[2x11] - February 16, 2018 - Feed the World

[2x11] - February 16, 2018 - Feed the World

  • 10

    Votes: 4 5.3%
  • 9

    Votes: 5 6.7%
  • 8

    Votes: 11 14.7%
  • 7

    Votes: 9 12.0%
  • 6

    Votes: 8 10.7%
  • 5

    Votes: 6 8.0%
  • 4

    Votes: 9 12.0%
  • 3

    Votes: 10 13.3%
  • 2

    Votes: 5 6.7%
  • 1

    Votes: 8 10.7%

  • Total voters
    75

Ripplin

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Messages
510
Location
Ontario, Canada
Car(s)
2003 VW Golf TDI
What say you? :)
 
For those who thought that the "trio" india special was horrible, be prepared to watch this one.
I'm disappointed
Gave it a 4/10.
 
Aww, I didn't realize it was the last episode. What?! No C.F.O?! What a shame... Interesting premise for this adventure. A good idea is going to turn into a colossal waste of food.

A Mercedes wagon, James? More of that 'changing the usual terms for the sake of Americans who have never watched a British car show before,' I guess. I dunno, I just find it weird.

As soon as I saw the hotel and the burglary quip, I thought 'he's going to raid the ice machine!' I just thought he'd fill the truck bed with ice, not put the whole unit in back. (because he's dumb on purpose in these things sometimes, y'know?) I laughed out loud when the water splashed on James. :) Didn't realize the top was totally open. That whole sequence was ridiculous and classic. I love how a lot of the fish are not even touching ice, but Jeremy keeps saying they're fine.

Maybe more than ever before, the local people must've been thinking 'who are these idiots?' before they set off. (especially looking at Richard's contraption)

Those trees at around 26:26 are stunning! What are they?!

I predict they'll make it to their destination with maybe one good fish each. (update: make that zero) Predictably, Richard's were mostly gone pretty early. Almost feel bad for him going through those muddy ruts. The water shooting out of the exhaust pipe was great! Maybe that plucky little thing will be the new Oliver. ;) It really is impressive. But he must've been absolutely exhausted and aching so badly the next day, which was horrible as well. Wonder how many times he fell off in total.

Coal-rolled kippers. Remember what I saw about him being dumb on purpose? The Mercedes trailer was good. "I think you're following him too closely." :D

[IMG2=JSON]{"data-align":"none","data-size":"full","height":"480","width":"720","src":"https:\/\/orig00.deviantart.net\/bce8\/f\/2018\/046\/7\/9\/vlcsnap_2018_02_15_22h06m45s682_by_ripplin-dc3b2w6.png"}[/IMG2]
I think this screenshot sums up the episode pretty well.

I liked the anti-climactic helicopter ending.

Say what you will about these middle-aged morons, but they sure do put themselves through a LOT to entertain us! It was far from groundbreaking, but had me engaged throughout. I'm gonna give this an 8.5, which rounds up to 9.

Edit: After a lot of thinking and writing about this elsewhere, I've decided to lower my score to a 7, if not in the poll, then at least here. The more I think about it, the more I understand the hate...but I still got several kicks out of it and thought it was better than most stuff they did in Season 1, at least.
 
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A fairly serious humanitarian preamble followed by 30 minutes of muddy trails, lost and poisoned fish?
I can barely finish it.
3/10
 
I remember when they were doing media for the start of season 2 they mostly said that the best episode for them was this one and they tried new things doing it. So... that gives me 2 options, both scary:

1) They did film material for a great episode, but because it wasn't a real special, and had only around 1 hour of time, the end result is a victim of very bad editing, that didn't feel like any special they made in the past, more like a fail compilation with really bad jokes on top trying to make a mokery of a serious subject.

The problem with this option is, that Wilman said in an interview they don't have time restrictions, so they can do episodes as long as they wish, but try to stick to 60mins themselves. So they could make this a longer episode if they didn't want to air another one next week.

