TV: The Grand Tour

Jussi

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Feb 28, 2002
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Still have an Amazon Prime free trial I have yet to redeem.

I was always a big fan of the long road trip episodes, the long race episodes, and the "wacky" episodes like where they would turn ****ty vehicle into spaceships or something.

Will this hit the spot?

Some of the road trip episodes work, some of them don't. Scripted like hell stuff. The tent episodes with Conversation Street and car tests and the occasional "history lessons" have been better this season.
 

Jussi

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Feb 28, 2002
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This week's episode was probably one of the best ones of the entire run so far. Almost like classic Top Gear. Classic supercars, more down to earth challenge with the hot hatches and banter with Conversation Street. A really enjoyable episode.
 
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Suxnet

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Jan 4, 2012
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I thought it was stupid as hell. The challenge barely had anything to do with the cars themselves. Probably for the best the next season is specials only.
 

Jussi

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The airport bit :biglaugh: The Porsche 917 segment was great as well. Dickie Attwood driving a 917 at 78 (without a helmet!) and doing well :bow: Really fun episode.
 
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Jussi

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Feb 28, 2002
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The Mongolia special was actually fun. Nothing too scripted. Though I have to admit that watching Clarkson getting his head wet while ignoring that his jacket had a hoodie, which he had even used earlier, was funny.
 
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Franck

eltiT resU motsuC
Jan 5, 2010
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The three series of Top Gear with Harris, Flintoff and McGuinness have been better than anything The Grand Tour has put out.
 

Honour Over Glory

Fire Sully
Jan 30, 2012
77,316
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The three series of Top Gear with Harris, Flintoff and McGuinness have been better than anything The Grand Tour has put out.
tumblr_n9dhcouVNL1qfvtwpo3_250.gifv


Nope.
 

Chaels Arms

Formerly Lias Andersson
Aug 26, 2010
7,297
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New York City
The new episode was pretty bad. The problem with this format is if they don't have a ton of fun distractions or interactions with the location the episode just ends up being terribly boring, kind of like a bad travel show. The Mekong episode and the Mongolia episodes were awesome. Reunion Island, not so much.
 
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S E P H

Cloud IX
Mar 5, 2010
30,725
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Toruń, PL
Been watching the show from series 1 and just finished season 3. I understand why they decided to drop everything and just make specials, but the specials themselves lose meaning if each episode turns out to be a special-like plot. I absolutely loved Conversation Street and that's where you get the best of their chemistry together. There was also some great episodes of the past three seasons; car reefs in Barbados, skiing in Telluride, environmental cars, muscle cars in Detroit, the Scottish ring road, building caravans, and two amazing specials of Colombia and Mongolia. I don't understand a lot of negativity towards the show, it was fine for the most part.

With that said and this might sound weird, but I think they had more resources at the BBC. It seems to me that Amazon doesn't really have the same calibre of executives/creative team. However, the type of humour they wanted to showcase always put BBC on the fence in terms of being PC and allowing more mature jokes at the same time. Amazon's unique streaming allows them to be more freely when it comes to making a stunt or joke at the level they want it, but I do admit other episodes just seem a bit bland, heavily edited, or very scripted at times. Maybe their age is finally catching up with them compared to seasons 6-15 of Top Gear (which was the golden era of any motoring show).
 
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chicagoskycam

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Nov 19, 2009
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Been watching the show from series 1 and just finished season 3. I understand why they decided to drop everything and just make specials, but the specials themselves lose meaning if each episode turns out to be a special-like plot. I absolutely loved Conversation Street and that's where you get the best of their chemistry together. There was also some great episodes of the past three seasons; car reefs in Barbados, skiing in Telluride, environmental cars, muscle cars in Detroit, the Scottish ring road, building caravans, and two amazing specials of Colombia and Mongolia. I don't understand a lot of negativity towards the show, it was fine for the most part.

With that said and this might sound weird, but I think they had more resources at the BBC. It seems to me that Amazon doesn't really have the same calibre of executives/creative team. However, the type of humour they wanted to showcase always put BBC on the fence in terms of being PC and allowing more mature jokes at the same time. Amazon's unique streaming allows them to be more freely when it comes to making a stunt or joke at the level they want it, but I do admit other episodes just seem a bit bland, heavily edited, or very scripted at times. Maybe their age is finally catching up with them compared to seasons 6-15 of Top Gear (which was the golden era of any motoring show).

