[1x07] December 30th, 2016 [Namibia Special, Part 1]

[1x07] December 30th, 2016 [Namibia Special, Part 1]


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Solid, but I thought "We slept under our engines for warmth" thing was a bit too much.

Also the "I bet he is going to say <insert anything here>" and then the presenter saying exactly the thing in the next frame joke did not work when they first used it, and it surely is not going to work when it is used third time.

I concur the beer joke was great though.
 
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The scenery was real nice, but no real content and far too much fake drama and shouting. I feel like there could have been better goals, destinations and reasons to utilize the beautiful scenery.

I also feel like the guys could have a closer connection to their cars, or they could have been created with more true genuine personality of the presenters.

Didn't get to comment on last week's show but I thought it was spectacular. Only thing I didn't like was jeremey's repeated fake falling on the roller skates.
 
I'm sure they had great fun filming it but not sure 40+ minutes of driving aimlessly in the desert is captivating for the audience. Plus it is hard to believe they were in some sort of danger when the crew car is always ahead of them.
 
Very much in the spirit of the TG Christmas specials.

Quite good, IMHO, but only 3/4 hour in length.
 
I didn't create the thread like I usually do for Grand Tour because I wanted to do one for both episodes

I was wondering why there wasn't a thread on this one, but normally for two parters, there are separate threads for each ep. Having said that, you do have a good point that we can just review both at the same time since they are back-to-back, but the 2nd ep might have a different feel than the first. Just wanted a thread to get things rolling.


Anyway, the first part had great cinematography, though not sure why they had to use up 10 mins of the ep where they just went in circles, could've used it for extra stuff for when they got out of the dessert. Though their expressions for when they did go over them sounded genuine to me, so I'm definitely not going to try that anytime soon.

Not sure how the next part is going to play out, but am excited. 8 from me.
 
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[1x07] December 30th, 2016 [Namibia Special, Part 1]

Well, typically there's a "specific episode" subforum but, my guess since Quiky doesn't seem to visit here that often and Viper out of commission for health reasons, that won't be done soon.

Unless our esteemed mod, mgdk can do that for us. :D
 
3/10. Repetitive and boring.

Where is the sense of adventure and road trip?

All they are doing is playing in the sand for 45 minutes.

How do you even sell that to Amazon? "Yeah in this episode we are driving up and down the beach for an entire episode"

I loved the polar special which also didn't change the scenery, but somehow couldn't get into this. I get a more engaging feeling from Vietnam, Botswana, Bolivia which were epic...after that patagonia, nile and burma were pretty solid too, also middle east. But this sand dune beach thing.... turd smells like India special to me.
 
I'm sure they had great fun filming it but not sure 40+ minutes of driving aimlessly in the desert is captivating for the audience. Plus it is hard to believe they were in some sort of danger when the crew car is always ahead of them.

Duh!

Guess what? They even had a camera with them to film it all. Where's the danger in that? ;)

Seriously, folks. If anyone thinks this would put them into real danger or if any of the other specials and challenges they did before were left to chance, they're foolish. Or nasty because they hope something goes wrong and threatens their health (or worse).

I had to spontaneously think of one of Alfred Hitchcock's quips when being asked about the lighting he did in a night scene. When asked where the light comes from to shine on the actor's face, he stoically replies: "From the same source the music comes from".

It's entertainment, guys.
 
The premise itself felt hollow, there's no story there nor do we see anything interesting on the country itself or the cars (which are bland as hell). Also the whole swearing thing started to annoy me, I normally don't care about things like that but it's so out of character and happened so often it became obnoxious.

4/10
 
Not bad, considering other failures of the past, but it went a bit repetitive, and I am sure Namibia is more interesting than that. Gimme 5 hours and I'll check part 2. Solid 7 for me.
 
Fuck me, no studio? Best episode ever
It's always a thousand miles, don't be fake shocked
"Because of this jacket?" :lmao:
35 minutes wasted.
Fishing... ugh, here comes comedy.
What a waste of an episode
 
I actually didn't mind this episode too much, I rated it highly as a result. It was somewhat of a return to form. The cars were clearly professionally built, so there was no real stupidity involved. I sort of thought Clarkson's V8 was daft, but I guess it fits his "POOOOWARH" persona. These two episodes should have been one, and only slightly longer than a normal ep. I suspect the reason they aren't was the pressure of producing 12 episodes in a year. Somehow they managed to get Amazon to eat two studio-free eps which were far too lightly edited. I don't blame them for this, I just think it made for a slightly tedious pace.
 
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