2) The new thing they tried and liked is doing foolery, axing the epicness and "good will/achievement" hidden behind the humour. Think of showing the strength of the cars in africa in season 10, the silly but usefull idea with the snow combain gritter thing. or reaching the north pole. Those were specials and had their silly moments, but at the end they achieved something, either showing that a machine can reach places nobody believed they can, or the blokes doing something that taken seriously could really work or at the very least show the country they were in as something truly special like they did in Vietnam. This was just a mess. Making fun of people that are starving ( loosing fish on the road, killing them, or poisoning with diesel smoke in a place in a place where food is considered as goods, not like in the spoiled west, where nobody cares if you throw food away and waste it).

I do hope that the very least they did is bring food and goods in production trucks for the people from this village as a nod for making them the vocal point of the episode offscreen, and let the guys do their silliness.

This was the worst episode of Grand Tour, and the worst "special" done by the trio.

( Btw jack_christie ristie, IMBD has also done season 3, because the deal with amazon is for 36 shows in 3 seasons, so they just made empty sites for each episode, season 1 was 13 eps, season 2 was 11, so season 3 will be 12 )
 
Definitely one of the weaker episodes, at least to me. Jeremy's usual "me me me" attitude actually started to annoy me this time around. But I did laugh a few times. So this would have been the episode that came out as a spoiler, months ago, where Richard mentioned that he fell off his bike and his left thumb was the only part of his body not bruised. I understand why now...

Not as bad as the India special but still not great.
 
All in all an okay episode not as strong as the last few but still it had me laughing out loud quite a few times.
 
This definitely posed some interesting thoughts for me. As they said at the start, Mozambique is a desperately poor country, so no-one can really afford refrigerated lorries to carry fresh fish so far in land. I appreciate looking for a more budget solution, but lack of chilled lorries is the least of the country's transportation problems. Could I really expect a lorry to navigate the country's pathetic road infrastructure? Its basically what done those three in.

Jeremy's idea of a budget fish carrier I think was pretty sound. He had the right kind of vehicle, which proved mostly trouble free for the entire trip, only really slowed down waiting for his colleagues to sort themselves out. Carrying the fish in the bed of the pickup, surrounded by ice made by an ice generator, felt like it could have worked. Replinishing the ice generator with water probably wouldn't have been much of an issue. Again Jeremy was slowed down because of his colleagues problems. But it was basically game over for him when the generator broke (which I wouldn't be surprised if it couldn't take the rough ride). His backup plan to re-route the exhaust into the bed of the truck, covering up with a tarp and making kippers from thick, black diesel fumes was a real WTF moment. That would not be considered passable.

James' idea probably would have worked if he had chosen a better car. Even if he didn't choose the only Mercedes estate in the continent that lost its rugged reliability, I don't think it would have survived the journey either. Basically out of it when his colleagues sabotaged his car by severing the front off. Definitely not a smart thing to have him sit so close to such cancer inducing fumes from Jeremy's truck in the first place. Sorry James but your shouting and balling was totally uncalled for, not because you keep shouting at Jeremy after he helped you out of trouble several times, but even a smart person would have got the message that he had the worst car for the environment. Jeremy did think sensibly for his choice of car. Also, how did he not think to cover up his water tank sufficiently? Not only would he not get drowned every time he went over a big bump or braked, but losing water was not going to do the live fish he was carrying any good at all, and you want to take extra measures to lose as little water as possible.

Richard's idea...fuck that. Totally stupid. I mean kudos to the bike for withstanding the punishment, and Richard himself that he wasn't that worse for wear after adding like 100 more crashes to his repotoire. That plucky little £800 supermarket motorbike managed to make it to the end without really breaking down. Buuuuut as a methoud of carrying fish? Useless. Lost all his fish and had to steal from Jeremy's lot. Perhaps it would have been better if he fed the line through the anus instead of the gills like Jeremy advised but we'll never know.

Now I will admit there were some laughs to be had, but there's a large share of moments that got really old. In the middle of the episode, the thing that annoyed me most was the part James trying to explain how to turn fresh water into sea salt water to refill his tank. That would have been mildly interesting and informative but fuck that big oaf Jeremy interrupting and splitting hairs, trying to get James to just do it and stop talking and I'm like "SHUT UP!"

