The seventh season of this show continues to mostly manage to avoid smugness – which is particularly impressive for a show which opens with the President of the US as the first guest (although Obama seeming to do every show, bar Real Time, takes the shine off it a little bit). This sets the scene for the rest of the season and it mostly continues in the same way, with funny guests, great cars, and mostly entertaining and funny episodes.
The guests are really the key, and the show benefits from interesting and funny episodes with Steve Martin, Gerry Shandling, Will Ferrell, and of course Obama. Maniscalco is a bit too 'on stage' through his episode but is still funny; meanwhile I didn't really enjoy Madigan's episode and it felt a little awkward with that third wheel involved – still a good episode but the weakest of this season. There are no novelty or comedy cars this time, which is a bit of a shame, but at the same time they are beautifully presented and well filmed – even for someone who does not care for cars it is easy to drool over them. If anything though, the polish in the production does show and some of the interactions do feel rehearsed and overly setup; of course all of it is arranged and not totally off-the-cuff, but the better episodes make you forget that. Related to this, the 'product placement joke about product placement' bits are really not funny in this season.
Another funny and enjoyable season overall though, which continues to do what the title says without being too self-satisfied even with the high profile guests still rolling in.
The guests are really the key, and the show benefits from interesting and funny episodes with Steve Martin, Gerry Shandling, Will Ferrell, and of course Obama. Maniscalco is a bit too 'on stage' through his episode but is still funny; meanwhile I didn't really enjoy Madigan's episode and it felt a little awkward with that third wheel involved – still a good episode but the weakest of this season. There are no novelty or comedy cars this time, which is a bit of a shame, but at the same time they are beautifully presented and well filmed – even for someone who does not care for cars it is easy to drool over them. If anything though, the polish in the production does show and some of the interactions do feel rehearsed and overly setup; of course all of it is arranged and not totally off-the-cuff, but the better episodes make you forget that. Related to this, the 'product placement joke about product placement' bits are really not funny in this season.
Another funny and enjoyable season overall though, which continues to do what the title says without being too self-satisfied even with the high profile guests still rolling in.
