[02x05] January 5, 2018

[02x05] January 5, 2018

  • 10

    Votes: 2 3.6%
  • 9

    Votes: 7 12.5%
  • 8

    Votes: 10 17.9%
  • 7

    Votes: 27 48.2%
  • 6

    Votes: 4 7.1%
  • 5

    Votes: 3 5.4%
  • 4

    Votes: 1 1.8%
  • 3

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • 2

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • 1

    Votes: 2 3.6%

  • Total voters
    56

Ayman

Active Member
Joined
Jul 24, 2010
Messages
330
Location
Rabat - Morocco
Well. Dare I say "thank fuck" that wasn't as bad as the last episode, though that's not saying much.

1) I'm so glad Hammond did that opening item. Granted it's the same kind of stuff as with the Marauder and co. but that's okay. He's at his best when he does those and it was very enjoyable to watch. Most remarquable and memorable of all was the cinematography. Some of the shots were jaw-dropping. All in all, a fun opener.

2) Mentioning cars during Conversation Street made it more watchable than usual. What Jeremy said about V12s sort of puts a stain on his classic V12 Vantage film.

3) The Up! GTI film was also classic James, and it was done well.

4) Bill Bailey?? Well I guess I'm not skipping Celebrity FO for once. Sore throat, though, by the sound of it. I hope he's alright. Fun interview.

5) That Ken Block-ish film Jeremy made was actually quite fun to watch and partially made his point. I was still entertained by the end of it...
And then things went downhill and the episode completely fell flat on its arse for me...
Sure they could've made fun of how many takes were required, of the presence of Mark Higgins, and so on... but to drone on about it for 14 minutes was damn near unwatchable and extremely dreary. It also wasn't a genuine look at the rushes but a scripted load of faked fakery, which made it even worse. That was one of the worst fillers I've ever seen from these guys.

Verdict: The last bit put a massive dent on the episode but I still can't ignore that I remained entertained for 75% of it, which hasn't happened in a while.
7/10
 
It was quite a good episode, even the guests were good, so it was bordering on a 9 (only slight deductions for the Dubai in-town silliness) until they took apart Jeremy's Farmkhana. I especially loved them taking a piss at Ken "clearly visible skid marks from lots of previous takes" Block, so them taking it apart was in itself not bad, quite the opposite. But as Ayman said, they dragged that one ought faaaaaar too long.
This episode had one major problem: Explaining jokes and pounding them to death. The Farmkhana thing was off to a great start and was ruined by them not stopping after like two or three short examples of the cheating. And earlier, the Golf GTI/moron joke was already very clear by just the cut to Jeremy after Richard and James said it.

So my final verdict is just a 7/10.
 
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It was definitely more watchable than episode 4.

Liked Hammond in the tank (finally a vehicle he *hasn't* wrecked this series), James' review of the Up GTI was pretty good (and no one's complaining about the lack of plugging for Ms. Eaton, which is good; in the track segments it's the car that should be the star, not the driver), I actually tuned in to watch the CFO do the track (frankly, the GT improvement of using a road car to go over gravel works better than the TGCE experiment with the rally car over gravel), the look of Bill Bailey's jowls in the helmet and cackling was entertaining, and the final segment was just Clarkson being silly.
About the "faked fakery": we did not need to see references to events that did not actually happen (eg the dead sheep, the off-screen overturning by driving), even if it made Clarkson look bad; I didn't mind the sub driver in the mask because it was still better looking that JC's actual face.
 
Those dead sheep that Hammond insisted on showing are going to get Clarkson a BUNCH of heat from the animal rights folks. That may have been over the line, but it is Clarkson... so meh.
 
The tank part was cool, and though I know all the in-town stuff was nonsense (especially the mall), I was still surprised/disappointed when he drove over the roundabout. Poor shrubbery... And when he says he didn't know he hit that BMW, I don't know whether to believe them anymore. Do you think it was legit? ;)

The Up! segment was good, and................I watched the guest segment! First time since the first episode. Thank you, Bill Bailey!

