Injecting some fun back into a miserable 2020 Top Gear is back with a bang and here’s our episode by episode Top Gear Series 29 review.
2020 has been a shocker, but in comes Top Gear for their 29th series to add some much needed humour and entertainment to carry us through the next few weeks.
With social distancing in full effect it was always going to be interesting to see how the show would work during the global pandemic.
Production began earlier this year and many plans and ideas for the series had to be scrapped as a result.
Overseas travel was called off and the live studio audience within a hanger has been downsized and put outside into a giant stage drive-thru.
So has Top Gear suffered in quality as a result?
Absolutely bloody not!
Top Gear Series 29 Episode 1 Review
Freddie Flintoff, Chris Harris and Paddy McGuinness return with a new drive-in studio.
They also visit Paddy’s home town of Bolton to test three new company cars by spending 24 hours in them – with no getting out.
And Chris heads to Italy to test the blistering Ferrari SF90 supercar.
Picking up from the superb Series 28 Top Gear finale it really feels as though they never left.
The brand new drive-in format just works, people are outside in the open air enjoying a live display from Chris, Paddy and Freddie and it just fits together perfectly.
Adding a grand scale with a stage performance perfectly introduces the segment but the presenters still have that forced feeling on-stage banter.
They’re on stage trying to replicate the more natural comedy that comes so easily with well edited footage in the main pre-filmed segments and it doesn’t quite pay off.
They had their awkward moments within the hanger in previous series so there’s no change here but this is certainly a format that suits the show and I could see this format staying long after COVID.
Forced to spend 24 hours in their cars driving around Bolton and the first episode challenge is well underway with hilarious results.
The trio cannot even go to the toilet outside of their cars and the comedy comes thick and fast when the group go to a Go-Karting track.
Paddy takes us on a little tour of his home town including a meeting with a childhood friend on the street he grew up in.
Top Gear has been upgraded from BBC Two to BBC One for the first time and if they keep the banter and the comedy up they’ll be here for quite some time.
A highlight of this 24 hour challenge for me was the Tesla that Paddy drives has a built in Karaoke machine.
Pulled up at a gas station in the middle of Bolton and with onlookers crowded around the car a karaoke session begins.
It’s safe to say that something like that just couldn’t happen in the current situation so it was nice to see a shade of the good times praying that they return real soon!
Whilst episode one for large part actually steps away from the car reviews in favour of three lads messing around the show loops back around to the more informative angle when Chris Harris gets to test the Ferrari SF90.
An absolute beast of a car clocking in at 1000bhp and a nice little segment to calm us down after a hilarious opening challenge segment.
I’m in the minority who was happy to read that the star in the reasonably priced car segment was dropped.
The interviews were always awkward and half-assed, the celebrities (if you could call them that on some episodes in particular) never had much in the way of personality half of the time and it was quickly becoming a segment you’d easily fast forward on catch-up or ignore when it came on.
It’s time to move forward with some new ideas and some new segments and add something original to this wonderfully addictive show.
I feel as though the Top Gear team were following us everywhere we went on our adventures.
The day before Top Gear were filming at Alton Towers we were there shooting a video.
The day after we went to Zipworld to do the world’s fastest zip line Top Gear were there again.
It was a real shame to miss them but experiencing some of the things that they did in this new series, well, it was a cool experience that’s for sure!
Sit back, forget about COVID for 60 minutes and enjoy the much needed escapism that this wonderful introductory episode brings.
Top Gear airs every Sunday at 8pm on BBC One
Top Gear Series 29 Episode 2 Review
Freddie, Chris and Paddy tackle a monstrous wall of death in some very cheap insurance write-offs.
The trio also take a Yorkshire road trip in classic supercars, and Freddie attempts to hit 200mph in an old Jaguar.
Introducing this episode with a beautiful tribute to 200mph+ supercars of old was the perfect way to start off this revitalised car show.
Well, that was until a certain Paddy McGuinness wrote one supercar off within the opening 5 minutes of the show.
Not one to shy away from mistakes, mishaps and banter instead opting to embrace them with open arms the episode comes into its own with the latest challenge.
Three insurance write-offs had to be purchased and put through their paces including a game of musical chairs with cars and an absolutely horrifying finale wall of death experience.
Paddy opts for a second hand Cayman S Porsche, Freddie hops in a second hand Maserati Quattroporte and Chris opts for a more modern Ford RS.
The Quattroporte is certainly the steal of the day, how on earth Freddie (or should I say the production team) found a car like that for under £6k is beyond me.
A Cayman S Porsche is also a damn good steal too!
Using whatever money was left-over they had to make the cars road legal and then compete in the giant wall of death challenge.
Whilst this particular segment wasn’t as daredevilish as bungee jumping off a dam in a car like in the last season it was still quite a heart in mouth spectacle to witness.
The new format of presenting the show outside in-front of a drive-in audience is definitely looking the part, it’s seamlessly gelled with the format of the show.
As Top Gear is now more a show about three guys embracing their inner child rather than the cars it’s certainly a show that’s bringing in appeal from viewers the show wouldn’t usually garner.
You don’t have to be a car enthusiast specifically to enjoy Top Gear anymore, the platform is wide open to watch these lads have a great time and provide entertainment and downright hilarious content for us to binge on Sunday evenings.
Roll on the Alton Towers / ZipWorld episodes!
Top Gear Series 29 Episode 3 Review
Freddie, Chris and Paddy head to Cyprus on a budget rental car adventure, and sample the exciting new sport of car water-skiing.
Back at the test track, Chris and Paddy sample the latest family cars from Audi and Lamborghini.
Oh man was this episode a bunch of fun!
Certainly saving money with this one as the lads get a hold of the cheapest rentals they can find and put them through their paces with surprisingly impressive results.
These rental cars have been through the ringer but they still held up rather well even after being sent flying down ski slopes and through various hilarious challenges.
This episode certainly felt like more of a filler episode before the final two episodes.
Filler in the way of being that episode 4 and 5 look like the bigger budget episodes whilst this one definitely feels like the cost cutting episode of the season.
That by no means makes episode 3 the weakest link, oh no.
With Freddie, Chris and Paddy at the helm it’s damn good viewing and the show absolutely flies by.
But let’s be honest, we’ve all seen the teasers for episode 4 and 5.
Whilst this was an enjoyable episode it was sadly outshone by the sheer anticipation of what the next two episodes hold in store for the boys.
More episode reviews to be added every week here on Back to the Movies
Our Rating
Summary
Picking up exactly from where they left of this is the much needed escapism the British public need right now.
Hilariously addictive and throughly enjoyable just sit back, forget the outside world and enjoy the immaturity of three grown men reliving their childhoods.