The ending was pretty naff too. Arriving at their destination with rotten fish and achieving absolutely nothing, and all they can do about it is do what they've been jibbing at the celebrities for when they go off to do charity work and appear in Hello Magazine. What a way to end the series. I agree with hounted up there. If this was still Top Gear it would have had a happy ending, even if it wasn't a 100% success. They would have made that point. The 2007 American Road Trip to New Orleans had a happy ending. The Middle East special, delivering the gifts to Baby Stig in Bethlehem. This isn't Top Gear anymore, its The Grand Tour so it must end "on that terrible disappointment" and it certainly did that.
 
Wow, the voting is all over the place on this one. Just need someone to give it a 2 to have at least one vote for every number.
 
I gave it a 4, but I should give it a 3/10, since the India special I rated as a 5/10.
And this was so much worse than India.

PaddyFancy;n3546229 said:
This definitely posed some interesting thoughts for me. As they said at the start, Mozambique is a desperately poor country, so no-one can really afford refrigerated lorries to carry fresh fish so far in land. I appreciate looking for a more budget solution, but lack of chilled lorries is the least of the country's transportation problems. Could I really expect a lorry to navigate the country's pathetic road infrastructure? Its basically what done those three in.

Jeremy's idea of a budget fish carrier I think was pretty sound. He had the right kind of vehicle, which proved mostly trouble free for the entire trip, only really slowed down waiting for his colleagues to sort themselves out. Carrying the fish in the bed of the pickup, surrounded by ice made by an ice generator, felt like it could have worked. Replinishing the ice generator with water probably wouldn't have been much of an issue. Again Jeremy was slowed down because of his colleagues problems. But it was basically game over for him when the generator broke (which I wouldn't be surprised if it couldn't take the rough ride). His backup plan to re-route the exhaust into the bed of the truck, covering up with a tarp and making kippers from thick, black diesel fumes was a real WTF moment. That would not be considered passable.

James' idea probably would have worked if he had chosen a better car. Even if he didn't choose the only Mercedes estate in the continent that lost its rugged reliability, I don't think it would have survived the journey either. Basically out of it when his colleagues sabotaged his car by severing the front off. Definitely not a smart thing to have him sit so close to such cancer inducing fumes from Jeremy's truck in the first place. Sorry James but your shouting and balling was totally uncalled for, not because you keep shouting at Jeremy after he helped you out of trouble several times, but even a smart person would have got the message that he had the worst car for the environment. Jeremy did think sensibly for his choice of car. Also, how did he not think to cover up his water tank sufficiently? Not only would he not get drowned every time he went over a big bump or braked, but losing water was not going to do the live fish he was carrying any good at all, and you want to take extra measures to lose as little water as possible.

Richard's idea...fuck that. Totally stupid. I mean kudos to the bike for withstanding the punishment, and Richard himself that he wasn't that worse for wear after adding like 100 more crashes to his repotoire. That plucky little £800 supermarket motorbike managed to make it to the end without really breaking down. Buuuuut as a methoud of carrying fish? Useless. Lost all his fish and had to steal from Jeremy's lot. Perhaps it would have been better if he fed the line through the anus instead of the gills like Jeremy advised but we'll never know.

Now I will admit there were some laughs to be had, but there's a large share of moments that got really old. In the middle of the episode, the thing that annoyed me most was the part James trying to explain how to turn fresh water into sea salt water to refill his tank. That would have been mildly interesting and informative but fuck that big oaf Jeremy interrupting and splitting hairs, trying to get James to just do it and stop talking and I'm like "SHUT UP!"

The ending was pretty naff too. Arriving at their destination with rotten fish and achieving absolutely nothing, and all they can do about it is do what they've been jibbing at the celebrities for when they go off to do charity work and appear in Hello Magazine. What a way to end the series. I agree with hounted up there. If this was still Top Gear it would have had a happy ending, even if it wasn't a 100% success. They would have made that point. The 2007 American Road Trip to New Orleans had a happy ending. The Middle East special, delivering the gifts to Baby Stig in Bethlehem. This isn't Top Gear anymore, its The Grand Tour so it must end "on that terrible disappointment" and it certainly did that.
You sir deserve my respect and a medal.
Resumed perfectly the entire episode.
I wish I had a time machine...
 
