I had never heard of this series since I don't watch any TV series that I can't stream without commercials. I've just never liked watching 43 minutes a week of something. I found this one after watching Mike Coy's new series, "Tex-Mex Motors". I had never watched any car shows at all before that series came along this past year.
The first season of F&L was pretty good. I didn't like Aaron (and still don't) and RRR was entertaining and not too obnoxious, but I started streaming F&L. Fairly early on, I figured out that this isn't actually reality TV and it's a comedy, of sorts.
At about season 5, Aaron became unbearable to me. He was the lead guy on the projects and he never had any plans drawn up. He would just get his team together and rattle off a bunch of his ideas, then he would leave to go on buys with Ricard, where he definitely wasn't needed, or he would go try to race, at which he wasn't really very good. He would duck out of the project for awhile, then come back to rescue the build from a problem that he had caused by not sharing his "vision" with the team and of course he blamed everyone else while insisting that he wasn't actually blaming anyone. I think that he's mentally ill.
So, I was relieved when he quit. For awhile the projects were more interesting, though the silly, fake time crunch on every build became monotonous. Near the end of the show's life, Brian Bass came along, and actually had a vision for the builds and he also drew up images for the finished product. It's hard to believe that Richard and Aaron had ever managed to get anything built with no plans, and no clear concepts, so it's likely that much of the work was farmed out. There's where the show fails as "reality TV".
For some reason ( I assume there was a reason) they brought in some fat, obnoxious forklift driving NY yankee who took over the helm of the shop. I lived in Texas for a few years and native Texans are friendly and welcoming, but those I worked with viewed anyone who isn't from Texas as a "yankee". I'm from South Carolina and I have Texas relatives, and I was still viewed as a "yankee", though the new friends I made didn't hold that against me. Other outsiders I knew down there didn't make friends, though. Someone like Russell was always in danger of "gettin' a mudhole stomped in his @$$" as they say in Texas.
His annoying jackass-loud fake laugh and overbearing way made me stop liking the show because he is inescapable. He's always right in the frame and I hate it. He doesn't belong there at all. He should be on some "fat guy on a forklift show" somewhere.
It would be better if all the seasons were available for viewing and if IMDB had them catalogued correctly, but I do like the series. When I run into an episode I don't find interesting, I can just jump to another one.
I really was disappointed that the race between GMG and Big Chief isn't included for streaming. As I found out on Youtube, GMG lost badly. That isn't something to be ashamed of. Big Chief beats most of his opponents badly. The pride thing should have been covered by accepting the challenge. That's good enough.
Overall, it's a fun show that had a pretty long run. I've enjoyed most of the episodes and skipped the ones that didn't include cars that were interesting to me. That's the good thing about streaming.
The first season of F&L was pretty good. I didn't like Aaron (and still don't) and RRR was entertaining and not too obnoxious, but I started streaming F&L. Fairly early on, I figured out that this isn't actually reality TV and it's a comedy, of sorts.
At about season 5, Aaron became unbearable to me. He was the lead guy on the projects and he never had any plans drawn up. He would just get his team together and rattle off a bunch of his ideas, then he would leave to go on buys with Ricard, where he definitely wasn't needed, or he would go try to race, at which he wasn't really very good. He would duck out of the project for awhile, then come back to rescue the build from a problem that he had caused by not sharing his "vision" with the team and of course he blamed everyone else while insisting that he wasn't actually blaming anyone. I think that he's mentally ill.
So, I was relieved when he quit. For awhile the projects were more interesting, though the silly, fake time crunch on every build became monotonous. Near the end of the show's life, Brian Bass came along, and actually had a vision for the builds and he also drew up images for the finished product. It's hard to believe that Richard and Aaron had ever managed to get anything built with no plans, and no clear concepts, so it's likely that much of the work was farmed out. There's where the show fails as "reality TV".
For some reason ( I assume there was a reason) they brought in some fat, obnoxious forklift driving NY yankee who took over the helm of the shop. I lived in Texas for a few years and native Texans are friendly and welcoming, but those I worked with viewed anyone who isn't from Texas as a "yankee". I'm from South Carolina and I have Texas relatives, and I was still viewed as a "yankee", though the new friends I made didn't hold that against me. Other outsiders I knew down there didn't make friends, though. Someone like Russell was always in danger of "gettin' a mudhole stomped in his @$$" as they say in Texas.
His annoying jackass-loud fake laugh and overbearing way made me stop liking the show because he is inescapable. He's always right in the frame and I hate it. He doesn't belong there at all. He should be on some "fat guy on a forklift show" somewhere.
It would be better if all the seasons were available for viewing and if IMDB had them catalogued correctly, but I do like the series. When I run into an episode I don't find interesting, I can just jump to another one.
I really was disappointed that the race between GMG and Big Chief isn't included for streaming. As I found out on Youtube, GMG lost badly. That isn't something to be ashamed of. Big Chief beats most of his opponents badly. The pride thing should have been covered by accepting the challenge. That's good enough.
Overall, it's a fun show that had a pretty long run. I've enjoyed most of the episodes and skipped the ones that didn't include cars that were interesting to me. That's the good thing about streaming.