One Car Too Far -

[Roberto Miranda]

so, anyone watched the program?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Vtah-14Yaw

[inVERt'D]

Bill, a mechanical GENIUS, no less? That looks like it would be a fun waste of a 1/2 hour.

Funny the call that Jeep a car.

[inVERt'D]

Good Lawwd, the mechanical genius chose a Jeep with a Dana 35 for this show? Then he's shocked when he breaks an axle in the first episode. He's also a driving genius!

[6spdYJ]

You should see how shocked he was that the 35 snapped a shaft. The rainforest episode showed some fair capacity of "the car". Volcano is a joke. What's interesting is that they make a big deal out of the fact the Jeep is 10 years old. Then they proceed to say it's sponsored by the 2012 Wrangler. Why aren't they showing what a stock 2012 Rubicon is capable of?

[Tumbleweed13]

I looked up who bill is. He's not an off road guy. He races in the BullRun on Speed Channel and other street rally's. His only off road training was from My friend Tom, at Badlands Off Road. Too much of the show seems set up to me, but I'll watch anyway. Nothing else on tv with a jeep as the co-star.

[6spdYJ]

Keep a close eye on the ground. There's a lot of turf that looks like overgrown loggong roads. While it is cool that they show some capability, they're also NOT treading lightly.

[inVERt'D]

I can't wait to see what the British SAS genius partner has up his sleeve. Hope he doesn't stab himself in the eye or something.

[daniel_buck]

eh, I've not seen it (don't have cable), but just based on what I hear it's nothing less than I would expect. Manufactured drama that people who don't know anything about the subject might enjoy watching. But those who are actually into the subject will think it's mind numbingly dumb. If you took someone who knew what they were doing and setup things right, you wouldn't have much drama.

I'm cynical though. And can't stand the 'reality' type TV.

[inVERt'D]

I don't have TV, so I had to download it from YouTube. Just finished watching the rainforest episode. Yep it's staged. Amazingly, British Special Forces guy Gary didn't know anything about starting a fire with a car battery, so Mechanical/ Driving Genius Bill had to show him. There were a few things like that. The reality/ drama part brings the suck.

Here's the plot: Bill mashes the pedal and careens into a problem, so Gary has to do the hard/ dirty work of getting them through it.

[6spdYJ]

Poor Jeep has to be put in the hands of "experts". Just sad...

[RAT]

Wow, you guys are brutal. I watched the rain forest episode. It's fun to watch. Its just for entertainment, it's not meant to be anything else.

[6spdYJ]

It's just irritating that the "expert" in "the car" so closely resembles the guy in Trabuco Canyon that called 911 to ask how to put "the car" in 4wd to drive on a gravel road. Watch the volcano episode and see how he lets the snapped axle handle him. It is entertaining - but not at all representative.

[Ozzman]

It is entertaining - but not at all representative.

Exactly. Its TV.

[inVERt'D]

Wow, you guys are brutal. I watched the rain forest episode. It's fun to watch. Its just for entertainment, it's not meant to be anything else.

Yeah, we are being a bit rough. But when they starting touting Bill as a mechanical, wheeling genius, etc, they're kinda asking for it. That makes being brutal more fun. I did find it entertaining. I love wheeling (no, seriously!) and even watching others wheel. Watching them wheel and have fun is probably the best part of it for me.

I think the show would be more fun and less misleading if they presented him as Bill the wheeling fish who loves steak. There would be plenty of entertainment if they portrayed it as Gary tutoring a wheeling neophyte on how to survive and get his Jeep out of all kinds of crazy places. I think that would help the problems and challenges to flow a little more naturally and usefully. For example, the last time they get stuck in the rainforest episode, it seems it's due to Bill turning his wheel hard right in a mud puddle. This could have been an opportunity to explain why you don't want to do that.

Gary: here's the problem, Bill: by turning your wheel so hard to one side, you made your front tires a hindrance instead of a help. Instead of working with the rears and the car's forward momentum, you made them into mud anchors. The lighter rear end didn't have a chance in that deep mud.

Bill: "I see what you're saying, Gary. The Jeep was squirming all over the place and I guess I over-corrected."

Bill Outtake: "I didn't want to tell Gary this, but I was thinking about a big, juicy porterhouse and kinda lost focus. I feel so ashamed!"

Gar Outtake: "I think Bill's a better driver than that, but he seems to be losing focus a lot. If he could curb his obsession with food, life would be a lot easier for me."

The psychological part of being in any real-life situation like that is very important, and I know it's part of the genre, but for me a little of the phony docu-drama outtakes goes a long way. Could use a bit less of that MTV crap.

It has entertainment value and I'll watch it. When you boil it down, it's not much different than a couple rednecks up to no good (although that could be funny as hell).

[inVERt'D]

Exactly. Its TV.

Bill, is that you?