Getting back on track, Top Gear seems to have righted its course and rediscovered the proper balance between love for all things automotive and comedy. For a while Top Gear had begun to feel less like a car show with a twist of comedy and more like a comedy show that just happened to feature some really cool cars. It had strayed from its roots and lost focus on what made the viewing experience so much fun. With the 16th series, Top Gear feels like its back in its groove of fast cars, ridiculous but informed tests, and two great roadtrip episodes. The 16th series also marks the 3rd to be offered on Blu-ray, and to the show’s credit this is an offering that needs to continue forever, so well-played by BBC there because that makes the series sets of Top Gear automatically worthy of purchase.
Returning for the 16th go around at a series that has enjoyed a wildly successful rebirth and become an international sensation, Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James Mays have gotten better with age. While Clarkson and Mays have always treated Hammond as the younger maverick of the trio, what with his adolescent enthusiasm for less “refined” vehicles, but now the three have settled into something of a unanimously acknowledged “old man” comfort zone. Sure, Hammond still gets giddy when he has the chance to fly a helicopter and continues to select flashier vehicles whenever there’s a series of challenges to be had, though he increasingly shares their mindset of “less is more” – at times. That’s only half of the change though, the other stems from a noticeable reduction in comedy over substance. The trio still engages in shenanigans, but it no longer takes center stage like it did back with series 12 or 13. They’ve hit the brakes and re-merged with the formula that made Top Gear what it was. The show is better for it, and it has come at little to no cost to their terrific group dynamic.
The Top Gear roadtrip films remain a series highlight, and in the 16th series we have two: the triple-episode American Blue Ridge Highway jaunt and the Middle East journey through Iraq, Turkey and Israel. Like their trip through Africa in an earlier season, these multi-episode trips are where the series really shines, both in content and visual brilliance. The American trip has a lot more of automotive history built in, as the guys explore NASCAR country and beyond, whereas the Middle East endeavor leans more heavily on their panicked comedy of poorly thought out ideas and the sights they capture on film. Two specials in one series release puts it over the top, and you could almost ignore the rest of the episodes – but you shouldn’t, as they have some great guests and incredible cars.
You could understandably watch Top Gear without being a car fanatic, because the show plays as much as a talk show with an automotive indulgence as much as it does eye candy for aficionados of all things that go “vroom”. Among the models tested this time around, you have the Rolls Royce Ghost, a whole lot of ill-gotten Albanian Mercedes (in a great episode to boot), vehicles of mass destruction, the Aerial Atom V8, the Jaguar XJ in a race against God Himself (or the spinning of the earth, whichever), and more. As far as guests go, you have Danny Boyle (who affirms and appreciates [my/general] love of Sunshine), Amber Heard, John Bishop, Boris Becker, Simon Pegg and Nick Frost.
Earlier I said a Blu-ray release of a Top Gear series on Blu-ray makes it automatically worthy of purchase, and I stand by that. As far as TV shows go, the cinematography and sheer quality of picture in Top Gear has always been phenomenal, even when it was in standard definition. It was how good the show looked in SD that made me hanker for an HD release, and now that BBC is solidly in the practice of doing that, they’re officially sitting pretty at the top of the list of studios who produce stellar hi-def television (as if Life and Human Planet didn’t already put them there). Top Gear is a beautifully captured show, and the Blu-ray option should be very alluring to anyone who wants to see some beautiful cars looking terrific. The exotic locales don’t hurt either.
Blu-ray Bonus Features
The set includes a few pre- and post-episode chats with Clarkson, Mays and Hammond where they joke around about what happened in previous episodes and seasons and then lead in to others. These segments feel like the compromise made wherein the humor in the show was dialed back and then the producer let them have these little moments on camera to get the pent up laughter out of their systems. The featurettes continue with additional footage of celebrity guests doing their laps in a reasonably priced car, a self-effacing, tongue-in-cheek studio tour, and further behind the scenes footage.
"Top Gear 16" is on sale August 9, 2011 and is not rated. Documentary, Sports. Starring James May, Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond.
