- 13,153
- GTPlanet
- Street-King-07
- Quattro Saltire
Trailer for the Scotland special; Lochdown is here
The Amazon Prime Not Topgear Show That From Now On Will Be Called "The Grand Tour"TV
- Thread starter fortbo
- 1,091 comments
- 91,534 views
- 17,719
- Florida
- GranTurismo0517
- RandomCarGuy17
I actually enjoyed the special, there were some issues I had with it such as minor dialogue nitpiks. and how one of the challenges didn't seem fully fair. However, I still found some of the jokes funny and the whole road trip through Scottland entertaining enough.
I'll mention a couple of my issues here, just in case noone wants to be spoiled on them:
I'll mention a couple of my issues here, just in case noone wants to be spoiled on them:
- Why is Jeremy Clarkson still stating a Lincoln Continental as a sports coupe when they were never built to be sporty? They're just plain not. It was built to be comfy to drive around, that's it. It's not like a BMW M5.
- There was a challenge pinning Soviet Cars against American cars to see I guess which was more durable, but they used 2000s American Cars against 70s and 80s Soviet cars. I liked that the last cars standing were Chryslers, but it feels a bit hollow when they didn't use 70s and 80s American cars instead. Something like a Dodge Omni, Ford Pinto, or Chevrolet Chevette would've been more fair.
Keef
Premium
- 24,537
- Dayton, OH
- GTP_KeefRacer
- GTP Keef
Those two jokes have clearly gone right over your head lol. The Conti as a sports coupe is clearly ridiculous, and the idea that modern American cars could possibly be as garbage as old Soviet cars is a painful reality.
Anyway, I did some browsing after watching and apparently this film is chock full of references, especially Prince Andrew and Jeffrey Epstein. I honestly didn't pick up on any of them at the time but that's some pretty high-level humor upon reflection. That's one thing I've always loved about these guys, somehow they mix really deep jokes with child's humor and it just flows for them. Big fan.
- 17,719
- Florida
- GranTurismo0517
- RandomCarGuy17
Seriously, that's the joke? Just calling it a sports coupe when it's not as a joke? That's the same joke then they pulled in that "Worst Cars in the History of the World" special.
Um no, I did notice what they were doing there. I know very well that some modern American cars were awful. but it was still a dumb comparison when they could've done the same joke with 70s and 80s American cars that were garbage.
Last edited:
- 84,391
- Rule 12
- GTP_Famine
This is the literal, dictionary definition of "irony".
For UK viewers it's not really that deep in terms of humour, but pretty deep in the sense of how thickly it was laid on. About as subtle as... well, the cars.
Anyway, I laughed out loud at the liquid prank (which was impossible; they'd have had to re-engineer all the windows of the caravan), and absolutely nothing else at any point.
- 17,719
- Florida
- GranTurismo0517
- RandomCarGuy17
It was another pretty average formulaic Andy Wilman episode, nothing really of note happened and it all seemed a bit random with them switching cars for different challenges. Driving those cars around Knockhill was the definition of pointless and uninteresting. Wrecking the caravans was entirely predictable, as were most of the jokes. Did they really spend five minutes on the Prince Andrew shooting weekend gag, which I suspect a large part of the audience wouldn't even get? Yes they did.
- 4,317
- Arkhangelsk
- ray29rus
So, I watched new Grand Tour episode. I can say it was entertaining, sometimes funny, of course filmed beautifully, etc. But! Idk, maybe it's just the usual "things used to be better", but it is just not exactly what I loved about "classic" Trio travels. I know i'm not going to say anything new and this topic was brought up many times, but it just feels soooo scripted. And ye, they are not really hiding and even over-doing it on purpose to make it more ridiculous, but I can't say this works that well for me. Like, when I think about what I enjoyed the most in this one, I think about that little conversation the trio had while on a boat. For all I know, every single word in this convo could be scripted, but it didn't feel scripted at all, and for me it was the best bit in the whole episode. And another thing about heavy and obvious scripting is all the crashes they have. Personally, as a car fan, I don't really like to see nice clean cars being crashed or "questionably" tuned. And yes, they totally did all this before in old episodes as well, but because old episodes weren't/didn't feel that much scripted, it just came out natural and made me think "damn, well, unfortunate how this happened" instead of "why did they do that to these cars!".
I would say, it is a good entertainment and fun to watch, but maybe not exactly something I look for when I want to see The Trio. But, again, maybe I'm just having a bad case of "things used to be better".
I would say, it is a good entertainment and fun to watch, but maybe not exactly something I look for when I want to see The Trio. But, again, maybe I'm just having a bad case of "things used to be better".
- 6,425
- KCCO
I think considering the circumstances they were under, it was they best they could manage to do. They've really done everything already from the past so the creative ideas they have for trips to do at home are limited at best.
If anything this was just something akin to the TG specials, no different than the old caravan episode. Both had awkward/dry moments but overall good enough that you'd probably re-watch again for certain scenes.
I wouldn't consider it a GT episode really, when compared to everything else already done.
If anything this was just something akin to the TG specials, no different than the old caravan episode. Both had awkward/dry moments but overall good enough that you'd probably re-watch again for certain scenes.
I wouldn't consider it a GT episode really, when compared to everything else already done.
- 6,967
- South Africa
Okay, so...
To me, this episode felt like the least interesting one the trio had done since the Grand Tour began. Admittedly the first half had me chuckling a few times but the second half... I almost completely tuned out.
