[01x02] November 25th, 2016

[01x02] November 25th, 2016

  • Total voters
    170
Why?
 
They're still overdoing it, acting as if they're entertaining 5 year olds. All this "nono, we are still doing our old thing" is rubbish, no finesse whatsoever. I stopped watching not even 50% in, couldn't be bothered.

It's going in the wrong direction. Would have scored it a 1 but gave it a 4 because of the cool AM shots, not for something the 3 boys said or did.
 
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Better episode than the first one even, not sure what everyone is whining about....

The intro was cool.
The studio segmenst felt less forced, the boys were obviously less nervous, better crowd interaction to.
The Vulcan review was bang on par as usual, Clarkson doing what he does best there.
The American was less funny then last time but no issues here.
The Jordan bit was proper cocking about, obviously scripted, but proper funny, the imagine of Clarkson dangling under a Blackhawk with his pants down his ankles is something that will haunt me forever, also : 'exfoliated' :lol: , 'why did you shoot Hammond? :lol: :lol: :lol:
The spinning thing was short but funny seeing James out of his element, the whole sport seems to belong in the Idiots+cars thread though.
The Le Mans car replica was cool, nice they had the builder on to, more of that sorta thing please, longer next time.
The Celebrity brainfart thing needs to die, it was sorta not very funny the first time, this time it was just gringeworthy, they lose a point for that.

All in all a solid 9.
 
Tzarrim said:
They're still overdoing it, acting as if they're entertaining 5 year olds. All this "nono, we are still doing our old thing" is rubbish, no finesse whatsoever. I stopped watching not even 50% in, couldn't be bothered.
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You'd probably also be bored by Laurel & Hardy.

When you say "wrong direction", you mean "not your direction". What can I say? Too bad for you.
 
I liked the Jordan bit! It was a parody of Call of Duty games!

I think If you're looking for a serious car review program, talking about luggage space, brakes and fuel economy you'll be disappointed. Which made me realize something...

The BBC still may have a chance of saving the Top Gear brand: Accept that they'll never be able to match the "holy three" levels of cocking about and stop trying to be funny. Bring back fifth gear, rebrand it as Top Gear and let THIS be the new TG. It's a win-win situation: We have clowning about on Grand Tour, and people reviewing the comfort levels of the latest Volvo on Top Gear.


Really liked this ep, the boys were more relaxed, Vulcan is a great car, May was hilarious when the driver stepped out of the spinning car and the Jordan film was entertaining.

8/10
 
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I like that they involved elements of local culture from the place where they put the tent. Other than that quite funny, I even enjoyed the jordan bit, and the vulcan segment was good, but I have a feeling that the track doesn't allow Clarksons inner slide/power ape to shine through.
 
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I get what they tried to do with this episode, but it didn't work for me. Maybe it'd be more funny if drunk/tipsy.
 
The intro is very mid 90's BBC 2
Goddamn it, Dicky made me laugh.
I hate it, I hate it, I hate it
Fuck me, the Vulcan is pretty.
The news has to go.
Rehash of slk vs boxster?
Fuck me, this is gonna be 'comedy' isn't it?
Dammit Dicky, he made me laugh again... fuck this show.
...and so it begins.
I don't know what this show is.
Ugh this isn't funny
This isn't a fucking car show, Top Gear (for the most part) had fucking cars!!!
Here's 4 mins of footage, can we drag it out for 45 mins?
Nicolas Cage didn't run away from anyone in The Rock.

It was better than TG India... just about.
 
They overdid it in the Jordan segments. I suppose their "challenges" must be at least in some sense realistic to work, like the hovervan, or amphicars, or trains. SLK vs Boxter was a sensible test compared to it.
Don't get the wrong idea, the Jordan film is still on acceptable level, but doesn't make me want to rewatch it (unlike the hovervan, amphicars, trains and so on). I think that segment should've had more car chase and Ronin references and less "let's do the time warp again"- forced cocking about.
Everything else ? perfectly alright. A bit of polishing here and there, maybe, and shut the american up.
 
A pretty bad episode if I'm being honest. Tent Studio segments were too long and there was too much talking; the Jordan film was awful; the American needs to go or at least shut up and the track does not look good, it feels as if the track is a bit short and not long enough to really let it rip. I hope that the remaining episodes are better.
 
MacGuffin said:
You'd probably also be bored by Laurel & Hardy.

When you say "wrong direction", you mean "not your direction". What can I say? Too bad for you.
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Laurel & hardy were sublime BECAUSE they had finesse and attention to detail, like TG had at times. They did not have to rely on spelling it all out... sloooooowlllyy for their audience, like GT is doing atm and has been doing for the first 2 episodes which doesn't bode well.

It's aimed at simpletons right now, probably the reason why many people like it.
 
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I'm being slightly generous in giving it a 7, just because the Jacob Zuma jokes had me rolling. They were going for a Call of Duty homage with the repeated death gags, which actually worked well IMO. The second part of the Jordan segment was just too much, especially with the Queen kill. I'm all for edginess, but the Grand Tour should not storm down the road of crassness just because they've been given freer reign by their American financiers. Top Gear already contained the right balance of offensiveness; any more and it's just reaching.

