A return to form for Top Gear?

Ever since its rebirth in 2002, Top Gear has provided me with Sunday night entertainment and it’s always been brilliant. Well actually that isn’t entirely true. You see, Top Gear’s entertainment value has decreased hugely in recent years – the ‘humour’ has become entirely predictable and largely infantile, whilst fewer and fewer cars are actually being reviewed and much like I expect Hangman to be offensive, I expect a car show to be about cars.

In the last two or three years the balance has been completely wrong – it’s been three idiots larking about doing pointless challenges and occasionally reviewing a car if the mood takes them. My primary reason for tuning in to Top Gear each week is to see the car reviews and tests, I don’t think to myself ‘oh I want to watch some comedy – I’ll watch Top Gear!’

You can imagine then that it was to my delight that the first episode of the current series (number 18 if you were wondering) was fantastic (excepting will.i.am as the guest; he was a bit boring). The three lads went on a road trip through Italy in a Lamborghini, a McLaren and a Noble – what more could you want. This was – as the case usually is with Top Gear – beautifully filmed and produced. Fantastic. Top Gear is back.

I was even happier when the second episode was also up to (if not exceeding) scratch. It saw a genuinely interesting feature in which Richard Hammond explored the world of NASCAR, a sport which is rarely mentioned here in Blighty followed by Jeremy reviewing the new Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG Roadster. Even what I usually find the most tedious part of the show, the Star in a Reasonably Priced Car, was genuinely amusing and interesting although I guess that’s what you’d expect from Matt LeBlanc. The episode ended with a feature in which Jeremy and James investigated the growing Chinese car market, most of which are cheap copies of European marques. Even that was interesting and not too infantile for my liking.

Episode three was what you'd describe as terrible

Episode three was not like the first two episodes. Episode three was what you’d describe as terrible. After watching it I felt more annoyed than someone with no sense of humour reading Hangman. James reviewed a Vauxhall Corsa VXR and a Fiat Panda, whilst Clarkson and Hammond wasted time trying to direct a car chase for a remake of The Sweeney.

It was a mixed bag with episode four – it started well with James traveling to Florida to review the Fisker Karma – a surprisingly good looking and well made electric car. He did of course end up going off track and meeting AC/DC frontman Brian Johnson to drive his 1928 Bentley. Although that was no bad thing as the Bentley is a beautiful piece of craftsmanship and design. Following this Jeremy reviewed the Ferrari FF and Bentley Continental GT on ice in Northern Sweden which made for surprisingly good viewing. The final feature of the episode involved the trio each making off road mobility scooters and testing them against commercially available versions. It was neither interesting nor funny. All it managed to do was ruin what was a pretty decent episode.

So has _Top Gear _returned to form? No. Not yet. It’s certainly the best it's been for a few years, but I still find myself debating whether it’s worth my time or not. It’s almost as if it’s going through a mid life crisis. It needs a new lease of life – a breath of fresh air. To me Top Gear should be a showcase for the mechanical excellence and beauty of new cars whilst providing an arena in which to promote the joy of driving, not some cringeworthy childish ‘entertainment’ show.