The Grand Tour

[Tonsko]

Whitby, strictly speaking.

[bodhi]

ash73 said:

Why was the tent in Grimsby for the Italian tour?

Because I'm guessing there are a few logistical issues to doing the films in the same place as the tent. Not sure how long it takes them to edit the films, but I'm guessing it's not a same day job.

[Ste1987]

ash73 said:

Why was the tent in Whitby (FTFY) for the Italian tour?

Why was the tent in Johannesburg when the Edge of Tomorrow skit was in Jordan?

[MarshPhantom]

Quickmoose said:

Driver101 said:

I just can't get my head around the excessive arse kissing of The Grand Tour. Top Gear was getting ripped to bits for years, yet The Grand Tour carries on in a similar fashion and gets praised to the hilt.

The new Top Gear got ripped to bits within 5 minutes and it was relentless after that with people obsessing with figures in the Sun. There was no excuses that it was a new team finding their feet. On the other hand the Grand Tour has started off with an experienced team, copied everything they could from Top Gear, have offered nothing new, look uneasy and unnatural with all the scripting being so obvious, yet it's amazing or requires time to grow.

The first episode was good, the second episode was awful and this week's episode was also crap. I genuinely must be missing what others are finding funny and entertaining. The Grand Tour is vastly inferior to what Top Gear used to be.

I can't see the next series of Top Gear not being a match. Evans appears to be the reason many people got upset and he's now gone. Hopefully lessons are learned and they improve. I didn't actually find new Top Gear that bad at all. A number of episodes were better than what The Grand Tour has served up so far.

+1

Have you two actually read the thread?

Plenty of people saying the TGT is not good and a big disappointment, some even saying they prefer Evans TG. Unlike Chris Evans Top Gear they have managed to improve somewhat between the first and third episode.

Just why are people so obsessed with trying to make out Evans Top Gear was nowhere as bad as it actually was, just one big steaming turd from start to finish.

HTH.

[xjay1337]

Driver101 said:

Moaning? I'm offering my opinion and not said anything unjust. Why so touchy and defensive?

Reading your opinion above you're one that appears to be blinkered. You've already been pulled up for that. You failed to see the comparisons between the two shows when they are very similar.

I bet most of the people watching it are doing so for free anyway.

I'll continue to watch the show and enjoy the good parts. There will be plenty of good parts. I won't join in the the excessive arse kissing and get involved with smart arse jibes or comments against people with a differing opinion.

I'm not touchy and defensive. You are overly aggressive, this is not an argument.

I am not blinkered, neither am I being "called out" - I genuinely enjoy The Grand Tour and do not think it's worthy of some of the abuse it seems to be getting. That being said that is my opinion which may not reflect what others think.
Episode 1 and maybe 2 of BBC "New" Top Gear was also crap. But, it did get quite a lot better and it ended up being a perfectly enjoyable watch.

That being said I did not enjoy it as much as I enjoy Top Gear as we know it, because I find JC Hammy and May more entertaining. That is not arse kissing, that is simply my opinion (and also, probably the opinion held by many).

I think you need to pipe down.

[JagLover]

Tonsko said:

I think someone up the thread got it - it's good, but there's something missing. Almost like they have nearly the same production team as they used to, but (for example) a key scriptwriter is no longer there to reign in the relentless hammering on the same point making it tedious rather than funny.

It is certainly weaker for me than allot of the older Top Gear episodes.

They haven't really got the studio segments to work yet, though ep3 was the best so far as it had a British audience. As for the rest, cutting the SIARPC, and reducing the length of news, is more of a curse really as they drag everything out too much.

For me Ep3 was the best yet but they need to improve to match an average season of their Top Gear days.

[GetCarter]

As mentioned earlier... they should just stop trying to act. They can't do it.

When they are themselves, not following scripts, they are at their best. Sadly they hardly ever are any more.

ETA: on the plus side, James May's Reassembler is back on the 28th. No script, and the better for it!

Edited by GetCarter on Monday 5th December 13:24

[Quickmoose]

MarshPhantom said:

Quickmoose said:

Driver101 said:

I just can't get my head around the excessive arse kissing of The Grand Tour. Top Gear was getting ripped to bits for years, yet The Grand Tour carries on in a similar fashion and gets praised to the hilt.