I've been watching Top Gear and been browsing these forums since literally day one. There's little inside of me to warrant a knee-jerk reaction to a Top Gear episode. Some episodes will be downers, but as long as most are roughly on par with the first episode's quality, I will not complain. I've already seen it all.

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But the trio really need to stick to their Britishness and old school Top Gear elements to make the humour appear to be anything but Americanized (ie. dumb downed). The changing audiences will actually not help because I'm afraid much of the humour/banter will go over their heads.

The car-centered segments will appear eventually. I feel they're compelled to do certain things drastically differently, and we will witness this in action on occasion. Episode 2 contained mouthfuls of it.
 
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I did not enjoy this at all. There were good bits, I assume, but the Jordan part overshadowed everything else, I don't even remember what the rest of the show was about.
 
The studio segments were a bit better this week, which is weird as it was the very first tent recording. Felt a bit more natural and the short interview with the guy was quite nice. The brain crash thing has run its course already. Hope they don't do any more but suspect there are several of these lined up.

The Vulcan was typical Top Gear although a car like that going around the new track made the shoot look a little claustrophobic, still good though.

The American needs to go NOW, can?t stand him and he totally ruins the power lap.

Didn't really like the spinning bit with James, although the idea of taking the 3 out of their comfort zone for something could be fun if done right.

The Jordan film was funny in places but rather over done and got too repetitive quite quickly. Although I get what they were going for, it became too much.

Overall, another 7/10 from me. Some improvements over Ep1, some worse things and some tings that really have to go the way of Top Gear Stunt Man..
 
First time forum poster...hey all

Been a TG fan for ages and am happy to see the boys finally back! With that in mind, here are my thoughts on the latest episode.

Things I liked:

- The tent segments I thought were MUCH smoother and less forced. This is a great sign going forward as every episode is going to contain a certain amount of tent time so it better be watchable.
- The news I thought was pretty solid...seemed like classic TG news segment (which was never my favorite part but usually still entertaining)
- The Vulcan review was fantastic. Gorgeous car and the segment was beautifully shot. Some classic Jezza car review moments. (although IMO, non road legal cars should still not be allowed in the lap times).
- Jame's spinning video was pretty solid

Things I did not like:

- The intro. I get what they are trying to do...make a custom intro for each location but I much prefer having the same intro from week to week (I still get all stoked when I hear the Jessica remix). I guess I like having that familiarity which will be lost with new intros every week.
- The Jordan segment. Hmmmm...way too long. Would have been OK as an 8-10 minute segment not the bloated 25ish (just guessing on total time) that it turned out to be. TG was always scripted but the overly scripted moments just take me out of it. Lets be honest, the 3 chaps are not great scripted comedians. It is so much better when they are just being their natural funny selves and I saw very little of that in this segment.
- Still doing the killing of a celebrity on their way to the tent? I thought that was a one time deal to say that we arent doing a SIARPC anymore. That joke is already a bit old for me after 2 episodes.
- Hopefully the American stops talking...have not liked the first two lap times and watching the stig race around listening to weird music was always a highlight of TG episodes for me (doesn't help that I am not digging the new track but hopeful it will improve if they stop him from talking).

Outside of that I still enjoyed the episode overall and gave it a 7/10 because I think they are still gelling and will continue to get better. I really want to see some actual car challenges or road trip type adventures (obviously within the country they are shooting)
 
I love cocking about. I love it when they don't focus on the cars (Vietnam). I love it when it's funny.

If it's clearly all planned out ahead of time, it's not really cocking about, and it wasn't funny.
 
So...

On IMDB the first episode is currently rated at 9.3/10, the 2nd episode at 8.0/10 and at amazon the show is currently rated with 4.9/5 stars.

Apparently "The Grand Tour" has become amazon's most successful original show, pushing "Man in the high Castle" off the throne.

I'd say it's a success and those who are disappointed are clearly a minority. And I bet that some people at the BBC are banging their heads against the wall since last week.
 
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I rate this as the worst episode in the history of The Grand Tour AND Top Gear. The Top Gear Gardening thing was worse, but that wasn't an actual episode so it doesn't count.

I usually like British humor, just not this. I'd even prefer Bottom over this.

I'd almost forget that the Vulcan bit was pretty good. Though on the old top gear it wouldn't have gone on the board because it isn't road legal. If you want to spend 1.8M on a track car; get an F1 car.

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MacGuffin said:
On IMDB the first episode is currently rated at 9.3/10, the 2nd episode at 8.0/10 and at amazon the show is currently rated with 4.9/5 stars.
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A country that votes Trump for president can't surprise me anymore.

I'd say it's a success and those who are disappointed are clearly a minority. And I bet that some people at the BBC are banging their heads against the wall since last week.
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Why would the BBC bang their heads? You are saying they shouldn't have fired someone who hit one of their employees? An organisation can't allow that no matter how successful a show is.
 
It was ok. The Jordan stuff was sometime funny and sometime cringeworthy. I didn't like the tent segments as much as last week. And they need to stop the celebrity gag and tell the American to stop talking.

Could be worse though, it could be the new Top Gear 2016+. ;)
 
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