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MotoGP Unlimited Launch: Harsh Criticism For A Series Which Deserved Better

By David Emmett |

It was a day we had been looking forward to for a long time: March 14th was the day that MotoGP Unlimited was to be launched on Amazon Prime. The series was due to be available in 170 different territories around the world.

As midnight passed in Europe, social media lit up with responses to the series. And unfortunately, those responses were very far from positive. Not because of the content of the documentary series, but because of the editorial decisions apparently made by Amazon Prime. In the UK and US, the only version available was the dubbed version, where actors have voiced over everyone speaking in their own language. In Australia, India, and some Southeast Asian countries, MotoGP Unlimited was not available at all.

The problems reported seem to be a result of decisions taken by Amazon, rather than either Dorna or The MEDIAPRO Studio, the producers of the show. But the process by which these decisions were made is very hard to fathom.

MotoGP Limited

In most territories, particularly in most European countries, the series is offered with a range of choices. In my own case (based in The Netherlands, and with an Amazon account with an address here), I have a choice of the original audio – where each of the participants speaks their own language, with English subtitles – or a number of different dubbed languages: English with audio description (where all speakers are dubbed in English and the action is described, for the visually impaired), Spanish, Italian, French, and German. In addition, there are multiple options for subtitles.

However, for anyone based in the UK or the US, those options do not appear, according to reports from people in those countries. There, the only option is the English dubbed version, and the choice of subtitles.

This attracted a tidal wave of criticism. UK and US-based fans consistently complained about the quality of the dubbing, and branded the series 'unwatchable'. Their hopes for the series had been dashed.

The good news, for UK viewers at least, is that this is a "technical issue", and is due to be resolved soon. Adam Wheeler of On Track Off Road contacted Amazon UK and was told that the original version will also be available.

How much of a disaster is this botched launch for MotoGP's hopes of finding a new audience? Firstly, it is worth noting that the outrage on social media cannot be taken to be representative of the entire audience. The sample of people commenting are self-selecting, and as a rule, people tend to comment far more often if they have a negative opinion of a development. People who are content with a product tend not to take to Twitter to broadcast the fact.

Hardcore

Secondly, the people who started complaining in the early hours of Monday morning are the die-hard fans who stayed up in anticipation of seeing the series. As a rule, these are already committed MotoGP fans who are well aware of how the riders and team staff speak, and what their native language is. Hearing them dubbed by English actors (variously described as like "a 50-year-old hedge fund manager" and "an accountant" by some Twitter wits), and not having the option to choose the original language naturally raised their hackles.

How non-fans will experience the series is another question. They are unlikely to be as committed to hearing the riders speaking in their own languages as the die-hard MotoGP fans. How they see the series is much more likely to be set by how gripping the series is as a whole.

It is also very early for non-fans to have actually seen the series for us to get an idea of how it will be received by them. Unlike MotoGP fans, they haven't been sitting by their TVs, phones, or tablets waiting for the series to finally hit the Amazon Prime video platform.

Seeking publicity

This, however, is a bigger problem. Despite having already watched one episode, the series is not showing up on the homepage of the Amazon app. It only appears once the Documentary category is selected. If the aim of the series is to make MotoGP known to a wider audience and attract new viewers, then getting the series noticed is the biggest priority.

Also in the same category is the decision by someone in Amazon not to launch MotoGP Unlimited in Australia, India, Indonesia, and other territories at the moment. A press release issued today by Dorna states that the series "is already available on Prime Video in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, as well as North America."

Given that Jack Miller is one of the characters the series focuses on, and that he is a major star in Australia, it seems bizarre that the series is not available in his home country. Similarly, given the importance of the Southeast Asian markets, and the potential for growth in the Indian subcontinent, not making the series available in Southeast Asia and India seems like a gross error. Let alone the fact that the series is not yet available in Indonesia, where the country is due to host its first grand prix in 25 years.

