The second episode of the new season of BBC’s Top Gear is fresh off the tubes, and it seems to confirm that the perceived excellence of the first episode wasn’t a fluke. It’s safe to say this is now what we can expect from this season – and that’s a very good thing.
The first segment of the show has Chris Harris waxing lyrical about the new Alfa Romeo Giulia Quadrifoglio, and pitching it against the current BMW M3. It’s the inevitable comparison, much like comparing the Harris–LeBlanc–Reid brand of Top Gear to the Clarkson-Hammond-May trifecta. Harris is impressed with the Alfa, and it’s easy to be entertained by him taking the car through some very scenic mountain roads. After the M3 comparo, Harris needs to demonstrate the Alfa’s drifting chuckability with a Takeshi’s Castle/MXC-style car cutout – and it proves to be a tricky challenge for him.
The easygoing celebrity segment has David Tennant (Who? Doctor Who!) come in and attempt to destroy the show’s Toyobaru in what is only its second televised outing. Tennant seems to take it in stride, though, even if it would be less painful to watch a Kia or a Vauxhall get bent out of shape.
And as for the big film, it’s a nicely American one: Harris and Matt LeBlanc get to choose two supercars, and then the two presenters are challenged to drive them from Las Vegas to the Sierra Nevada mountains, under a four seasons theme and through some wonderful desert imagery. The premise is whether you should pick an outlandish supercar or a jack-of-all-trades, and whether you should climb a snowy mountain with a roadster on snow chains. Of course!
If you live in America, you’ll see this episode at 7 p.m. EDT Sunday on BBC America.
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