Car Spotter Gets Its Opener Right, But It’s Boring

It’s the start of the new television season here in America and we have several new car shows that have recently debuted. One of the latest shows to premiere on the Discovery channel is Car Spotting.

Car Spotting follows brothers Carlos and Pedro Becerra and their best friend Niko. Carlos is the young owner of Cascadia Customs Shop, which specializes in resto-mods and classic car restorations. The premise of the show is that these three young adults are willing to use new technology, such as drones, to find hidden cars in back field lots that other shops operated by older owners won’t be able to find.

Unfortunately for the show, the “new technology” used by the trio of youths stops at the drones, as they cannot afford even the most rudimentary modern equipment in their shop. In fact, your average oil-change service station has more computer technology than what this trio has. Don’t get me wrong, I started a company myself on a shoe-string budget; so I am quite fond of shows that demonstrate the struggles of being an entrepreneur. However, this show is being marketed as young adults using technology to outpace the old-folks and, other than a few cool drone shots, we simply do not have that show. Let’s be honest here, using flying drones with cameras in late 2017 is not exactly cutting-edge stuff. Perhaps it is new for use in “spotting” cars that are rusting away in a farmers back field, but it’s hardly worth marketing an entire show around the technology.

That said, the show has done something correct; it gave the audience the background of the lead characters in the show! Finally! As you may know from my previous articles, I have been highly critical of car shows that fail to give the audience proper background on the characters.

The show “Car Spotting” definitely gets a point for using the pilot episode to develop the main characters’ backgrounds. It gets another point for the excellent cinematography, and a third point for the excellent directing and production. However, the show loses a point for deceiving its audience about the use of technology in its processes.

The biggest issue of all, however, is that the show is just plain boring. As a fan of car shows in general, I find that I just don’t care about this show. Perhaps it will grow on me more as the season progresses, but so far I have no emotional connection with any one of the characters. At least with Top Gear America you could look forward to watching a train-wreck every week. With Car Spotting, you get to see an extremely well-produced show, hitting all the right check-boxes, but still missing that “sizzle” needed to make the show worthwhile.

I would like to personally wish my best to the staff and crew of “Car Spotting,” as it is clear they are putting their best foot forward (unlike Top Gear America which seemed to have given up before the season ever began). I hope you can figure out what the missing “secret sauce” is that you need to make the show a success. Because it’s clear that you are trying, and that is something that is always worth rooting for.

Keep driving my friends!

My thanks, as always, to my friend Larry for all his help with this article. Your efforts are appreciated more than you know my friend!