Whether the backlash from fans on social media is exaggerated or not, the launch has not created the hype which Dorna will have hoped for for the series. With Valentino Rossi having retired, the series was already facing a loss in viewership (though thankfully, the progress Dorna has made in turning the series into one of the closest and exciting racing series on the planet has limited the damage from the departure from the series' biggest media star). Being snowed under by negative comments will not encourage non-fans, or even fans, to watch it.

A solid start

Which is a shame. So far, I have only watched one episode, and what I saw was enough to make me want to watch more. The first episode is spent on the first three races of the 2021 season, the two races in Qatar and the first round at Portimão, which requires giving the viewer a very basic grounding in the format of MotoGP, in terms of practice, qualifying, and racing. As a result, the first half of the episode does not provide very much which is not readily available to anyone with a MotoGP.com video pass. There is race footage, and the kind of behind the scenes footage we sometimes get on the MotoGP.com website, and especially in the "Unseen" series of videos.

But as the episode goes on, there is a little more background revealed. There is a focus on the human side, with the struggles of Jack Miller, and the injury narratives of the returning Marc Marquez and Jorge Martin's massive smash at Portimão colliding. We get a more honest assessment of Marquez' injury, and the work he has to do to recover. We get to hear the fears of Jorge Martin's father Ángel. We get the first glimpses of insight into the complexity of Maverick Viñales' character. The first hints of who will emerge as the heroes and villains of the series start to emerge.

What there isn't is manufactured drama: in 2021, there was no need, there was drama enough. Characters and attitudes are revealed, sometimes inadvertently. Razlan Razali's affront at being snubbed by Valentino Rossi when he asked for an autograph back in 2005 was a telling insight into the situation in the team. And Paolo Ciabatti's reaction when Jack Miller crashed at Portimão – quietly saying just "Jack" – gave a hint at how high expectations are inside the factory Ducati garage, and how low the tolerance for failure.

We know from the trailer and from those who attended the premiere in Paris and Madrid that the drama around Maverick Viñales leaving Yamaha and the departure of Petronas from the SIC squad feature heavily. I am hoping that the episodes which follow provide greater depth, and more of a look behind the scenes of the sport. The chosen format – following the season chronologically, rather than focusing on a particular topic for each episode, as F1's Drive to Survive does – imposes a particular narrative structure on the series, but when used skillfully, that can help to shine a light on the characters and personalities inside the sport.

Nothing ventured

As an aside, I also listened to the dubbed version with audio description. Though I do not know whether the dubbed voices in this version are the same as in the version without the audio description (I presume they are, as simply from a cost perspective, it would not be worth getting them dubbed twice), the dubbed voices were no worse than any other dubbed movie in other languages. Dubbing invariably loses something, though it can be a good alternative for those who are unable to read subtitles for whatever reason.

The dubbed version was at least linguistically more accurate than the English subtitles. Translating the Spanish/Italian "pilotos" as "drivers" rather than "riders" is a particular pet peeve of mine, though that is in no small part due to my own antipathy towards cars. Overall, the English subtitles, at least for the English closed caption version, were rather poor, mostly as a result of having been done by someone with no familiarity with the sport or knowledge of the terminology and jargon in use.

Will MotoGP recover? Of course it will. The sport is in rude good health, and as the opening round of the 2022 MotoGP season showed, still full of surprises. The impact of the botched launch of the MotoGP Unlimited series will soon be forgotten, especially if the series gets a wider roll out and the option to watch in the original audio version is restored everywhere. Once the wave of disappointment from the hardcore fans dies down, we might start to get a better sense of how successful the series has been.

In any case, MotoGP has little to lose and much to gain. The worst case scenario is that MotoGP Unlimited is canceled after the second series (currently being filmed) is released. In that case, MotoGP goes on as before, a wildly popular but slightly niche sport featuring the best racers and racing on the planet. Anything more than that is a bonus.

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Comments

Here in the US I was super bummed only the dubbed version is available. The dub is rather harsh. It reminds me of the English dubs used for the original iron chef. As you guys have other versions I'm hoping we can get the non-dubbed version sooner than later.

