Brian Correia

I like cars, but I love racing. This show is not bad; I would recommend it. However, there are a few things about this show I really didn't like. I was looking for a way to give the show producers some critical feed back, but I haven't been able to find anything so I just post a public review I guess. Lets start with the things I liked. The diversity of racers, race styles, and cars was super interesting. There were some cars in the competition who got surprisingly far considering what there cars were designed to do. There was a lot of good character and the feeling of the show was overall really positive. I watched every episode, and I finished the whole thing in like a week. However, I really wish we had the full runs of each driver. Even if it was tucked in as additional viewing material. I hated that we were getting condensed runs, even of the top runners or the best runs. And some runs were just given a short montage. I want to see the racing, start to finish, mistakes and all. If it takes 4 hours, that's ok, I'll watch 4 hours of racing. Trust me. I would have liked a full breakdown of the track layout as well. They often went through the features, but I didn't (and still don't) have a grasp on how the features were linked. There'd be some commentary about them going 'the wrong way' but I didn't understand how the track was designed that would allow for that. The format wasn't really fair. I would have preferred if every driver got at least 2 races to show their stuff, and I think the ones that didn't qualify from day 1 should not have been able to get 2 or 3 or 4 chances, when people who only got slotted in at day 4 got 1 chance. I would have preferred that the qualifying format be 9 racers a day (they had 28 racers so this is almost in line) top 3 qualify, middle 3 go to qualifier 2, bottom 3 go to elimination qualfier. Day 4 would be an elimination qualifier, and I would use the head to head track they used for the 'redemption' race. The top 3 times on that shorter hot track get to go to qualifier 2 which is a 12 man group where only the top 3 make it. That gives everyone a chance to have a bad race and still get redeemed. And it doesn't give some of the 'barely passing' cars too many attempts. The knockout rounds were much better formatted, but even then I would have preferred a points system. I know that can make last races anti-climactic sometimes, but it also rewards consistency and has a better narrative. It means your early mistakes need to be made up for, instead of the slate being wiped clean every day. I'm not as solid on this point, because while I like it, I can accept that the knockout style format keeps each progressing episode higher in stakes and probably has a broader appeal. Lastly, and this is a bit more minor of a gripe. I would prefer more analytical casting. Usually casting is a two person gig, there is usually an analytical person and a colour commentator. While I sometimes roll my eyes at colour commentary in general, I think it has it's appeal. It is significantly more trying to listen to 3 colour commentators. I can usually overlook the commentary as long as the production is solid, but as I often had to rely on them for information since so many parts of the laps were cut out, it was extra grating. Overall though, it was still a good show. I'd like to see some changes, but if this is all I can get, it's better than nothing. This is at least still made for me. And I will definitely watch season two when it pops up.