Top Gear

Top Gear Chemistry: Matt LeBlanc Talks Potential and Possibilities

It’s the dead horse we keep coming back to: “New Top Gear sucks, they should never have continued after the boys left, Chris Evans ew, etc.” Everyone and anyone who has a passing interest in Top Gear/The Grand Tour has their opinions on the show, and none of us are shy about sharing our thoughts. We now have some thoughts from the lion’s den itself, as Matt LeBlanc shares some of his thoughts on the show moving forward.

In an interview with the Irish Examiner, LeBlanc stated that it could “take a while” before himself, Chris Harris, and Rory Reid enjoy the sort of chemistry that Jeremy, James, and Richard shared. But to “take a while” doesn’t work for our culture today, does it? To quote Queen, “I want it all, and I want it now!” Yes, that’s the world we live in now, where we need that instant gratification, and we demand that Joey, Harris, and Reid have chemistry NOW.

I don’t think that is lost on Leblanc, who had a few tidbits to offer on the subject:

“What people forget is for the three guys that were on the show before us, it took them a while to build up a rapport. This is now the first season for the three of us and it does take a little while.

You take the three people, put them together in a room and say ‘It’s in your interest to get along’ and everyone is open to getting along – but it takes a little while to speed up the shorthand.

But what’s great is we are now getting to a point where we are really starting to click. We are having so much fun together!”

If it’s one thing we all noticed with Series 23 of Top Gear and Season 1 of The Grand Tour, it’s that you can’t force anything. You can’t force humor, and you can’t force random humorous situations that befall our hosts. The viewing audience is aware of these things and I think more importantly, we’re jaded enough to look for them. Everyone’s a critic, right?

LeBlanc’s comment give me a bit of hope as he seems to understand, especially as a television veteran, that these things take time. The BBC execs on the other hand, don’t seem to want to listen. In a report by The Telegraph, it appears humor will indeed be forced into Top Gear’s upcoming season.

In the interview, Chris Harris said that there is an upcoming episode where the hosts were forced to eat all sorts of gruesome things:

“The weirdest thing I saw? I saw Matt try and eat part of a horse that was used in some sort of reproductive process and give up quite early on. The strangest thing I ate was a pig’s face. And brain. And ears.”

Come on, man. Just let the guys be the guys! Why are you trying to turn this in Fear Factor or something? Didn’t “Operation Desert Stumble” from The Grand Tour teach anyone anything?

Tony Hsieh

Cars, the Buffalo Bills, video games, comics, sandwiches, jelly beans, and the shooting star press; these are the things that Tony loves (in addition to his family, of course). When he's not spending his time writing tech reviews for theslanted.com, Tony puts his lifetime love of muscle cars to use on his 2015 Mustang GT. Tony's top three favorite cars are the 1973 Mustang Mach 1, Ferrari 458, and Aston Martin DBS.

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