Low energy (like the car choices), the supposedly pretty scenery mostly obscured by the weather (not their fault, I guess, although they could've gone during the season when the weather is known to play fair), not much happening during the driving itself (even the breakdowns felt suspiciously scripted just to make it more eventful), pranks to May's ride that felt predictable and worn out (messing with his caravan? Really? And no, it's not a spoiler because the Grant Tour/Amazon official Youtube channels), and a damp conclusion that tries to say something but... I didn't quite get it, if I'm being honest. (not helped by the fact that a couple of North Korean stuff were mixed in with the Chinese stuff and then 'paraded' as all Chinese).
All in all, this is a low effort, "Let's put out an episode before Amazon sues us for not delivering content as contracted" kinda deal. Disappointing, really.
To me, this episode felt like the least interesting one the trio had done since the Grand Tour began. Admittedly the first half had me chuckling a few times but the second half... I almost completely tuned out.
Low energy (like the car choices), the supposedly pretty scenery mostly obscured by the weather (not their fault, I guess, although they could've gone during the season when the weather is known to play fair), not much happening during the driving itself (even the breakdowns felt suspiciously scripted just to make it more eventful), pranks to May's ride that felt predictable and worn out (messing with his caravan? Really? And no, it's not a spoiler because the Grant Tour/Amazon official Youtube channels), and a damp conclusion that tries to say something but... I didn't quite get it, if I'm being honest. (not helped by the fact that a couple of North Korean stuff were mixed in with the Chinese stuff and then 'paraded' as all Chinese).
All in all, this is a low effort, "Let's put out an episode before Amazon sues us for not delivering content as contracted" kinda deal. Disappointing, really.
- 2,938
- Shrewsbury
- pezzarinho17
Disappointed as well, not with any 1 segment really but more with the whole direction of the "episode". I didn't get it really. They each got an American car, so far so good. Then they attach caravans... Ok?... Then they ditch their cars for 3 modern American cars! THEN back into their own cars after a joke I apparently missed. Now they are building a bridge to an island, which will host one of the largest anti-climaxes to an episode ever...
As said before, they did well given what they were probably allowed and able to do within a lockdown. But I just didn't get it, a few laughs aside.
As said before, they did well given what they were probably allowed and able to do within a lockdown. But I just didn't get it, a few laughs aside.
If you mean the Pizza Express/'perfectly normal shooting weekend' section, it was a very long winded Prince Andrew gag. It was unnecessarily long, perhaps solely padding for time.
Prince Andrew: I didn’t have sex with teenager, I was home after Pizza Express in Woking
Duke of York claims alibi in Emily Maitlis interview for Newsnight
Prince Andrew stands by 'car-crash' Jeffrey Epstein BBC interview
People close to him say he addressed his links to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein "head-on".
www.bbc.co.uk
- 4,712
- Alabamistan
It was mediocre at best. I had high hopes from the trailer but that's about as far as it went. I would have liked to see Richard in a big Chrysler of some kind like a 1972 Imperial LeBaron but there probably wasn't one available in the UK. That would have avoided having two GM products but I guess you go with what you can get.
Speaking of the Riviera, where was it's rear bumper?
Speaking of the Riviera, where was it's rear bumper?
- 2,976
- Dundee, Scotland
Well I will bite and watch. This one looks more comedy and cringe which I always like.
If anything fills in the holiday season...
If anything fills in the holiday season...
Last edited:
Disagree, that was ruddy awful. It was essentially just an extension of the stupid Peugeot thing they did in a Top Gear episode. An hour of over exaggeration and old jokes with them playing the silly characterisation of themselves again.
I know the pandemic is still a problem but they need to go back to doing real adventures with real challenges, being themselves.
Doubt it'll happen as long a Wilman is writing the scripts though.
I know the pandemic is still a problem but they need to go back to doing real adventures with real challenges, being themselves.
Doubt it'll happen as long a Wilman is writing the scripts though.
- 8,828
- Ottawa
- Automotive_Buff
What? Andy Wilman was the executive producer of Top Gear from its inception (2002 Top Gear) to the end around 2015. He's also the executive producer of TGT.
He drives/drove the comedy and the adventures of both shows. Much of those previous adventures you're craving, he is behind them.
There's not much choice when it comes to film, given the constant bombardment from the media and constantly evolving government regulations. There's a new variant almost every 4 months which brings about the same circus every time without fail.
They want to do large adventures but can't. Can't blame the producer for that.
I know he's always been there, what I meant is that it's with him at the helm that they gradually developed this acted, characterised version of the trio and all the nonsense, comedy angles. He wrote and wanted all that. Unless he goes, it's going to continue. I know they can't do big adventures but they can still do more real challenges and adventures, akin to the cheap car challenges they used to do, or car vs public transport. They were always scripted, but they still felt more real and natural rather than driving like idiots in character because huh hah, French drive bad. Lolz.
- 15,620
- wrexham
- jameskent86451
- Jamobomb86
Thought its was pretty bad, never really got what they were trying to do, felt like it was all thrown together at the last minute.
Why was May wearing a what looked like a sheet on his head during the two eating scenes??!
Why was May wearing a what looked like a sheet on his head during the two eating scenes??!
- 15,312
- TRAPPIST-1g
- ProjectWHaT
I honestly really enjoyed the episode. It was a lot of fun
JF's thoughts on the episode
JF's thoughts on the episode
