negatively affect Top Gear’s eleventh season all that much.

Normal segments include basic races, “Star in a Reasonably-Priced Car” (which was notably expanded to feature two stars per episode), “Power Laps” featuring a mysterious driver called The Stig attempting to set lap records in different cars, and “The Cool Wall” a frequently shifting measure of which cars make you a cock or cool by ownership association. “News”, a segment based entirely around the hosts taking potshots at cars in the news (and each other), may be the most comedy-based of all the segments. They may talk about cars somewhat, but it’s really an excuse to deliver some funny automotive one-liners.

Few shows can transcend viewer reluctance like this. You might detest talking about cars or you might be totally baffled by people who get gaga for horsepower, but there’s something ultimately compelling about Top Gear that enables it to overcome that initial aversion. Counting myself amongst that lot, I still laugh in spite of myself in each episode. Give Top Gear a chance and you’ll find yourself oddly enraptured in the rapport of the hosts, their antics both on and off-road and the entertaining challenges they’re asked to perform in some of the dumpiest sports cars you’ll ever see. There’s no American equivalent to Top Gear (NBC started to make one but dropped it) and its entertainment value easily crosses over. Give it a shot, you’ll find it quite enjoyable, car enthusiast or not.

Guest appearances for series 11 include Alan Carr, Justin Lee Collins, Rupert Penry-Jones, Peter Firth, James Corden, Rob Brydon, Fiona Bruce, Kate Silverton, Peter Jones, Theo Paphitis, and the show’s fastest guest ever Jay Kay.

DVD Bonus Features

The set is surprisingly barren in the extras department. Considering how much fun they seem to have making this show, it is hard to believe there wasn’t a gag reel or outtakes from some of the challenges.