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I'm in two minds, but it's great to read all the protestation and angst.
T'moz night 8pm..
IMO Top Gear was the three children and they were past their prime when they left so can’t be bothered to watch the new lot or the originals new stuff. To be fair I am interested in so little on the box these days that I don’t have a single must see anymore.
Bah, humbug.
Started to pick up on the last series so looking forward to it.
Enjoyed the last series, a great relief after the ginger knob’s brief tenure, I think LeBlanc is holding things together pretty well.
Still miss Captain Slow, tho’.
Came together in the second series, I thought, looking forward to this new one.
We only got Amazon prime a couple of weeks ago and went straight to the Grand Tour. Slightly disappointed with it, to be honest.
No..
They might well have been the biggest dicks to ever host a motoring show...but at least they had chemistry and were the perfect fit for each other ..
Frankly the rapport between I'm blank and the other two is non existent / embarrassing ..and a complete turnoff ..wont be watching
Yep, looking forward to it.
Woooo hooo! (repeat to fade)
Is it too soon to say how much I hated it?
I watch it for the cars.... The in between talky bits can do one.
I watch it for the cars
Me too, although there is so much more stuff on Youtube it seems a waste of time making a show like Top Gear now.
‘No..
They might well have been the biggest dicks to ever host a motoring show…but at least they had chemistry and were the perfect fit for each other ..
Frankly the rapport between I’m blank and the other two is non existent / embarrassing ..and a complete turnoff ..wont be watching’
I concur m’lud, utter shite.
Enjoyed the last series, shall be watching this one. I’ve watched the latest series of the grand tour, as much as I liked those 3 working together it really was shite and I think they’ve had their day (in that format)
Over the last 18 months I’ve really got in to watching car content on YouTube, I find Mr JWW, SoL, Salomondrin, Shmee, TGE, Seen through glass etc etc more watchable and look forward to their content coming out
I will be watching it, purely for the derision and foaming dribble that I’ll exhume whilst it’s on.
🤦♀️💅
However I’ll have a toss-up and decide whether to watch Yo-Yo Ma on the Silk Road on BBC4..
Hodgynd and watty^^ i agree completely.
You watch the grand tour and within two minutes are able to predict the entire show, as they don’t seem to have any new ideas at all.
As for the bit where they put two stars against each other, I only watched that once, i immediately fast forward through it now.
Wondering whether i will bother watching the third series, if there is one.
As for TG, mlb is ok, although obviously scripted, chris harris is genuinely interesting (check his YouTube channel) but doesn’t come across that well on tv, and the younger guy (dunno his name) is great, it’s good to see some enthusiastic young blood tbh.
Wahoo! TG tonight and then F1 starts in a month's time....
I was gonna do an FTP test tonight, but balls to that. Booze and TG for me!
Well, that wasn't very good, was it?
Got in early I see..
Eh? F-type fastest Jag evah?
Erm...
Not even a real Captain.
I’m not normally a fan of sports cars, but that mclaren is a pretty looking and useable thing indeed.
I think flashy called it... was okaaay, but nothing great. Don’t understand why they were doing combined lap times/relays?
Ooooh that was’t bad at all. I want to try Chaincar Figure of 8 Racing.
The noise from those cars was lovely, the McClaren is one amazing car.
enjoyed that, it was fun Sunday evening telly
Production/cinematography goes to Top Gear - bantz goes to Grand Tour.
OK ..I lied..I watched it .. nice cars ..but it's just still way too stiff , scripted and those boys can't act as if they believe in what they are doing ..oh and Rob Brydon..using the same line about the track being wet / moist ..thats the best you can do to kick off a new series ..?
In a word ..crap !
Why do they have to have the same "stars" on again? Surely there are a world of celebs out there, i don't see why they repeat?
First time watcher?i don’t see why they repeat?
It raised a couple of laughs, 2 more than a whole series of the Amazon three.
As a petrolhead that will usually watch anything with cars in I turned over, Matt Le Blanc is ok but the other presenters are unwatchable.
As a petrolhead that will usually watch anything with cars in I turned over, Matt Le Blanc is ok but the other presenters are unwatchable.
We are 180 degrees apart - MLB is nothing but predictable, he should be owning this heavily-scripted drivel and he isn't. The roads trips are always pure pap, sooner they're over the better.
Don’t understand why they were doing combined lap times/relays?
Just to save time, I guess.
