The Grand Tour Thread

[GoCougs]

I'll give it a C/C-.

Like most recent Top Gear episodes I can only make it ~20 minutes in before I get bored. Took me two additional sessions to finish this episode. The intro with the Mustangs and music was very well down however.

Most all the gags didn't really work for me - the 3 dead celebs, the mind tester thing, the redneck NASCAR driver, the "who has the better air force" fight. Plus, the centerpiece of the episode - 918 vs. P1 vs. LaFerrari - has been done to death. It also sounded like they might have been using a laugh track - audiences don't sound like that in a tent.

[Raza]

Let's call it a promising start. I think they wanted to do some skits and shed some of the expectation of the old show (hence the dumb celebrity skit), but they're still them and the show, I'm sure, will get better from this first episode.

[Payman]

I'll give it a C/C-.

Like most recent Top Gear episodes I can only make it ~20 minutes in before I get bored. Took me two additional sessions to finish this episode. The intro with the Mustangs and music was very well down however.

Most all the gags didn't really work for me - the 3 dead celebs, the mind tester thing, the redneck NASCAR driver, the "who has the better air force" fight. Plus, the centerpiece of the episode - 918 vs. P1 vs. LaFerrari - has been done to death. It also sounded like they might have been using a laugh track - audiences don't sound like that in a tent.

I read this and thought you were just being your nit-picky self. Then I finally watched it... and you pretty much nailed it. I'm sure it'll get a lot better.

[Payman]

Probably alone in this, but that Galpin Rocket Mustang looked fantastic.

[Eye of the Tiger]

Probably alone in this, but that Galpin Rocket Mustang looked fantastic.

I wanted to see more of it, for sure.

[FoMoJo]

I really hope that they use this as their theme music.
The Grand Tour

[r0tor]

Even if its a C or C- its still in a different world then the steaming pile of poopy that Top Gear became

[Tave]

I could be wrong but I took the 3-dead-celebs-mindtester gag to be a dig at themselves (along with those cut cues) and expect them to bring back the celebrity guest driver bit in some form or another in the future.

I thought the Skinner material was fine, hard to follow the Stig--even if they don't tone down the corny jokes I imagine he'll grow on people.

I give it a B+, now that they have that nervous energy out of the way they can relax and get back to the cars and goofing off.

[TBR]

My biggest impression is that they would be well served to hold themselves to an hour. The skits would have been a lot funnier if they had been a bit shorter and the hyper car piece was also a bit long. I have yet to watch TG 3.0 but this certainly wasn't as good as peak TG 2.0

[MrH]

Meh. I give it a C. It was really drawn out and not all that entertaining honestly. Not a lot of interesting insight into the cars themselves either. I think the Top Gear specials were always the best (Bolivia, Vietnam, etc). Chris Harris does better actual car reviews.

Great camera work and editing as always though. Even better than Top Gear IMO.

[Tave]

Meh. I give it a C. It was really drawn out and not all that entertaining honestly. Not a lot of interesting insight into the cars themselves either. I think the Top Gear specials were always the best (Bolivia, Vietnam, etc). Chris Harris does better actual car reviews.

Great camera work and editing as always though. Even better than Top Gear IMO.

I would say that everyone on the show probably agrees with you which is why they named it "The Grand Tour" and don't have a permanent studio.

[SJ_GTI]

I did watch it (in 4k) this weekend. It was OK. Very high production values obviously but I don't really get in to comparisons of super/hyper/ultra cars. Just no basis for comparison to what I drive. I liked seeing the M2 track test (was surprised it was slower than the other BMW M cars). I'll keep watching for now.

[Rich]

I e-mailed Amazon to see if I could get access to Prime video... and big fat nope.

[MrH]

I e-mailed Amazon to see if I could get access to Prime video... and big fat nope.

Are you locked out because you're in Spain, or because you don't have a prime account?

[Rich]

Are you locked out because you're in Spain, or because you don't have a prime account?

Oh, I can buy a Prime membership... but I'm locked out of video since I'm in Spain.

[MrH]

Oh, I can buy a Prime membership... but I'm locked out of video since I'm in Spain.

VPN.  Just download Hola extension for Chrome and say you're in the US.

[AutobahnSHO]

VPN.  Just download Hola extension for Chrome and say you're in the US.

They (all the big providers) know this is an option and have been working hard to squash it. What I find to be retarded about it is that they supposedly block from out of the country because of copyright blah blah.

But in many of those countries, illegal downloading runs rampant. Why not take the money instead of force users to go find an illegal download??

[MrH]

They (all the big providers) know this is an option and have been working hard to squash it. What I find to be retarded about it is that they supposedly block from out of the country because of copyright blah blah.

But in many of those countries, illegal downloading runs rampant. Why not take the money instead of force users to go find an illegal download??

Yeah, it's a really silly game of cat and mouse.  The BBC is the craziest one.  They want taxes to fund a TV network.  Doesn't work when any of them take off and the internet exists.

[giant_mtb]

It was pretty meh.

Not much car talk, even while driving.  Was disappointed that all the "Stig" had to say were those awful Murrica jokes...tell me about the fucking car, man!

Laughs were fake as fuck...note how they often never showed crowd faces while being zoomed in on the host telling the "joke" that probably got no laughs because most of the jokes weren't funny.  People don't rapid-fire laugh like that.

The skits were way too long and pretty dumb, IMO.

Let's hope it gets better.  Otherwise I probably won't be watching it.  My gf likes watching Top Gear with me so I'll probably watch GT ccasionally with her either way.

[68_427]

Oh, I can buy a Prime membership... but I'm locked out of video since I'm in Spain.

The streaming sites all have TGT uploaded to them.  Shit like Putlocker etc

[Galaxy]

I e-mailed Amazon to see if I could get access to Prime video... and big fat nope.

You sure Amazon Spain does not have it? Amazon Germany does, and it is in english to.

[68_427]

You sure Amazon Spain does not have it? Amazon Germany does, and it is in english to.

Only 4 countries right now.  Over 200 come December

[CaminoRacer]

I think the problem is there is no Amazon video streaming of any sort in Spain? If so, that's odd. Get a VPN.

[r0tor]

last nights episode was pretty "meh" for me

[Eye of the Tiger]

last nights episode was pretty "meh" for me

New episode? Don't spoil it. I'm watching tonight.

[Payman]

So disappointed. I don't recall the old Top Gear making me cringe and groan so much. I'm still holding out hope they'll do Bolivia/Botswana/Vietnam style shows, but until then... sigh.

Oh, and get rid of Mike fucking Skinner. 

[CaminoRacer]

Having the car show/review format holding them back in the OG TG was probably good for creativity. When you have no limits it's easy to go too far and end up with something dumb.

[Payman]

It's like they're trying hard to appeal to the Honey Boo Boo audience. 

[giant_mtb]

It's like they're trying hard to appeal to the Honey Boo Boo audience. 

For real.  There was too much Murrica This and Murrica That and nothing of any real substance or intelligence...they hardly talked numbers or technology for anything.  Like bruh, this is a car show. We don't give a fuck about your stupid jokes.

[Morris Minor]

Saw Episode 2.  Still not working for me. They went to South Africa. Set up the tent. Did a few jokes about South Africa between running vids of escapades elsewhere. So there was really nothing South African in it. They could just as well have set up the tent in  some generic office parking lot in some generic city somewhere, anywhere.

I'll be generous and downgrade my vote only to C-