I loved Top Gear on BBC with them but the grand tour lost that feel, it’s so overproduced none of it seems natural. There are some good moments and I believe they have a higher budget on Amazon. Losing the Stig and a star in a reasonably priced car definitely hurts. Just can’t get in to it.
 
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ProstheticConscience

Check dein Limit
Apr 30, 2010
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The first episode of Clarkson's Farm bored me so much it took a while to get back to it, but I'm glad I did. Definitely picks up after that.

The specials on Grand Tour are all reminding me of classic rock radio. Heard it all before a thousand times. The last episodes of it I really liked were the Mongolian adventure.
 

Bruins4Lifer

Registered User
Jun 28, 2006
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Regina, SK
I've started to catch up with this show. Currently in the middle of season 2. Other than their in-studio segments (which aren't good, especially season 1) I've found it pretty good. I think I might check out Clarkson's Farm sometime soon as well.

Top Gear has picked it up a lot though. I think since Series 28 (the 2nd season with Harris/McGuinness/Flintoff) it's been as good or better than what I've seen from The Grand Tour. It's even less about the cars but that trio has pretty good camaraderie and chemistry.
 

Chaels Arms

Formerly Lias Andersson
Aug 26, 2010
7,297
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New York City
I've started to catch up with this show. Currently in the middle of season 2. Other than their in-studio segments (which aren't good, especially season 1) I've found it pretty good. I think I might check out Clarkson's Farm sometime soon as well.

Top Gear has picked it up a lot though. I think since Series 28 (the 2nd season with Harris/McGuinness/Flintoff) it's been as good or better than what I've seen from The Grand Tour. It's even less about the cars but that trio has pretty good camaraderie and chemistry.

Clarkson's Farm is the best thing any of them have done on Amazon, including The Grand Tour. May's show about Japan was good too but with Clarkson's Farm it seemed like they finally figured out how to use the massive Amazon budget and resources without being overly bombastic all the time. The camerawork and the music are incredible. Hopefully that Amazon/Clarkson chemistry continues with the new Grand Tour special.

I've also started to watch some of the stuff on their Drivetribe youtube account and it's also pretty good. I somehow spent an hour watching May and Hammond build legos while taking shots of liquor and enjoyed every minute of it lol.
 
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Chaels Arms

Formerly Lias Andersson
Aug 26, 2010
7,297
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New York City
I feel like both ends of that relationship probably achieved what they needed to achieve. Amazon got a couple of seasons of pretty good TV in The Grand Tour and Clarkson's Farm and Clarkson proved he can still do the job both without the BBC and on his own without May and Hammond with the success of Clarkson's Farm. Honestly, that trio should have enough money saved up where they could just produce and distribute their own stuff independently. The giant Amazon budget has been both a positive and negative for the Grand Tour imo.
 

S E P H

Cloud IX
Mar 5, 2010
30,725
16,245
Toruń, PL
I feel like both ends of that relationship probably achieved what they needed to achieve. Amazon got a couple of seasons of pretty good TV in The Grand Tour and Clarkson's Farm and Clarkson proved he can still do the job both without the BBC and on his own without May and Hammond with the success of Clarkson's Farm. Honestly, that trio should have enough money saved up where they could just produce and distribute their own stuff independently. The giant Amazon budget has been both a positive and negative for the Grand Tour imo.
Agreed. The Grand Tour has had its good moments, but when they were back with Top Gear, that was my main source of information on new cars and reviews. Not that I agreed with them all the time, but just having exposure was awesome on what was coming out. I understand they didn't want to copy all the segments of Top Gear, but the show (TGT) just seemed barebones even if the challenges were interesting. Clarkson really screwed the pooch with his antics causing him to leave Top Gear, it was just too good. I doubt it would have lasted, but they would've still done things with the stig, still have the cool wall, still have budget challenges, still would have the news, and interesting interviews with celebrities. It seems they didn't have a lot of ideas on how to make an original car show without copying previous shows besides just Top Gear. It's a two-way street though, I doubt Top Gear has the same ratings now as it did with the OG trio. I watched a new episode of Top Gear with the team going through Paris using their super small cars to get around the city finding famous statues and it was so bland.
 
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