From a purely practical point of view, the Jag might be the best all-rounder, but the me that used to buy American car magazines when I was at school, around ‘66-67, really really wants the Mustang!
Shame they didn’t have the Dodge Challenger Demon, or at least the Hellcat, I’d have liked to see that up against the Mustang.
In the USA about V-8's and not any mention of the only US sports car the Chevy Corvette which even being a Mustang fan is a quicker car.
Started to watch it and loved the scenery and the cars , but the presentation is so cringeworthy I just had to switch channels. Le Blanc is just appalling!
It is just the same as it has been for 10+ years and the Grand Tour has turned into a clone of it. Needs someone with some new ideas as this 3 people driving around in cars that are similar in some way is past it.
It seems popular though so guess I don't understand the audience. If you are interested in cars you will watch the large amount of better content on Youtube so guessing the audience must like the presenting or find it enjoyable in some way?
Quite enjoyed some of it and thought the chain car bit with Harris looking genuinely petrified as it slid all over the shop was hilarious.
Other than that, they just try too hard I think. The chase thing with Ken Block was awful and pointless.
Ultimately the format was great when it was new and Clarkson, May and Hammond were all 10 years younger.
Now it's just old.
Will still watch it (them) though, as they occasionally get things right and it's very much brains off easy watching.
The target audience isn’t car nuts is it?
Im no car nut yet I watch it.
I think the demographic is a simple one....
Its mildly entertaining for the “I’ve been out all day and the kids are in bed/I’ve been at the families all day doing sod all except eating my body weight in animal flesh, it’s work tomorrow so I can relax a little and watch some blokes dick about in cars I’ll never own/be able to afford”
I think the format is simple and effective.
I do find it dull, but like I find pasta dull I still eat it.
They missed a perfect opportunity to come up with a new fresh format, instead copied the old format that had already become stale. (As said by others)
for that reason...I’m out!
Well, that's an hour of my life I won't get back! The "old" TG was three blokes cocking about and some cars occasionally appeared. IMHO there's no chemistry between MLB, Harris & Reid and that makes for hard work watching. I'll find something else to watch next Sunday.
Production/cinematography goes to Top Gear – bantz goes to Grand Tour.
Which makes it rather unfortunate that Grand Tour is the one available in 4K HDR. Really hope this is the year the BBC start making stuff available as better quality in on iPlayer, their flirtations with it (Blue Planet in 4K HLG on iPlayer), have been bloody amazing.
I liked both Rory Reid and Chris Harris before they got the TG jobs, and Matt LeBlanc is fine (plus a huge Porsche nerd) so new presenters are fine with me.
It's 45 minutes (I ffwd the SIRPC/interview stuff) of mindless, incredibly high production quality car stuff on the TV. I grew up watching Chris Goffey talk about legroom and boot space in the latest Citroen BX or Vauxhall Cavalier, so however silly current TG gets at least it's more fun than that.
There's some good stuff on YouTube but Harris has talked before about the economics of making "proper" content on there - it's really hard to make a proper 10 minute film of driving an interesting car in an interesting location, getting decent sound and video and it edited, paying the extra people you need and their expenses, for the amount of advertising money you'll get back. Hence why so much car stuff on youtube tends to be a guy pointing a camera at his own face, talking about the options he's chosen on his latest supercar bought with daddy's money.
and the Grand Tour has turned into a clone of it
Well no, Clarkson etc made Top Gear what it became (it was just a tedious car show before) so they went off and did the same for another broadcaster. As said above, Top Gear missed the opportunity to make it different rather than just try to emulate the same format with different people.
It would be like remaking Morcambe & Wise with different comedians.
I thought the last season of Top Gear was actually good but Sundays show was dire. Far far far too scripted and the actual car content was poor to say the least. Chris Harris is actually a great driver and knows his stuff but he's just not the same guy as his videos on Youtube. Grand Tour is miles better and I think even the Beeb know as they said Sunday that this series is only 6 episodes. Why?
Last series was only 6 wasn’t it?
I'm a miserable sod and I liked it.
When that German girl laughs I go all gooey.
I found most of it painful to watch. The chain racing thing was OK and Rob Brydon's commentary on his lap was good. The main feature with the three V8s was just awful. Horribly contrived, obviously false cameraderie between the presenters, pointless 'tasks'. It makes the old Top Gear with Clarkson & Co look good. Very good.