Are we going to get to see more of that bit in the intro where they were driving a Fisker Karma, Boxster and Saab 900?
I think that's just something neat they do for every intro, driving 3 cars that are either from or bear some relation to the country that episode's tent is pitched in.
I think the tent is a pretty awesome idea and mostly works in execution, but they could limit the number of non-Conversation Street sections where they do a bit of a gag or demonstration. Those segments were pretty infrequent in Top Gear and it worked better that way because there was more to them. When they brought the V8 back into the studio it felt like they were retreading old ground because they had used V8s to make smoothies and I think do one other thing before.
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IMO, the reasonable changes I'd make going from Season 1 to Season 2:
1) Give The American different schtick or at least better writing. He's not going anywhere because he's the foundation for their lap board and throwing him under the bus would just look bad on everyone.
2) More track reviews (vs. driving about on locations). There's a certain comfort to seeing cars whipped around the same environment.
3) If Celebrity Braincrash will be kept, have the actors doing a bit more acting or be more participatory and car-centric. I think it's funny, and ultimately I agree with the above that it's ultimately time that could be spent elsewhere, BUT there are no hard limits on how long an episode can be and this takes a few minutes per episode at most, it's pretty innocuous TBH.
4) Add more actual challenges to their multi-car reviews/long or feature segments/challenges. This is probably the biggest thing that is upsetting people that isn't fixing The American. A lot of these challenges are just drive from point A to point B and it makes the scripted hijinks stand out a bit more than they do otherwise because the challenges within these segments are few and far between -if there at all. Imagine the limo or 17 year old car segments from Top Gear without most of the competitive challenges, for instance.
5) More dedicated segments to historical retrospective as well as having them more as a part of reviews would be nice, but it doesn't currently feel like this is lacking, in part because this is always dependent on what the actual cars they are reviewing are.
6) Limit the in-studio gags that are not Conversation Street (i.e. inflatable people, leg replacements).
Everything else is fine as-is in terms of format and content IMO.
EDIT:
Namibia Special Episode Preview.
