I know I'm a day late with this one, but hopefully I'm not a dollar short… Top Gear. The new season started on Monday night on BBC America, and though I'm not a gear head, I'm an instant fan.

I'd heard prior to the new season starting that the show was fun, but for some reason I'd never really got around to watching it. But, what with my usual weekly fare on hiatus there was a 45-minute window in my viewing schedule and I slotted Top Gear in. Now, frankly, I'm not quite sure what I did without it.

Okay, that's an overstatement. It's fun, but it's not the be all and end all of television. I'm going to continue watching for the rest of the season, though.

For those of you who haven't seen it, Top Gear focuses on driving and all things remotely relevant to it. They test cars, they talk to celebrities about cars (and make the celebs run the Top Gear course in a car), and last night they went searching for the best driving road in the world (it's allegedly in Italy). They also sat and had a chat with Dame Helen Mirren, and tested out a souped-up Volkswagen GTI. The show has three hosts (or, as it's a British show they may be "presenters"), Jeremy Clarkson (the man in charge), James May, and Richard Hammond. They're funny, personable, and their undying love for cars doesn't (usually) overshadow their ability to talk in a manner that you (assuming you're not a gear head) and I can understand. In fact, I laughed out loud repeatedly during the episode and certainly by the end felt as though I knew all of the hosts despite never having met them before. I'm going to reserve saying any more about it though until after next week's new episode (I am considering having my TiVo look for old episodes though).

Last night I stuck (at least somewhat) to a BBC America theme (it's rapidly becoming my favorite network, it's just too bad that I don't get an HD version) and watching the latest episode of Last Restaurant Standing, which continues to manage to stay above the usual reality/contest show in-fighting among contestants. Last night it was even the team that was most deserving to lose that got booted. What could be more perfect than that?