Like Grayfox1, I am very disappointed to find only the dubbed version in the US. I decided to write a 1 star review asking that this decision be changed. Looking at the other reviews, I'm not alone in going that route. I will not watch the dubbed version. 

I will not watch. not because of the problem's mentionned above, but because I refuse to spent  sero point sero sero sero sero ...... one cent on amazon. I'd rather give my money to the russians today (and I would realy REALY hate it if I had to do that) than spent it on amazon. amazon is the worst thing on earth these days.

^ I'm w Janbros. Going to see it on a friend's account para gratis.

I was watching Drive To Survive last night. Mazepin, the Russian driver, and his wealthy father, are a gross mess at HAAS. Complaining and blaming. Knowing that this eventually gets to them getting the boot in the butt is satisfying. 

F1 is BORING as...well, cars. 

Looking fwd to MotoGP Unlim. Will forgive the overdubs or the subtitles, not so much if they make cheesy story fluff. 

Anticipating that it isn't easy for me to be with Jack, Raz and Maverick closely. I SURE hope they are embedded solidly in Pecco's garage!!! And exploring the bike development. The stories of the year may be different for "us" than casual viewers eh?

I think we heard that Yamaha was not as actively involved 2021? OK. I will get my expectations adjusted. Right now. I actually think we HAD a pretty good read/feel on Blue and Quartararo. Watching the two principles within Aqua turn their guns on each other, that will be a colorful creepy viewing. I don't want to have to do too much Vinales stuff. Got it. It is a partialized story line to be continued as we see everyone but Quarty flounder, and in the next season their Alien leaves for Duc or Honda. So, ready for their Blue coverage as is. 

Red. Plz! W Pecco as his fuse hit powder. The Martin and Bastiannini arrivals. I think we will get some good stuff with Duc brass. Hoping to get to know them a bit more intimately as this pivotal season could reveal.

KTM too, that difficult narrative is definitely a big story last season. Marc and his personal journey is too, and the flip side of that coin being Honda pulling their heads out of their asses on the bucking bronco skittle breaker shite bike. I don't expect to hear much openly detailed, but will watch keenly for the Honda denial ending. This new bike is being born. Their whole project is SO hard to read! Except Pol. He is the bellwether. (Does Bradl ever say ANYTHING? Or smile?). Puig makes words and sounds but has only said a couple things over the years.

Asparagus fighting and the Aprilia thriving. A good celebration of Fausto and his group's contributions. Black brass too, show us more! 

The Suzuki 2021 story I really look forward to. I think it tells itself if you just stick yourself in there and look around. They can't screw it up. We know it ends the yr a cliff hanger.

Please Drive To Popularize, hook into these stories.

David, I think you're far too charitable in your assessment of the quality of the dubbing and far too optimistic in your hope that the backlash might be overstated because it's all by superfans. I only managed to choke down about 15 minutes of the first episode, cringing the whole time and desperately hoping it might become watchable. I'm certain no literate native English speaker with a casual interest in motorsports, like the type who might have tuned in to Drive to Survive, could tolerate a minute of the dubbed version available here in the States. It might actually be bad enough to go viral by virtue of its very badness.

Mandalika

Okay, reaching fwd instead, watched a few videos of local news coverage of Mandalika in Indonesian looking for glimpses into the track surface. Best I can guess they have done what they said they would. News person was touching the resurfaced tarmac, looking closely at the bitumen. 

The surrounding area has a long way to go, it looks early stages and a bit 2nd World of course. The beaches, water and idyllic wee huts look like a nice vacation. 

Not much news, but the partial repave looks done and the local head honcho sounds confident. Watched line painting and track cleaning. Fingers crossed.

What is going to happen? A few surprises for a new track, which is always nice. We have a green track needing rubbering in even if it is clean. Then we get to see how it is holding up. Not an easy nor predictable Round. Pressure remains high. 

Will we have rider signing announcements? Mir - Zook? Are we on pause until Quartararo is inked?