The new Top Gear got ripped to bits within 5 minutes and it was relentless after that with people obsessing with figures in the Sun. There was no excuses that it was a new team finding their feet. On the other hand the Grand Tour has started off with an experienced team, copied everything they could from Top Gear, have offered nothing new, look uneasy and unnatural with all the scripting being so obvious, yet it's amazing or requires time to grow.

The first episode was good, the second episode was awful and this week's episode was also crap. I genuinely must be missing what others are finding funny and entertaining. The Grand Tour is vastly inferior to what Top Gear used to be.

I can't see the next series of Top Gear not being a match. Evans appears to be the reason many people got upset and he's now gone. Hopefully lessons are learned and they improve. I didn't actually find new Top Gear that bad at all. A number of episodes were better than what The Grand Tour has served up so far.

+1

Have you two actually read the thread?

Plenty of people saying the TGT is not good and a big disappointment, some even saying they prefer Evans TG. Unlike Chris Evans Top Gear they have managed to improve somewhat between the first and third episode.

Just why are people so obsessed with trying to make out Evans Top Gear was nowhere as bad as it actually was, just one big steaming turd from start to finish.

HTH.

yes I have, have you read it, as opposed to simply posting every 5 minutes?

You view is recognised and (to a degree, respected), you are of course welcome to voice your 'opinion'.
Mine is that:
TG was best with the 3 old duffers and the crew surrounding them at the location they had.
'new' TG was worse for the new front man, but as good in specifically car based content (not the celebrity crap or to a lesser extent the rally cross), and better for the 'extra' show, and knowledgeable co-presenters..
tGT so far for me is a failure. MASSIVE budget? not apparent yet.... crap 'track', reduced studio quality and rubbish 'humour', but on a par with old TG on car based content.

I'm not discussing new TG, but it is useful as a comparison. It didn't change the format, stayed put, and developed well-ish throughout the series.
For all the hullabaloo about budgets and globe trotting, so far it appears they've decided to make a sketch show in a tent, that is very hit and miss...

Oh and the focus in the above should be: "for me" and "so far"

ok? that alright with you is it?
calm down.
You won't change my thoughts on the show so far.
And I'm not here to change yours

[Driver101]

xjay1337 said:

Driver101 said:

Moaning? I'm offering my opinion and not said anything unjust. Why so touchy and defensive?

Reading your opinion above you're one that appears to be blinkered. You've already been pulled up for that. You failed to see the comparisons between the two shows when they are very similar.

I bet most of the people watching it are doing so for free anyway.

I'll continue to watch the show and enjoy the good parts. There will be plenty of good parts. I won't join in the the excessive arse kissing and get involved with smart arse jibes or comments against people with a differing opinion.

I'm not touchy and defensive. You are overly aggressive, this is not an argument.

I am not blinkered, neither am I being "called out" - I genuinely enjoy The Grand Tour and do not think it's worthy of some of the abuse it seems to be getting. That being said that is my opinion which may not reflect what others think.
Episode 1 and maybe 2 of BBC "New" Top Gear was also crap. But, it did get quite a lot better and it ended up being a perfectly enjoyable watch.

That being said I did not enjoy it as much as I enjoy Top Gear as we know it, because I find JC Hammy and May more entertaining. That is not arse kissing, that is simply my opinion (and also, probably the opinion held by many).

I think you need to pipe down.

Overly aggressive? lol. Where is this aggression?

Have a little look at your own conduct on here at times. It's not me who confronting people telling them not to watch and telling them to pipe down either. There's nothing aggressive in my posts at all. I'm not sure how you are managing to extract that.

[Driver101]

MarshPhantom said:

Have you two actually read the thread?

Plenty of people saying the TGT is not good and a big disappointment, some even saying they prefer Evans TG. Unlike Chris Evans Top Gear they have managed to improve somewhat between the first and third episode.

Just why are people so obsessed with trying to make out Evans Top Gear was nowhere as bad as it actually was, just one big steaming turd from start to finish.

HTH.

I have read the thread.

Chris Evans' Top Gear did improve during the series. The show changed quite a bit due to the negative feedback.

I'd say the general opinion of The Grand Tour was the first episode was the best espisode by some margin.

