The end of Top Gear?
If some of the speculation is true, I may actually be happy. The penultimate show in the most recent series was terrible — so bad that I didn’t even finish watching, which I haven’t done since the “new” show made its debut with not-Capt.-Slow. The final episode seemed slipshod and enervated. The only good race or challenge throughout the series was the 1949 Race to the North.
Part of the charm of Top Gear is that some of the series, for no apparent reason, are a bit pants. That speculative article you cited is pretty weak. I thought it was clear he was talking about neither that particular car *nor* the show, but the “era” of cars like that. He’s given to that kind of melancholy, as he said the exact same thing a couple of years ago. Also the article seems to ignore that they mentioned, in the studio portion of the show, which was filmed much more recently than the aston spot, they casually mentioned being back in November.
I thought the series was weak, but I think I enjoyed a lot more moments than you did. E.g. the challenge of finding the perfect car for a teenager. And in that segment, my favorite bit was when they were at the office trying to get insurance quotes. I loved seeing them in action there, bantering, goofing off, working on the story. It’s the kind of thing you wouldn’t normally get to see in process, just the result. I also enjoyed seeing the stig photocopy his head in the background of that sequence.
You didn’t enjoy seeing James May get all quiet and flustered with his glamour model rally partner?
In any case, I predict they’ll be back, and I’m looking forward to it.