The Farmkhana bit was fun, though the unedited section was a little long. (the mask was funny, though...but the dead sheep bit was just stupid and insensitive) Another 5 or 6 minutes of Conversation Street instead would've been nice.

Anyway, good episode overall. I'll give it a 6.5, which rounds up to a 7.
 
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Even though I know it's a waste of time, I still decided to blast The Grand Tour and Jeremy on Twitter over that disgusting dead sheep segment.
 
OMG, Conversation Street was about cars!

Yes, the last bit dragged on too much and was double fake like last week. But the other bits were good.
 
I really enjoyed this episode. The original poster's comments about the bit at the end was SPOT ON. If they would have ended the damn episode after farmkhana was over, it would have been a 10/10 episode in my book. Everything AFTER the farmkhana film is everything wrong with the show currently. That end bit spoiled the episode.
 
The opening in Dubai was decent but the rest was a pile of shit. Not much else to say really.

The dead sheep DID bother me and the main reason is that it gives idiots ideas. Very distasteful.
 
+:
  • Richard Ripsaw Tank segment was good (lmuch like the exactly thing he done in TG)
  • Conversation Street: The best one so far. It's a shame that is so short, should be 5 min's longer.
  • James May's VW UP! review, was good again, but pretty short as well.
  • Farmkhana (1st part)
+-:
  • CFO(Celebrity Face Off)This time i didn't skip because they had Bill Bailey.(I'm waiting to see Jimmy Carr)
  • Farmkhana (Behind the scenes. The last parts at the end of the segment, they we're not necessary: dead sheep,etc. R.I.P Subaru )
-:

R: 7/10

PS: The best episode so far, in this season.
 
Dumb. Whats funny about pretending to kill sheep and actually killing a subaru? I enjoyed Bill Bailey and James UP segment.
 
7/10, and that's being generous. Richard and James' segments were good but the rest was so bland. I know the dead sheep was faked but it left a bad taste in my mouth. I almost turned it off right at that point.


*edit*
Oh, and I almost forgot. Please kill that stupid Jag in the celebrity segment with fire. I find it immensely insulting as a petrol head to not hear a badass engine/exhaust from that Jag coupe. It is full of blasphemy to have a 4cyl in a Jag.
 
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Was a great episode so long as celebrity fuck off is cut, and the ending where they nit pick farmkahna.
 
7/10. Enjoyed James' film of the Up GTi a lot. It lived up to my expectations; a fairly straight forward review of car I really like (and many of us can actually afford). I also enjoyed the Celebrity FO. Bill Bailey knows how to make people laugh. Also pleasantly surprised to find out Dominic Cooper has an RS7. I liked Hammond's Ripsaw film. Not my cup of tea but it was good. However some of the jokes weren't funny. The going-over-the-round-about-driving-over-plants, destroying a wall for no reason, hitting traffic etc was not cool. It felt like they're doing it just for the sake of doing it (and because they've got the money). The farmkhana film was the least of my interest. The main film which Jeremy showed on screen was great but the fake acting, the smug face, trying to forcefully act silly and all the behind the scenes stuff was not necessary at all. I will admit that I laughed at some bits, but I also cringed at many. Fake dead sheep, crashing the Subaru, crashing the Audi (for no reason), making Mark Higgins wear that mask (no reason again) and also just dragging the whole segment too long. They should've ended after showing just one or two outtakes.
 
Agreeing with most here. Farmkhana could have made the point in half the time without resorting to lame stupidity. It was a solid 9/10 up until that point. Overall a 7.
 
Again, lovely episode, up to the farmkhana part which was really bad.
 
Wouldn't have necessarily needed the Dubai bit, liked the Up GTI report a lot and don't think that the Farmkhana bit was as bad as eveybody said including all the cheating examples. The bit with the sheep was a bit silly, would've been nice to know how the windscreen really got broken.
 
Just got around to watching this, had a break after the insulting fourth epiosode. The thing that stood out most for me was Bill Bailey's voice, I'm guessing he's had the winter lurgy like the rest of us but I hope he's OK. I'm waiting for him to release another damn DVD.

Otherwise pretty classic stuff, other than the obviously daft bits like the dead sheep I enjoyed it all.
 
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