Top Gear Distractions

The challenge: watch new stuff - after all, how hard can it be?

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Here's what I've been watching and playing over the last seven days...

MOVIES

Not new, but in addition to the Master and Commander 4K blu-ray arriving recently, I have also added the 4K version of Kingdom of Heaven, which is the vastly superior director's cut too.

Much like Master and Commander, this version of Kingdom of Heaven is also one of the finest films released so far in the 21st century.

GAMES

1000xRESIST

Okay, I'm not playing through it again (yet), but just wanted to note I purchased the soundtrack and the music remains as exquisite as it was during the game, even if listening to it separately is a vastly different experience.

Death Stranding

Still plodding through, but some design choices are beginning to frustrate, including missions that send you off to a faraway location to pick something and head back to the original location.

I already had to head to that location to get the mission in the first place - why am I being forced to repeat that same activity?

FTL: Faster Than Light

I've re-installed this again, as I saw it mentioned online somewhere (can't remember where) but have absolutely no recollection of ever beating it, so am going to keep going until I can!

Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice

I'll be starting this again soon as my first playthrough got lost in the shuffle years ago, but I have my headphones ready to experience the psychosis and am looking forward to jumping back in.

???

The mystery games I've been playing will soon be revealed as I only have two left to get through, which I'm hoping are good, because the last two were frankly awful.

Also currently playing: Assassin's Creed Origins, Microsoft Flight Simulator (2020)

TV

Top Gear Distractions

I do still plan on watching Star Wars: Rebels as my next new TV show, but ended up getting sucked back in watching older episodes of Top Gear on the BBC iPlayer and watching through the challenges and segments I remember enjoying (and some I didn't remember), only realising how much time it had taken up yesterday - and I still have a fair ways to go!

It is interesting how both I've changed as a person, TV shows have changed and a decent-sized gap from anything Top Gear or Grand Tour related has changed how much I enjoy the show.

First off, the big races they do, which usually have James May and Richard Hammond on some form of public transport while Jeremy Clarkson drives a flashy car now feel even more like nonsense than they did originally, with Clarkson usually having a couple of hours' head start before the other two have even got on their plane/train/bus and claiming how the car is the superior form of transport despite usually winning by only minutes despite the massive advantage from the start.

Secondly, there's the presenters themselves: while I do believe their on air behaviour to be personas of a sort, I think they're more mild exaggerations than anything else with May being the furthest from acting like a twat, Hammond being 100% a twat and Clarkson usually bouncing back and forth between the two extremes.

Now, I used to have a season ticket at Arsenal and, for a couple of seasons, the guy who sat to my left had a family member who worked on Top Gear and said that the on-screen/off-screen behaviour really wasn't all that different from each other.

Apparently, James May is so nice and polite to the extent that he'll make himself late for other appointments if someone wants his time; Hammond really is an angry short man with a "don't you know who I am?" attitude; and Clarkson being like either one of them depending on his mood (except the 'short man' stuff, obviously), resulting in staff often feeling like they had to be careful around him unless it was clear he was in a good mood.

And that really comes across now, with May clearly just wanting to do the challenges as set for them, Hammond almost always being the one to start the bickering and/or tampering with each other's efforts; and Clarkson oscillating between the two, although certainly leaning more often towards the bickering/tampering side of things.

Fortunately, the three combined do have amazing chemistry with each other, so the negative stuff doesn't come off as utterly infuriating as it would if someone did it to you in reality and isn't that bad at all early on before the show exploded in popularity and they were clearly encouraged to dial everything up to eleven.

All the above criticism aside, I'm still enjoying this little detour down memory lane, although certainly not as much as I expected.

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