'Top Gear' (BBC2) is always on 'Dave' or some other channel somewhere. Jeremy Clarkson, James May and Richard Hammond have serious road miles clocked up at this stage and the show has become an international franchise, toured, been a huge money spinner for the BBC and the presenters, and generally been omnipresent for much of the last decade. It has a simple formula of the three amigos getting lost, exchanging pub-style banter and delivering soliloquies on what it means to be a dude. Cars are incidental, a peg on which to hang the schtick; petrolheads enjoy the show but it's not pitched at them; 'Top Gear' is aimed at your average Joe, who sees his car as an extension of himself (at a deeper psychological level, not a dick thing).Throw in a celebrity guest/fan and you have a programme where the ordinary, the regular, get to feel extraordinary. Of course, 'thetvreviewguy' can understand why 'Top Gear' (TG) is so popular but for him, 'TG' is akin to bumping into that neighbour or acquaintance at an annual barbeque that you don't really dislike but just have no great desire to meet up with again in a hurry (nothing personal of course). There's a huge amount of Clarkson, May and Hammond playing at being kids; it's mildly amusing, occasionally irritating but mostly, a harmless hour of telly padded out with plenty of faux bufoonery and cod dialogue. Yes, Clarkson is a dolt when writing in the 'Sunday Times' where he espouses his tedious reactionary views (real and posed). And yet...'thetvreviewguy' still holds that 'Top Gear' has a certain amount of charm but becoming a regular viewer wouldn't be one of his driving ambitions.
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