Top Gear used to be quite refreshing, but obviously that has faded with time. On the whole it started going downhill about three or four series ago, but I still enjoy it when they do car-enthusiast type stuff (buying an Alfa, Porsche, knackered Italian supercar...etc within a certain budget, that sort of thing).

Top Gear has certainly lost its way. They've run out of ideas and are relying on the personalities of the presenters. Last week's thing on the gallery show in Middlesbrough was fairly tiresome.

That said, I think they should junk the show as it stands and just make specials now and again, whether that's the three chaps driving across Russia in second-hand armoured personnel carriers or a whole bunch of stars racing in reasonably-priced cars. The show is at its best when the enjoyment erupts spontaneously, not when it is mechnically contrived.

... because it was iconoclastic ... now it's very firmly part of the main roster of BBC entertainment ... so it's almost impossible to be 'an alternative car show' when you're the 'established car show' ...

Agree this series is not as good as previous ones. It's still a great way to spend an hour on Sunday night. The specials are truly great, and am much looking forward to the Bolivia one on Sunday. Let's hope it stands up. I'm beginning to prefer James May's solo work. The lego house, the toy stuff. Even the wine tour with Oz Clark was good. It would be a shame to see it go, but maybe it's time. Quarterly specials would be a good idea.

....

http://www.wordmagazine.co.uk/content/just-stop-it-now.

Your second paragraph hits the nail on the head

"The presenters have become caricatures of themselves, the show is scripted and predictable and they no longer come across as just a gang of mates having fun."

It should get back to being what it's supposed to be, an informative car show.
Top Gear was the model for Fifth Gear when that was launched - now top Gear should take a look at Fifth Gear and ask "what are we doing wrong?" (Answer: too much "entertainment", not enough cars!)

they need some feminine input on the show and a change of emotional dynamics.

that Mickey Dolenz was the Stig and that actually Clarkson (Nesmith), May (Tork) and Hammond (Jones)are in fact the rest of the Monkees, no? Here's the evidence

At least if it were true it might liven things up

I had considered posting a thread on The Restaurant after the, as you correctly state, farcial ending. However as you've mentioned it, I'll rant here.
My thought was have we been subject to some very dubious editing. Week after week I'd be thinking James and JJ are going to get the chop. Yet they would survice. Then after their huge cock up in the final of failing to produce both an edible risotto and souffle and fluking it with the roast beef - it being the required degree of rareness because JJ's incompetence meant he started cooking it so late and had to serve it as it was - which happened to be what the guest's wanted. They won because they produced a cocktail instead of a souffle and it went down well. This despite the other two doing well in producing the required dishes, with a bit of imagination, and the front of house guy at last showing some understanding of how you are supposed to treat guests.
Had the editors being playing up James and JJ's incompetence and making other contestants look better than they really were? That to me seems the only sensible answer, because I can't see why anyone would otherwise go into business with a couple of chancers (Sara's description in one episode) who would seem likely to go bust in the space of a few weeks.
As for their restaurant concept, I can't for the life of me imagine wanting to go to a restaurant serving picnic food and cocktails.

Yes. I've loved this show and it has been the only programme that all the family sit down to for a long time, but they need to take a break. Just do a couple of specials over the next year and then try again.

With the obvious talent thats already there it would be a shame to see it go completely. Quarterly specials, a new female presenter to give Clarkson some much needed competition (he knows `exactly` what he`s about) and revamp the format a little. And then let`s see if it really is time to put it down.

"I read a funny piece in which the producer of Top Gear said it's nearly at an end because it's no longer the programme it once was."

He said it was nearer the end than the beginning, not that the show is nearly at an end. It could still run for another 2 or 3 series, and I hope it does.

Here in the US, we're probably 2 series behind and I still enjoy it. It's not as good as it was, but then what is?

I really enjoy the surreal direction Top Gear is taking. If I wanted to buy a car I'd go to a garage. Or look in a magazine. I don't need some Norman Wisdom type telling me about the carbon fibre gears of a car I'll never be able to afford.

However, the weird little tasks and experiments that they do, I think, are much more interesting.

Sorry. But I do. For example, from last series (or the one before - I got lost along the way), there was a superb episode where they all raced across London in different forms of transport, and proved that the worst way of getting across London is by car. As Clarkson said on the program "you've broken Top Gear". And I think that that is MUCH better programming than showing you the manouvrability of the new BMW or whatever. It's a car. It costs more than I'll ever earn. Yawn...

we call it "Launching the Hammond" round 'ere.

If they could get rid of Phil Stupidass' occasional appearances on QI and get a better foil than Davies things would improve and while I'm here, HIGNIFY needs to dump Merton he dominates every show and is more of an annoyance than a wit/funny.

but can now watch it with a slight sense of amusement since seeing Stewart Lee's new show a few weeks ago. He spent some time criticising the show but the bit that got me was where he compared the relationship between the three presenters to that of the three bears. Very funny. he also did a skit where he wished that Hammond had died in his car crash. This was a joke, of course, and a critique of the philosophy of Clarkson who seems to think that he can get away with saying anything as long as he qualifies it by adding that it was only a joke. This particular bit of the show was distorted by the Daily Mail which ran a piece suggesting that Lee was touring the country spewing bile and hatred towards Hammond and wishing him dead. Not true at all, by the way, and I'm sure the piece in the Mail had nothing to do with the fact that Lee's wife is currently performing a show in which she exposes the hypocrisy, xenophobia and casual racism of The Daily Mail.

...of the last series was where it soiled its trousers - in fact the very last bit with Clarkson driving the Aston around beautiful British scenery and pontificating pompously that in the near future it may not be possible to drive a car like this in this way. At which point I wanted so much to elucidate to the suede shoe wearing mid life crisis on legs that only a minutiae of humanity will ever to get to drive a car like that.