Fifth Gear: You Don't Know What You Got 'Til it's Gone.

Kinja'd!!! "Jacques L' Autre" (jacklauterdale)
05/03/2014 at 19:07 • Filed to: None

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As I am sometimes wont to do, I wandered over to FinalGear to check and see if Top Gear US had any newer episodes. Heresy! Some of you may say, but I actually do appreciate the show for what it is. While on there I saw that Fifth Gear may be no more, and if so that makes me sad. Always the black sheep of auto-entertainment, Fifth Gear was the foil to the well renowned Top Gear we all know and love, well before Top Gear US ever popped onto the scene. It was always the more technical, shorter show that seemed to have a revolving door of locations and presenters, but it had it's own charms. Whether it was Tiff, enthusiastically power sliding cars across your TV screen, or Vick Butler-Henderson squealing her way over some country road, or one of my favorite segments- Tiff and Jason Plato going head-to-head on a track. It will be missed.

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With the impending end of Top Gear, let's face it, it's going to happen sometime, it will be interesting to see what picks up the baton. Will it be the internet? /Drive, The Smoking Tire, Motor Trend, and others all have a significant presence online, and a growing fanbase offline. Or will TV step up again and provide us with a new source of petroliriousness? Time will tell, but for now let's remember how good it was when we had two great British motoring shows to hash out our automotive fantasies.


DISCUSSION (12)


Kinja'd!!! CAcoalminer > Jacques L' Autre
05/03/2014 at 19:42

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Geez this is depressing. A great show for sure. These are two of my favorite episodes:


Kinja'd!!! Burrito de EJ25 > Jacques L' Autre
05/03/2014 at 19:44

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Top Gear USA is all I have now.

I've vowed never to watch proper Top Gear from this day forth. This n-word situation was the final straw.


Kinja'd!!! Manuél Ferrari > Jacques L' Autre
05/03/2014 at 19:44

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Noooooooooooooooooooooooo


Kinja'd!!! Svend > Jacques L' Autre
05/03/2014 at 19:49

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Its good to remember Fifth Gear started when the BBC axed TopGear. Jezza, Tiff and Vicky (I think there was someone else but can't remember off the top of my head who) were to start Fifth Gear and just as it was being filmed the BBC offered Jezza a slightly 'rejigged' format and to bring TopGear back. Tiff and Vicky stuck with Channel Five while Jezza went back to the BBC. At least Jezza know's he has a job should the BBC bow to political correctness again for the sake of it and not stick by its staff.


Kinja'd!!! ADabOfOppo; Gone Plaid (Instructables Can Be Confusable) > Burrito de EJ25
05/03/2014 at 20:31

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Lolz.

The tabloid is making a mountain out of a grain of sand. Clarkson might be a loose cannon, but he's an equal opportunity 'offender.'

And really, people need to lighten the fuck up. Everything offends everyone. We might as well go about our lives in utter silence since opening your mouth is bound to offend someone's sensiblities at some point.

Better yet, why doesn't everyone who gets offended over trivialities keep it to themselves and get on with life.


Kinja'd!!! Burrito de EJ25 > ADabOfOppo; Gone Plaid (Instructables Can Be Confusable)
05/03/2014 at 20:38

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"Nigger" may very well be a triviality to you, but for a lot of people it isn't. Don't tell people what should or shouldn't offend them. Especially if you're in a position of privilege as most people who dismissively tell everyone to "lighten up" are.


Kinja'd!!! ADabOfOppo; Gone Plaid (Instructables Can Be Confusable) > Burrito de EJ25
05/03/2014 at 21:09

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It's a terribly offensive word, yes. I never said it wasn't.

They never intended to air that clip. Clarkson clearly wasn't comfortable with saying it. The tabloid went looking for dirt, with the explicit intention of creating controversy. That offends me. They are creating controversy for the sake of ratings when there isn't anything to make a big deal about.

If they had actually aired that version of the clip on the show, then yes by all means should we be apocalyptically angry about it.

I'm just trying to point out that you have decided to stop watching the world's best motoring show because some tabloid went digging around in the muck and happened to find enough shit to throw at the fan.


Kinja'd!!! Burrito de EJ25 > ADabOfOppo; Gone Plaid (Instructables Can Be Confusable)
05/03/2014 at 21:13

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You're assuming this and only this is what carried my decision. It isn't. This is years in the making. On and off the show.


Kinja'd!!! ADabOfOppo; Gone Plaid (Instructables Can Be Confusable) > Burrito de EJ25
05/03/2014 at 21:37

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Then why now? Why not years ago? Top Gear has pretty much offended everyone at some point. It's not like they are singling anyone out for special treatment.

You're right, I can't tell you what to think. I guess I just think that making this non-sensical controversy the prevebial last straw is odd.

Oh well.

internet high five?


Kinja'd!!! Makoyouidiot > Burrito de EJ25
05/04/2014 at 12:48

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"Dear so-called Top Gear,

I am deeply offended by what Jeremy Clarkson and his gang of cronies have done THIS TIME, and THIS TIME shall be the last straw! I shall never tune into this automotive entertainment program again, you just see if I don't!

Signed,

A thin-skinned viewer."


Kinja'd!!! Burrito de EJ25 > Makoyouidiot
05/04/2014 at 14:26

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The show's dull too. So, there's that.

Last series was just about the worst they've ever done.


Kinja'd!!! Makoyouidiot > Burrito de EJ25
05/04/2014 at 23:12

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I don't know about that, I've been rewatching the 1st series lately and most of those shows are pretty damn boring, compared to mid-late 00's which was the prime. The current stuff isn't quite as good, I'll admit, but still better than the 1st series and the original Top Gear format.