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I had a few laughs but overall I think it didn't quite deliver as much as I expected (maybe I expected too much?). Especially for a "special". I'd say the first half was good, but the second half, after Jeremy modified his truck with the exhaust and they cut the poor Mercedes in half, I just became upset really. Even the ending was unsatisfactory. I just wish they'd done this challenge in a completely different manner (and sticking to cars for Hammond) and without the predictable jokes, this would've been way more enjoyable. I couldn't help but keep comparing this to the Africa Special of TG and that episode is just in a different league (even though it had its share of gags and disappointments). Would have been a 7 or 8 but a point is cut straight away for what they did to the Mercedes at the end.
 
What a distasteful, disrespectful clusterfuck of an episode. I could rant, but I cbb.

I'm giving them 1/10 for the first time ever (since 2002).

What a rancid disappointment.
 
My very first post, but be assured I've been reading everyones comments on previous episodes over the last couple of months.

I found it utterly baffling they would use a real problem like world hunger as a framing device. And I get it, the village they were 'helping' didn't need their help at all, it was all based on their misguided assumptions, and ofcourse they were going to be crap..but it still feels like casually referencing, say, genocide, and then visiting places that don't actually suffer from genocide so that's alright then. What is the point? t seems to be saying Hammond, May and Clarkson are cartoon idiots, just slap a real problem on as window dressing, who gives a shit.

I'm guessing the final jibe at celebrities trying to help Africa is supposed to be satirical, seeing as their own efforts were so awful? I really have no idea.

Besides the awful premise, there were the usual disappointing Top Gear/Grand Tour tropes - Hammond propping up Clarkson against May, Clarkson Is Always Right (see choice of car), May Is Always Wrong (see everything), Hammond Tries To Do Desperately Do Something Youthful And Fails (the whole bike gambit), and ofcourse scripting to the moon and back.

I mean, the bit with towards the end with the road more or less diseappearing down a lake - I know it's all scripted up the wazoo, but why would May even attempt driving in there? Who is actually thrilled by the pretense of stuff like that..?
 
This episode was utter garbage and a waste of time. How can they make specials this poor with how much money they have to work with now? 1/10. What a way to end after a strong couple of episodes.
 
I quite like the series but that was really bad. 3 jokes told a dozen times, garnished with - oh so funny - fish tortured for days. That was worse than India IMHO.
 
PaddyFancy;n3546229 said:
Now I will admit there were some laughs to be had, but there's a large share of moments that got really old. In the middle of the episode, the thing that annoyed me most was the part James trying to explain how to turn fresh water into sea salt water to refill his tank. That would have been mildly interesting and informative but fuck that big oaf Jeremy interrupting and splitting hairs, trying to get James to just do it and stop talking and I'm like "SHUT UP!"

Exactly! This is precisely the moment when Jeremy's behaviour really started to tick me off.
 
Worst "special" of the entire CHM era. Did they really think the 2 jokes of May constantly getting soaked in water and Hammond always falling off would carry the entire show for almost an hour?

May is probably the cleverest one there so it insults everyone's intelligence for him to "choose" to put a fish tank without a top into the back of a Mercedes. Hammond the same with a bike that isn't meant for off road, they mentioned Long Way Down more than once so know well the struggles even a real all terrain bike has in Africa. They and we we all knew there would dirt, mud and roads along the way and a 4x4 of some sort would be the only sensible option. Then we have Jeremy starting out with a sensible vehicle and then turning it into a farce with the exhausts which wasn't remotely funny.

It's been said here before that May does not look happy or too bothered these days, it's probably the fact he's constantly having to play a dumb idiot for the sake of comedy.

I didn’t think the India special everyone seems to hate was too bad, but I thought this was bad. 5/10.
 
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And what was that all about? Seems like poor James ended up with rotten crotch for nothing.
Actually, that season, just like the first one, made me thinking. Foolishness of guys now makes any funny "how-hard-can-it-be" (i.e. intrinsically foolish per se) project to be right over the top and not really funny. The fact that projects themselves seem to be more and more convoluted doesn't exactly help either.
But when guys take usually boring subject of car history, it becomes just right and thoroughly enjoyable, be it the GT40, the 037 or the disassembled motorbi... wait oh shi~
So maybe it's time to acknowledge that they are now practically pensioners (except for 39 year old Hammond, right) and make a thoroughly historic show? Like the Cars of the People or the JC's Car Years?
 
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