I am one of those suckers who agreed to prime 'trial' membership to get free shipping on a purchase, but of course the 'trial' automatically became subscription and every month since then I see the notice I've given those scumbags another $7 and curse myself for not remembering to cancel it.

When I heard about this series I reluctantly decided to let it run on, only to now find they are not even including it to AU for some inexplicable reason.  A question for Dorna - what message does this send to your fans in AU and NZ?

I'll give them a week or so to review their decision and then most firmly cancel my prime account, informing them of the exact reason for it (and sending Dorna a stink mail while I'm at it).

Although I doubt this sort of thing would really appeal to me unless it was done really really well, it's none the less a disappointment to be told by Dorna/Amazon "no soup for you!".  To be specifically excluded on a geographical basis in this day and age is just unfathomable.  It seems they "decided not to licence it in AU"... what on earth does that even mean?  Aren't Amazon the makers/owners of the series themselves, authorised to do so by Dorna?  Do they have to licence it to themselves?

This is on top of MotoGP being dropped on free to air tv in AU this year for the first time since the mid 80's.  Seems like Dorna saying "Australia... meh, who cares", and this in a year when we have two riders in the premier class again for the first time in years.  Sure, we're a small country, but they're still giving the middle finger to 26 million people, plus another 4 or 5 for NZ if they're similarly affected.  Just totally and utterly bizarre.

I've been having a hard time getting a read on the land down under in general for a while. Like a few other areas, some not so good "profits over people" trends? How's the cultural climate moving?

Here in the USA it has been trending quite ugly for a long while. Glad for some goodness amongst struggles. 

Hoping we all trend well post pandemic. Glad our sport is thriving!

I am low tech, but know to suggest folks over there look into a VPN that anonymizes your location. I hear it is simple. 

For the fellow Aussies out there - in the “interests of science”, just now I was able to connect NordVPN to the UK servers and then use my (Amazon) Prime Video app on my nVidia Shield TV Pro (an Android TV box) to watch it OK. Didn’t work on my iPad however, obviously cleverer at working out I’m not located where I’m pretending to be? Of course I don’t advocate or condone doing anything illegal and absolutely did not continue watching and chastised myself severely afterwards for my moral failings :-) If I had to guess I suspect it will pop up on Foxtel/Kayo at some point and then Amazon AU later after that “window” has expired?

Picture quality and production values seem pretty good, enough rarely-seen behind the scenes tidbits to keep me interested and watching in an enhanced, retrospective, season-review kind of way I’d say. I note also, seemingly opposite to a previous comment here about the USA situation, if you select the (UK) 4K versions at present (regardless of whether you have a 4K TV or not)  you don’t get the versions with the annoying dubbed foreign languages. You can then turn on the subtitles. But it’s all or nothing, you then have to have the subtitles for the English bits as well. But I can live with that minor annoyance as it’s way better than having listen to the dubbed sections, which really don’t work well, especially on the fly-on-the-wall actuality sections. Bad call by the Producers and/or Amazon. 

My understanding is that it's not about the licensing of the series (Unlimited) but of the rights to MotoGP in that area itself. I guess along with the rights to screen the races that company also buys the local promotional rights in other aspects, and whoever owns it in Australia and New Zealand (and Asia?!) aren't seen as worth paying off in order to be able to run the show. 

I only got Prime free (6 months) with my new Fibre contract from my ISP, otherwise I'd never go anywhere near an Amazon product (which I am thankfully able to do in New Zealand given their very limited presence here). 

I feel miffed, and I'll revert to piratical ways to watch the show once there's a non dubbed version in the wild, but I would be seriously steamed if I was in Indonesia. About to host the next round and unable to watch the show - that's a real clusterduck. 

I guess the clash is with Foxtel then, who now have sole TV rights.  That at least makes some sense, but at the same time what a total fail.  I'll be dropping prime and also foxtel shortly too then.

"...and this in a year when we have two riders in the premier class again for the first time in years..."

I think it's the exact opposite, they're rubbing their hands together and saying, hey we can probably make a lot of money from Aus/NZ subscribers to MotoGP if we shut off the free stuff.

