Top Gear VS Eureka

I have a dilemma coming up on April 16, 2012. There are two shows on two different channels that I am looking forward to watching but I can only watch one when it premieres and then watch the other show later. The shows in question are Eureka on the Syfy Channel and Top Gear on BBC America. Basically I’ll be copying both of them and then burn them on a DVD so I don’t have to buy the overpriced DVD set.

With Eureka, I can enjoy a mystery science show. A wonderful comedy show that over the years has evolved and reinvented itself with still plenty of story ideas to work off of. It’s like the Andy Griffith Show meets The Science Channel. And when the SyFy Channel has a hit show can only means that in time they’ll cancel it in a heartbeat. Just like past show such as; Farscape, Stargate SG1, Stargate Atlantice, Stargate Universe, Doctor Who, and Caprica to name a few. And they already announced that this will be Eureka’s last season.

Over at BBC America, there is the TV show that I have pretty much copied every episode broadcasted so far; Top Gear. This show in all its warped craziness way is an educational show outside the main topic of cars.  I still love the rock car ski jump, the first truck ever to drive to the North Pole and even the cross country drive through Vietnam, South America and Africa as my favorites.  But there’s more.

Listening to the three host of the show, unlike national network newscasters, are very straightforward on every topic. They’re not afraid to make fun of a person or an entire country by playing off typical stereotypes that even the people of that country can admit to. But at the same time reflect very strong points at why that person or country is great at what they do.

Before Top Gear, the only British TV show that actually told an audience about their country was an old 1970’s TV show call “Are You Being Served”. I learned a lot about British history, joke telling and their culture from this classic show. Hidden in Top Gear behind all the car talk, endless gag jokes, their love affair with the Bugatti Veyron and poking fun of themselves, they have been educating the viewers on the reality of the world.

I have learned more about British culture, celebrities, politics and lifestyle from watching this show than any other show from England. I learned about the Ken Livingstone tax people have to pay just to enter the city of London, the A15 highway is heavily congested and people in England eat about the same foods that I eat. It may sound strange but it wasn’t until I heard Jeremy Clarkson say in an episode that he could go for a big fat steak.

Every country they go to, they show the people being human. An example would be Iraq. They took off the body armor because the people were nothing like those being reported on the news networks. They were very nice and no different than the people you see at the local mall or the grocery store.  Many news outlets paint you a picture that everyone in the Middle East runs around shooting guns off saying death to all Westerners.

Top Gear showed me a region full of life and adventure that hasn’t been seen since the James Bond movie ‘From Russia with Love’ which was set in Turkey. Every country they traveled to, there is a moment in the show where it becomes a cooking program where they always highlight the foods of that country that Western people had never seen before. I could go on and on about this show but the reality of this program is very clear. It’s educational.

 So in the end I may have decided for myself which show to watch; Top Gear. Eureka will always be entertaining for that one hour but with Top Gear I learn something new about the world with every repeat of the shows I see over and over again.