[02x01] December 8, 2017

[02x01] December 8, 2017


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RdKetchup

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So, new season started. What do you think?
 
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It started so well, for the first 10 minutes I was genuinely impressed, but then the forced comedy bits at the hotel happened at around 15 minutes.

The guys playing to their stereotype is really getting old.


They still managed to make a pretty good episode:

- The filming is top notch as usual
- The studio bits are a lot better than last year
- The celebrity segment is in a interesting format, I really didn't care for the 2 celebrities this week but I must admit that Wilson guy was funny.

I might re-watch that episode on a big screen.
 
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It feels like they've improved a lot on last season, I liked the premise they had today pitting a petrol against a hybrid and a pure electric it's a shame they couldn't wrap it up better though.
Something happened that was quite curious though, "Celebrity Face off" or Celebrity F Off" as it's otherwise known. I mean yes they did it reasonably well and the Jag was a nice touch but all I could think was eerily similar to an idea a certain Top Gear host who liked to get his penis out came up with. In fact it's almost a blatant rip off down to having an off road section on their track though Clarkson handled the 2 guests a lot better then Chris Evans did. Am I the only one who noticed? Or did people hate Evans Top Gear so much they forgot all about it.
Promising start to the season in any case.
 
They seem to have this penchance for anti climactic endings, i doubt BBC trademarked good endings but very few of the last season's episodes had a clear ending, just a trailing off "nuts to the establishment were too big for proper ending" feels, and this was like that. This episode wasnt bad but instead of feeling too out there like season 1 it felt like top gear, which isnt what the name suggests at all, i dont get why they need the whole studio bit and whatnot, make an hour long movie that's damn good, and have occasional studio bits?

When they named it the Grand Tour i assumed it would be 8-13 specials with an occasional episode of news and whatnot every 2-3 eps to talk about cars/review small stuff.

I hope the next few ramp it up and they give up the non-ending endings.
 
Great too see the lads back in action.
Good that they listened to the viewers and changed some stuff, I actually liked the Celebrity Face Off bit, although I would love to see another car than the Jag, maybe a Toyota Hilux :p
 
I must say, they had all the ingredients to make an excellent road trip in Switzerland, but in the end it felt, mehhhh
The main film, It kind of remind me of the episode 1 of Series 10 of TG > Best driving road in the world (911 GT3 RS, Gallardo Superleggera, AM V8 Vantage N24), but the repetitive hotel shots, etc,etc, it was a missed opportunity of a great film.
The "Conversation", i was expecting a brief conversation about the new cars launched this year, etc,etc, again i was disappointing.
The celebrity segment, i mean, yes it's miles better than the last season nonsense, but honestly, if i was the producer of the show i would get rid of it immediately.

PS: Not good, not bad episode
We just have to see what comes next in the series, of which i'm looking forward for the Jag's episode.
 
Overall pretty decent. Glad they dropped Celebrity Brain Crash. Yes the new course is similar to Season 23's though they did that in a RallyCross Mini versus an F Type. As for playing to stereotypes, the stereotype for Hamster is that he can only eat food out of a Chip Shop so why he was just eating kale...
 
I figured this was an intro to ?the new Richard.?
 
8/10. I did get that the joke in the main segment was addressing the still-remaining weakness of electric cars (range anxiety), I suspect they did have more planned, but RH's accident kinda put the kibosh on doing more filming.
 
What?s impressive is they kept the footage and didn?t dump it kind of like the drag car thing.
 
Four Five Eight;n3541701 said:
all I could think was eerily similar to an idea a certain Top Gear host who liked to get his penis out came up with. In fact it's almost a blatant rip off down to having an off road section on their track though Clarkson handled the 2 guests a lot better then Chris Evans did. Am I the only one who noticed? Or did people hate Evans Top Gear so much they forgot all about it.

I noticed it too. My guess is that since Top Gear dumped the off road segments after Evans quit, Amazon was able to clear that with their lawyers. I thought it was pretty clever.

As for the rest of the episode, it was better than everything last series. The highs were just as high, but the lows didn't sink down quite as far and didn't drag on for quite as long.

7/10, which goes to show that I rated last series entirely too high at the time. Looking back, the only stuff I really wanted to go back and watch again were the DB11/Ghost/Hellcat comparison, the Bentley/Jaguar/Range Rover comparison, and the Maserati "not a cheap car challenge" challenge.

This episode made me want to go to Switzerland, and that's what an episode of Top Gear/Grand Tour should do. Let's hope the rest of the series is just as good as this one.



I'm curious if the massage scene was filmed after the crash. Some of the comments they made bordered on foreshadowing.
 
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Its nice to have the boys back, I am giving this a 9 just because they are back, well, 8 and the extra 1 for JC saying "we're back". This felt like TG of old, it just felt like an old comfortable pair of whatever is old a comfortable.


Blayde;n3541704 said:
They seem to have this penchance for anti climactic endings, i doubt BBC trademarked good endings but very few of the last season's episodes had a clear ending, just a trailing off "nuts to the establishment were too big for proper ending" feels, and this was like that. This episode wasnt bad but instead of feeling too out there like season 1 it felt like top gear, which isnt what the name suggests at all, i dont get why they need the whole studio bit and whatnot, make an hour long movie that's damn good, and have occasional studio bits?

When they named it the Grand Tour i assumed it would be 8-13 specials with an occasional episode of news and whatnot every 2-3 eps to talk about cars/review small stuff.

I hope the next few ramp it up and they give up the non-ending endings.
I am going out on a limb here and say that if they had anything planned for after the hill climb,that it all went up in flames.......well, when the car went up in flames.

But I am agree though, the just no ending ending got old in 1st season, and I agree, no way can the BBC have legal rights over GT on happy endings, or just endings that has some closure.

And, JC said over the next 11 weeks, I thought they signed a 3 year 36 episode deal, So I guess that means a few two parters .
 
Being the impatient type that I am, I have been literally counting down the hours for the new series to begin. Andy Wilman and the boys have clearly listened to feedback and I'm a sucker for the chemistry between the three so I was pleased to see that is still in abundance. I enjoyed the new celebrity segment Anything would be an improvement over Celebrity Brain Crash

9/10 for me. The best show on Amazon just got better.
 
For me a solid 9 Clarkson, Hammond and May are back doing what they do best. Wonderful scenery, the chemistry between the three and even Celebrity Face Off an hour and ten minutes of fun, What more could you want.
 
The only thing that ruins this episode for me is coming here and reading the comments. Damn, so much whine.
 
The one joke that is getting really old for me is driving a too wide vehicle on too narrow roads in town. Most of the other things I thought was good.
The new Celebrity thing was much better than the previous season.
 
mpicco;n3541793 said:
The only thing that ruins this episode for me is coming here and reading the comments. Damn, so much whine.

Same for me.
 
I am just glad these 3 are back. No show has chemistry close to this, let alone any car show. I love cars, love these three and any negative comment coming from critique-wannabees can go down the drain.
 
Very solid start to the new season. Some bits went a bit long, but not painfully so. The cracks about Jezza's pneumonia ("...rushed to a luxury yacht...") and about the logic of the USA invading Iraq were nice touches.

From the preview film, it looks like there may be a bit more regarding Richard's crash in the future.
 
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