[varsas]

Ste1987 said:

The Burma TG Special was on Dave yesterday, and it made me think, like others, that this is what Grand Tour should be all about

Yep. Speaking as someone who only signed up to prime for GT I'm dissapointed so far. The best bit was the 'Holy Trinity' but that was done better by Chris Harris. Later American Top Gear used do a different challenge every week (posh cars for cheap, race from the desert to the top of a mountain etc etc) presumably for a not-huge budget and it worked very well.

[MarshPhantom]

Driver101 said:

MarshPhantom said:

Have you two actually read the thread?

Plenty of people saying the TGT is not good and a big disappointment, some even saying they prefer Evans TG. Unlike Chris Evans Top Gear they have managed to improve somewhat between the first and third episode.

Just why are people so obsessed with trying to make out Evans Top Gear was nowhere as bad as it actually was, just one big steaming turd from start to finish.

HTH.

I have read the thread.

Chris Evans' Top Gear did improve during the series. The show changed quite a bit due to the negative feedback.

I'd say the general opinion of The Grand Tour was the first episode was the best espisode by some margin.

The only improvement they made was less Chris Evans. I'm not going to reread the entire thread but most thought 1 and 2 really not good, third much better.

[Marty Funkhouser]

I have to admit the last ep was the best I've seen in years - no silly set pieces, a minimum of studio scripted banter and just three blokes playing around in cars. More like that please!

[anonymous-user]

Marty Funkhouser said:

I have to admit the last ep was the best I've seen in years - no silly set pieces, a minimum of studio scripted banter and just three blokes playing around in cars. More like that please!

the people that moan about it but still watch it (never understand that), have so many other options to watch, with youtube and all the American stuff there must surely be a program for all. Chasing classics is pretty good, but at the end of day it is a car program. GT is an entertainment program featuring cars so will always have to appeal to a wider audience.

[Marty Funkhouser]

The Spruce goose said:

Marty Funkhouser said:

I have to admit the last ep was the best I've seen in years - no silly set pieces, a minimum of studio scripted banter and just three blokes playing around in cars. More like that please!

the people that moan about it but still watch it (never understand that), have so many other options to watch, with youtube and all the American stuff there must surely be a program for all. Chasing classics is pretty good, but at the end of day it is a car program. GT is an entertainment program featuring cars so will always have to appeal to a wider audience.

My complaint has been that they've drifted so far from the original format and seem to be under the delusion that the scripted "comedy" is a) funny and b) what people want to see.

I've stuck with it because I can ff through the dross, which recently (for me) has been 50-70% of the show, and watch the car reviews/challenges. I guess its a testament to the quality of those parts of the show that I still watch. This is why last weeks show was such a pleasant surprise - 3 interesting/beautiful cars being beautifully filmed in amazing scenery by three friends having a laugh. For example I genuinely believed James May was actually irritated by Hammond's continual noise - and that comes across for me and makes it genuinely amusing. Contrast that to the painful scripted banter and stunts which (IMO) is not funny at all and not interesting.

[AdeTuono]

Marty Funkhouser said:

My complaint has been that they've drifted so far from the original format and seem to be under the delusion that the scripted "comedy" is a) funny and b) what people want to see.

Viewing figures, and the fact that Amazon were happy to plough so much into TGT, would indicate that this is no delusion.

It's only a TV program; I can't believe so many on here get so worked up about it.

[chris watton]

I didn't watch the second episode, as the consensus was that it was tedious nonsense, but I watched the third and we all really enjoyed that one. I was expecting light entertainment centred around cars, and that's what I got.

[silobass]

Terrible program, but I can't help but watch it.

[toon10]

chris watton said:

I didn't watch the second episode, as the consensus was that it was tedious nonsense, but I watched the third and we all really enjoyed that one. I was expecting light entertainment centred around cars, and that's what I got.

The 1st episode was pretty good although a bit forced in places. The 2nd was poor. I see what they tried but it just didn't work. The 3rd was enjoyable but not a major departure from the stuff they've done a million times on Top Gear. Still entertaining enough.

[Marty Funkhouser]

AdeTuono said:

Marty Funkhouser said:

My complaint has been that they've drifted so far from the original format and seem to be under the delusion that the scripted "comedy" is a) funny and b) what people want to see.

Viewing figures, and the fact that Amazon were happy to plough so much into TGT, would indicate that this is no delusion.

It's only a TV program; I can't believe so many on here get so worked up about it.

You are confusing giving an opinion with getting "worked up".