Chris's presenting style in the studio links is starting to seem forced and unnaturally jolly, almost as if he's rubbing it in to somebody that he got the gig.
Yes, I like him as a presenter but he does feel a bit forced. His attitude with everything else he does is to 'be yourself' - i.e. a natural style of presenting. I'm sure it's just because it's the first, he'll settle down and fund the shows 'voice'
Overall I think it was still entertaining and it keeps the right balance of cars/fun. Some of it did feel a little forced, but I think it'll settle down into something better. If you've ever seen the first episode of the 2002 reboot you'll be shocked much it changes over the first series, it only really resembles the later series from series 2 (and not just because it has James May in it).
The show needs more audience participation, than we have seen on the first episode. The set doesn't seem to have any other areas for features, so I don't expect much.
While there's not a huge amount of changes from the Clarkson/Hammond/May format, but presentation wise, I like the new brighter set, but not keen on the TFI style of bringing on the celeb guests. So it's not quite the TFI Top Gear some were fearing it might become, and it still retained certain familiar elements of the Clarkson/Hammond/May era to retain viewers of that era. I think the only people who'll turn off are those that think Chris Evans is a ginger (insert suitably offensive comment here) .
I think the guest seating area they've kept from the C/H/M era could do with being repositioned so the new videowall is centered in a way the flat screen TV was on the old set. Not sure about the raised audience area. Nice touch, but a little too TFI for TG, IMO.
Eitherway, I think this new era of TG has potential, and I'm sure they'll be making a few tweaks to improve the format over time. I hope one of the tweaks they make is adding a third presenter in the studio, in a similar way to how Captain Slow was sometimes presented as the "third wheel" in the relationship ... so to speak.