Yes, very dissappointing that its not available on Amazon Prime in Australia. Interestingly I also have a Canadian Amazon Prime account and I can't get it on that either. Must be a geobloker. This is 2022 and there's really no excuse for geographical restrictions by a genuinely global distributor when we have paid subscriptions. 

…until I read Breganzane’s post that MotoGP has been dropped from free to air TV in Australia. I subscribe to Foxtel for only one reason and that is they show every practice session and race in all three classes. They also show WSBK, SSBK and 300’s though not the practice sessions. Oh, they also show all AFL (Aussie football). Otherwise I wouldn’t be paying A$90 per month for it.

 

 

 

I think it’s very good, the image quality is fantastic, they appear to be using the footage to develop the stories instead of some asinine tautology from a talking head “journalist” telling you what the story is like DTS it seems far more natural and honest. Watch episode 2 with Jack if you’re an anglophonic subscriber and I think you’ll be excited again for the final cut.

The dubbing isn’t just bad for the weird forced intonation and metre it’s because some bulb decided to mix it over the top of the natural audio track so it sounds like an automated tiktok voiceover shouting over the subject rider. Interruption or talking over other people makes my teeth itch and this is like an english person shouting over someone i’m trying to listen to.

They dropped the ball in a big way which is all the more infuriating for how bloody good the series seems to be, there is much less reality TV “polish” and disingenuous dramatisation than DTS.

Episode 1 in the US appeared to only be a 3 minute trailer for the series? I would also have preferred no dubbing, but it's not so bad that it will keep me from watching. I'm finding it uncomfortable seeing what tremendous pressure a bunch of twentysomethings are going through :-o . It's what's real, but it can be heart wrenching

Just watched episode 1, here in lovely wet Vancouver, and thankfully I didn’t let all you whiners ruin it for me! I got natural voices with subtitles and they seemed pretty good to me. I was more worried they’d turn the whole thing into a soap opera the way they did with Drive. I’m not an F1 fan and have only watched a few episodes with my daughter as she loves it, but I found it super shallow and uninteresting.

 

Unlimited is so far feeling “real” and giving an honest view of the lives of the riders. Hearing Vinales’ say “no surprise there” when she asked him what he was doing that afternoon and his reply was simply “Training” was cool to see. Marquez is obviously in a world of pain and discomfort. Those scars on his arms are freaking scary! The race coverage was a bit of a let down but that’s because we get so much inside knowledge here and on the Paddock Pass Podcast that it would be hard for the producers of Unlimited to reveal anything we fans didn’t already know! 

Overall I give it a 4/5 and I look forward to the next episode. 

I watched the dubbed version, and it was almost painful. Stopped before the end of the "playing with the dressing up box" segment.

If that was all that was available, I'd have given up right there.

Waited 24 hours, watched the original audio/subtitled version, and thoroughly enjoyed it.

Will watch the rest of the series, it looks like a quality production.

Speaking from experience, that's what they end up like when the surgeon needs to revisit the scene of the crime more than once. They re-open the wound, rather than leaving you with an arm/leg/torso looking like it's got a Monster Energy sponsorship deal. If it's particularly wide, that's because a broken bone end popped out for a look around during the accident.

Well, it seems Holland is very close and very far from us here in Germany, as we get only the dubbed version, and a not good at that. Very annoying. As for the picture quality I wouldn’t know, Berlin has a horrible digital service. I watched the first episode on a friend’s Prime, it somehow reeks of soap-opera if you ask me. I think I don’t need it, I’d rather spent my money on something more dedicated to our sport. But then, as David defines it, I belong to the „hardcores“. Wish them Dorna good luck though. 

Watched the first 3 episode last night with my wife who loves Valentino Rossi, and remembers the name Marc Marquez from hearing it so many times over the years. But she couldn't tell you that Fabio is champ despite us living in France where he has had saturation TV coverage for the past 6 months. Original language version being shown here.

