[Spridgets] Top Gear

[David Lieb]

For those of us who do not get BBC here in the US, one of the timeliest 
options for watching TG is to go to finalgear.com and download complete 
episodes via bit torrent. They get posted within an hour of the end of each 
show and usually take me 4 or 5 hours to download, then I can watch them at 
any time, any number of times. The resolution has been pretty good the last 
couple of seasons, which means that the files are a little over 700MB each, 
so have plenty of drive space available. As you go back in time, you will 
find more that are around 350MB and less visual quality.

IMHO the show is usually quite good, although the special episode between 
last season and this one wherein they completely destroyed the yard of an 
olympic gold-medalist rower was pathetic beyond description and no 
perceptable humour to be found. I was beginning to think the show had 
"jumped the shark", but the current season is the best material they have 
ever put together. James has come out of his coccoon and is really a 
valuable contributor to the show. Jemmy no longer automatically wins every 
contest. They all said nice things about American cars. They tested a Tesla 
and a Caterham Superlight.

If you like British humour (and you must if you own a Spridget) and you have 
not watched an episode of this show, download one of this season's shows and 
watch it. If you live anywhere near me (Chicagoland), and would like to 
watch them, let me know and I will arrange something. I have virtually all 
of the episodes of the reformulated show (12 seasons).

This year they started an Ozzie version of TG. It was just starting to come 
together by the end of the year and I had high hopes for it, but I just 
found out that their equivalent to Jemmy, Charlie Cox, has quit the show. It 
will take a miracle to pull it off now. He was a great host. The other two 
were a pair of buffoons. In time, they might have learned their roles or 
been replaced (like Jason on TG-UK), but it will be hard to replace Charlie.
David Lieb