Top Gear and American Stereo Types

USA Eastern Road Trip

This episode of Top Gear takes place in the United States.  The boys are on holiday road tripping up the eastern side of the US. Jeremy is in a Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG, Richard is in a Porsche 911 GT3 RS, and James is in a Ferrari 458 Italia.  They begin in the North Carolina on the Blue Ridge Parkway.  Their first stop is an old NASCAR racetrack.  Here they proceed to race around the track where Jeremy becomes a little tail happy.  He proceeds to ruin the rear tires on his SLS.  He needs to find new tires for the car.  He finds himself in need of help from the mayor of the town he is in.  The mayor is seen as being as a southern hick.  The dominant ideology of the people who are trying to find him a tire are seen as being dumb lower class Americans.  The British presenters are seen as being higher class and of the dominant class.  When Jeremy finally makes it to his overnight stay the other two are already there.  They next scene is the three presenting the news back in the studio.  They are focused on Christmas gifts for the motoring enthusiast.  When they return to the road trip they find out they are staying at a motor racing park and hotel.  They are told to go race around the track.  Jeremy again becomes too tail happy and ruins even more tires.  James and Richard engage in a proper race.  Richard tries to keep up with James but is unable and spins off the track.  The boys are presented with another challenge.  They are to perform a drive by shooting.  They are to shoot out of their car at paper targets.  When the three receive weapons training Jeremy becomes over enthusiastic.  The are competing against each to see who can score the most points in the paper target, which are in the shape of their ex performance car driver known as the Stig.  Jeremy is the last to; he cheats by using a rife instead of a handgun.  After another knights stay they are told to report to New York City.  On the way they find a drag strip where Jeremy and James race in the rain.  Neither car could complete a race due to the track being too wet.  After they leave the track they cut back to the studio where Jeremy interviews Director Danny Boyle.  After the interview the tree end up in New York City.  They are given the challenge of making their way up town.  However they are not allowed to use the ring road. The winner would appear on an American morning chat show.  They think it will be some American pop show, but they in for a surprise.  The show is a morning work out yoga show.  James wins the race and when he appears he looks so uncomfortable.  After the trip is over they cut back to the studio where Jeremy and James race the same two cars in a drag race.  The race is a dead tie.  

The Americans represented I in the show are seen as hicks.  They have southern accents, which are seen as a sign of inferiority.  One of the tire shop owners has such a thick accent he is said to not even be speaking English.  He also has a large beer belly, a shirt with cut off sleeves, and tattoos.  He is seen as being lower class and of lower standings than the British men.  While the southern Americans are being seen as lower class, the show they are set to appear on are seen as having high class Americans who are extremely popular.  The southern Americans portrayed in the show are not what all Americans are.  The images portrayed in the show are false images. 

Top Gear Africa Special

Series 19 Episode 6

In this episode of Top Gear the trio is headed to Africa for their yearly two part series special.  They start in the studio introducing their special to the live audience.  Jeremy is the first to arrive in his second hand estate car for no more than 1500 pounds.  He arrived in his BMW 528i.  He describes his car’s previous owner as someone who probably took their car to the max on a budget.  The car has two different sets of tires and it’s a manual.  Richard is the next to arrive.  He arrives is a Subaru Impreza WRX.  Jeremy describes the car as one driven by a moron.  Richard says he has the right car for any job.  When James is the last to arrive both Jeremy and Richard poke fun at his Volvo 850R.  As they stand around poking fun at each other’s their challenge arrives via a producer.  They were to find the source of the river Nile.  As they begin to drive they come to lake Victoria.  They tell the viewers that the lake Victoria is the source but when another producer turns up and says no it is not the source is still disputed and experts cannot find the true sources.  They then go on to look at a map and determine they need to go further south to find the true source.  The trip will not be easy with muddy roads, dangerous narrow roads, and river crossings.  While traveling through a capitol city they encounter the worst traffic they have ever seen.  The traffic jam takes them two days to get out of.  As they travel their first over night hotel has been set up Richard, who finds the worst over night stay possible.  After their first night in the hotel they realize they need to find different over night accommodations.  They decide to make their estate cars to accommodate them for overnight sleeping.  At the reveal Richard creates a small RV in the back of his Subaru.  James creates a small library in the front of his car, and a small workshop in the back with a cot to sleep on.  Finally Jeremy makes the back of his car a luxury sleeping quarter.  In the front seat he fitted a small fridge filled with beer, and outside he has fitted a full bathroom. 

            As they continue with their journey they drive through the jungle, on unpaved bumps roads, and down mud-slicked paths.  Their journey takes them through many different countries in Africa.  They finally determine they need to explore the Serengeti to find the source of the Nile.  Once they arrive to where they think the source could be it’s an all out race between the three to find the source.  In the end James determines he has found the true source and is the winner. 

            The episode is full of very glamorous panning shots of nature.  There is a lot of narration by the three presenters letting the audience know what is going on and what they think about what they think about their journey.  The camera work for the show is a lot of in car single person self-interviews of each presenter.  There are also shots from chase cars focusing on each of the presenter’s cars while they are being driven.  The editing of the show is done very well.  They go from a long set up shot, to an in car close up shot, to flowing shots of each car, to panning scenery shots, back to close up shots of each presenter.  The camera work assist with the whole aspect of the show. 

           

            I watch the show because of the scenery shots, car following shots, and the in car close up interview shots.  I enjoy how the presenters make their opinion known to the audience.  The production of the show adds a lot of deciding factors of my love for the show. 

Across the Western US

Season 19 Episode 2
The episode I watched was one of my favorite episodes of the entire show.  The tree presenters went to America with three super cars.  Jeremy drove a Lexus LFA.  It’s a ridiculous, expensive car.  James drove an Aston Martin Vanquish.  And Richard drove a Dodge Viper.  All of the cars were the latest of the models.  They stared off in the Valley of Fire in Nevada.  Their next stop was Las Vegas Nevada.  When they got there they went to the racetrack to participate in some drag racing.  They lost everyone they raced.  Next they presented a news segment about new cars and some news in Brittan.  After the news their next stop was another racetrack this time in the high desert of California.  There they attempted to race around the track at high speeds.  They were engaged in a game of laser tag.  They were the pray while two fighter planes attempted to shoot them with lasers.  The planes were very victorious.  After they cut back to the studio.  There in the studio Jeremy interviewed Mick Fleetwood from the band Fleetwood Mac.  Mick was the guest in the reasonably priced car.  They talked about his music career and car history.  His time was an average lap time.  After the interview the tree continued their road trip to Los Angeles.  They drove around LA for a while and performed some hooliganism in the LA storm drains.  Then they went to Palm Springs, the next day they were told they were to race to the US Mexico boarder.  However Jeremy and James decided Richard was going to loose, so they sabotaged his car.  The next morning they raced.  Richard was set behind by the sabotaged.  In the end Richard lost and was forced to head into Mexico to test-drive a new, Mexican sports car. 

The meme describes the reaction Jeremy had to the speed limits on wide-open roads.  He thought it was Stupid.  The meme describes exactly how Jeremy feels about the US and our speed limit system.  It also describes how it might be ridiculous to drive car capable of 200 miles per hour.  They had to edit the footage and make it seem as if they were only going 55 miles per hour the whole trip.