She is probably closer to Dorna's target audience than most people commenting above and frankly she loved it, especially the personal touches like Maverick and his baby, Aleix and his kids, Jack's scar collection, team Rins despair at another crash, Marc in his ice bath, Jorge Martin's on the massage table, ...

When we switched off for the night she had 2 questions:

1. Is the 2022 season show available after we finish watching the 2021 season episodes?

2. Has the 2022 racing started and when is the next race going to be on?

So from my survey of one viewer I'd say Dorna have hit the mark pretty well.

Just watched the first episode, minus dubbing (thank god). I think it's pretty good, certainly much more documentary style and less sensationalist than Drive To Survive, although at this early stage I'm not too sure whether anoraks like us will learn too much from it. But it's entertaining and interesting nonetheless.

And that’s where they miss out, obviously that’s one big reason why DTS is a huge success to people who are not die hard fans. For example the second episode didn’t even mention Zippergate, where they could have built up the drama. 

You're right, although DTS has gone way too far in the other direction IMO. F1 is getting plenty of interest from newcomers who are engaged by the (fictional) drama, but it seems like it's starting to alienate the die-hard existing fans. I guess that's just what Liberty want, but to me it's turning F1 into a WWE-type soap opera circus even more than before.

I guess the right approach is somewhere in between the two shows.

Started watching first episode in UK - 4K UHD version. No dubbing - i simply switched the subtitles on. Interesting so far - plenty of normal off-camera moments being captured - just hope it doesn't become too scripted.

Interesting to see the bellies of the riders pregnant wives/girlfriends increase over the months!

 

So another case of something that isn't perfect getting trashed. Be careful, the fate of this series could easily be decided in a micro-second by some algorithm. I have just finished the entire 8 episodes. I was gratefull for previously unseen footage and insights. Grateful that all the curse words were not bleeped out. Was the dubbing annoying, yes. Would it make me turn it off, hell no.

I'm in a similar situation to DAVO up there. Wife's not much interested in MOTOGP but she has Prime and likes it just fine so when she wanted to watch this thing I was all for it! Neither of us was impressed by this compared to some other docu-series we've watched. Never watched the F1 shows as I hate that whole scene but this doesn't do much to humanize the racers, nor explain much about how they got into the sport, what they get out of it, etc. As someone else pointed out, it's kind of like someone shot a whole bunch of video over the season, then someone else, who didn't really have a clue about docu-series or MOTOGP slapped it all together. For the amount of loot probably pumped into this project and what whoever bankrolled it thought they were going to get out of it, it's pretty lame...at least the first episode was. I'll watch more only if the wife (who knows lots about sports but nothing about MOTOGP) puts it on here in Italy where we get original audio with our choice of subtitle language. The English translations aren't the best, adding to the half-assed feeling of this effort.

I'm in the US. Yesterday I tried both the 4k and the standard versions. Each had people speaking their native language, with english subtitles, no overdubbing. 

I don't watch F1, it's way too boring, but I do watch Drive to Survive & enjoy the condensed version of what is happening to individuals through out the season. I was expecting the same from Unlimited, not a race by race analysis, but at least there is more back gound action that you see on Motogp. Although I do think the Motogp commentators do a pretty good job of passing information on. Motorcycle racing has always been the poorer cousin to car racing, & it shows with this production.

Yeah, it looks like they fixed the dubbing issues; thankfully, now onto the proper review. I think it's pretty good. It's not as dramatic as Drive to Survive, which in some ways, I prefer. I enjoy the underlying stories, but now that I've gotten further into the series, I'm starting to notice a growing problem. Like many, Drive to Survive was a formal introduction to F1. I knew some basics of it but hadn't cared enough to know the teams, the drivers, or the intricacies of the sport. That series, I think, did an excellent job of literally sitting the drivers down and letting them introduce themselves, allowing the team principles and journalists to discuss some of the more catchy aspects of the sport to take novices (like me) into that world with a guiding hand. MotoGP Unlimited didn't seem to do that at all. We jump right in, showing riders doing stuff without any real context of who they are or what the hell is going on. If I were new to the sport, I would have no context and find it perhaps hard to follow. DTS was successful in part by providing that guiding hand but mostly (in my opinion) turning the drivers and team principles into leading characters giving viewers something to connect with emotionally. I haven't finished it yet, and I'm sure it will be good, but it's good from the perspective of someone who knows the riders, the teams, and the sport. Watch the first episode of both and you'll see what I mean. I hope this will help bring new people into the world of MotoGP, but I don't think in this current format it will be anything as impactful as DTS was.  But hey, you never know.

My wife loved it and is now interested in seeing the racing this year.  Since I already know what happens in the races I’d have no issue with the bulk of the show being behind the scenes footage.  Will make the race weekends even more interesting.

My wife loved it and is now interested in seeing the racing this year.  Since I already know what happens in the races I’d have no issue with the bulk of the show being behind the scenes footage.  Will make the race weekends even more interesting.

My wife loved it and is now interested in seeing the racing this year.  Since I already know what happens in the races I’d have no issue with the bulk of the show being behind the scenes footage.  Will make the race weekends even more interesting.

I'm sure I'll get a lot of flak for this but, since I'm monolingual, I liked the dubbed version. Then, after the third episode (I think) they stopped dubbing. This really annoyed me. I'm working on getting subtitles, which also annoys me because it takes my eyes off the video. And I'm reading that the subtitles are a poor translation (like the time we saw "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" in the theater when it came out. The Chinese in front of us were laughing heartily at the translations. I like the content. I was surprised to see Maverick at home with family after getting kicked off the team. Anyway, except for all that, I like what I've seen so far.

I watched the series yesterday.  Yes, the dubbed voices were a little distracting, but the show provides an opportunity to get to know some of the riders a little better - their families/history/life away from the track.  It also provides some much needed exposure to help grow the fan base.  

In this day of social media outrage, I guess I shouldn't be suprised that the first reviews sounded like whining brats. 

While the initial snafu may have pissed off the hardcore MotoGP fans, this isn't the target market of the show. I doubt the casual viewer was chomping at the bit to watch the series as soon as it was released, so in the grand scheme of things the overdub issue isn't likely to have much of an impact.

Hearing Razlan Razali speaking about his curse on Rossi (ep. 1) was worth the price of admission.

Just watched the regular-def 1st segment and liked it. Not so sure I would have enjoyed the dubbed version. To listen to everyone speak in their normal inflection and languages was a treat, imo.

I'm a long-time fan and am up on most of the developments, thanks to Motomatters. So not sure if a "Primer" would have added much value?

In much the same way as titles like "Faster" and "The Doctor, the Tornado and the Kentucky Kid" did to flesh out the racing, this rounds out the track action and gives us a welcomed broader overview of MotoGP.

I started binge watching it yesterday and got to the episode about Assen yesterday. Vinales body language at only coming second to his team mate was fascinating and then his reluctance to take part in the team shot for Fabio's win was equally revealing. The series does show how things develop over the season. From being excited about his new baby at the start to his despair and exit from Yamaha was fascinating. 

For the newcomer to Motogp - not sure this was really explained. Interesting clips about the Petronas garage getting themselves in knots about how to deal with the fact that Morbidelli was paid for by Yamaha factory team and they couldn't afford to say no to him disappearing to the factory team when Vinales went.

At least the worship of Rossi has been kept under control and some riders are really invisible e.g Petrux and Dovi. 

Watched two episodes to date. No dubbing in Canada, fine with subtitles....series better than expected. Definitely see a few things you will never see on the race broadcasts. ;)

Read this yesterday morning and was a bit dispirited, grateful for all that David does on this site for all time anyway.

Logged into Amazon from the US before bed and watched the first ep, had no. dubbing. at. all. just subtitles for all on screen, even english speakers but with the international audience thats relatively minor.

I give David credit for adding to any furor that might've gotten Amazon muppets to check the settings in the backend, because it seems resolved now for me.