The Amazon Prime Not Topgear Show That From Now On Will Be Called "The Grand Tour"TV

[MUSC4EVER]

Do we have a release date?

18th December.

 

[JKgo]

"He's uninvented the wheel."

 

[ProjectWHaT]

New special out now!

 

[numbnuts70]

This just appeared on my Sky Q box so I'm wondering;

How many episodes are there and are they released, one a week or are they all available at once please?

Episode 1 and 2 are selectable but I'm not sure if this will change once I've signed up.

 

[ROAD_DOGG33J]

This just appeared on my Sky Q box so I'm wondering;

How many episodes are there and are they released, one a week or are they all available at once please?

Episode 1 and 2 are selectable but I'm not sure if this will change once I've signed up.

It's the specials. Episode 1 is last year's special and episode 2 is this year's. They no longer do any weekly episodes or anything frequent.

 

[numbnuts70]

It's the specials. Episode 1 is last year's special and episode 2 is this year's. They no longer do any weekly episodes or anything frequent.

OK thanks, so Ep1 on the menu is the Vietnam boat one, that right?

And if I sign up to prime, it's only gonna be 2 episodes in total this year?

 

[ROAD_DOGG33J]

OK thanks, so Ep1 on the menu is the Vietnam boat one, that right?

And if I sign up to prime, it's only gonna be 2 episodes in total this year?

I don't have sky but I figure that's what it is based on what Amazon is shaping for this season. There's only 1 episode this year and that's the special that just came out. I think the previous special was released December of last year.

 

[ProjectWHaT]

OK thanks, so Ep1 on the menu is the Vietnam boat one, that right?

And if I sign up to prime, it's only gonna be 2 episodes in total this year?

Yeah, the next special will probably take more than a year to come out due to Covid. The boat special was kinda lame imo. You'll also be able to watch older seasons too. Most of them were pretty decent.

EDIT: Assuming you're talking about Amazon Video and not Sky

 

[Nexus]

Did anybody else find this episode a bit average? I don't recall much about the previous special, but I don't think it was this obviously scripted.

 

[Famine]

Did anybody else find this episode a bit average? I don't recall much about the previous special, but I don't think it was this obviously scripted.

The boat one? Yes, it was very obvious - largely because Hammond can't act - and very weak.

I don't think they've yet hit the same depths they managed with the 2011 Top Gear Christmas special (Himalayas), but I haven't see Hunt yet.

 

[daan]

but I haven't see Hunt yet.

Don't.

 

[ProjectWHaT]

The whole plot of the episode was very meh, but I enjoyed the actual driving bits. Seeing the Caterham and Bentley struggle through the Madagascar was very fun. And the fails with the Focus definitely were not scripted.

If you ignore the scripted plot, the actual car related bits were enjoyable


The Bentley was made by the people at Bentley

 

[MUSC4EVER]

It was quite average, there were some good and pretty funny moments but overall it was quite meh, and when they found 'the Holy Grail' at the end I was a bit like 'well what was the point of all of that?!'

The modified Caterham with the big rear wheels looked a bit like the Top Gear Tractor from a couple of years ago.

 

[daan]

The Bentley was made by the people at Bentley

What? You mean it wasn't built by Clarkson in a small garage on Réunion?

 

[andrea]

Reminds me of Uncharted 4 with Henry Avery's treasure.

 

[Joey D]

I watched it last night and it really wasn't that exciting. It was just 20 minutes of them driving around a tiny island, then 70 minutes of them driving down a terrible dirt road. It needed something interesting to happen and the only bit that was slightly amusing was the number plates. At least with some of their past specials, they did some crazy things, or at the very least had a change of scenery. Madagascar is cool and all, but it's just a jungle island.

 

[ROAD_DOGG33J]

It was pretty average, and about what you'd expect from them currently - enjoyable enough. Visually, it looked spectacular.

 

[Silver_Wolf]

Have to say this special passed a few hours after a tiring day, I enjoyed it but I would say it's one I'd go back to watch again like some earlier
specials.

Very tough on the cars concerned so I am very impressed the Caterham and Bentley made it back to the UK as you would have though the Focus would have been the survivor!

I am looking forward to the next one though in Scotland as I think they will be more back on form with this one.

 

[ProjectWHaT]

What? You mean it wasn't built by Clarkson in a small garage on Réunion?

Well of course, I just wanted to note that Bentley special operations had a hand and not some other shop elsewhere.


Some interesting behind the scenes, Hammond failing at French and the trio somehow lost the film crew

 

[Samus]

Watched it last night, it was just.....boring. The entire premise was dead in the water from the start, we knew full well they weren't actually going to find any treasure or even do any real searching, making the entire thing utterly pointless. Driving three cars on bad roads for over an hour with not much else. Oh, they dug a hole I guess.

 

[JKgo]

I watched it last night and... it was merely okay. I think the show would've greatly benefited from trimming the run time by about twenty to twenty-five minutes. One and a half hours of the trio doing not much other than driving through crappy roads aren't that interesting.

Having said that, Madagascar was pretty as hell. At least the bits they chose to show off, that is. I hope I can visit the island someday.

 

[Adamgp]

Watched this last Thursday, but missed some parts so I watched it again last night.

It wasn't any better, and I didn't miss anything. Rather lousy episode given how long it took to release it.

 

[Team THRT Drift]

As much as I loathed the boat special, I didn't think it would get any worse. Then I saw A Massive Hunt.

I love the trio but something was clearly missing. The lack of competition/side objectives among them, James being the butt of the joke again, rather weak plot, and overused joke lines from Hammond providing pirate lore...

Instead of making the car choices based on a theme or common objective, they choose the most random cars. This was as ridiculous as having James show up with a bloody sail boat to trek across open sea.

 

[LeGeNd-1]

Yeah I agree it is a bit underwhelming. Part of me feels they still don't know what to do with their budget. Part of the charm of old TG specials was them buying absolute clunkers and then somehow making them survive the trip against all odds. If you have unlimited budget for the car and modifications, it's not so interesting anymore (and you have to resort to doing stupid things like buying a Caterham or using useless tank tracks to spice up the drama). The ending with the holy grail doesn't make sense. Also you gotta wonder how the locals with their relatively unmodified buses and trucks can cross the road without too much problems and they can't.

The Reunion Ring Road is an engineering marvel though. Learning about weird places like that is one of the things I like most about these specials.

 

[Team THRT Drift]

I don't think it's about budgeting. That wasn't too much of an issue on TG. I mean their Myanmar special was great as was the Colombia special.

This special was just awful and almost nonsensical. Someone tried to justify it by saying something along the lines of the crew already having a vague title for the new episode, so they needed a vague plot. Like a play on words or a play on that idea.

You dont go and spend millions of dollars, edit during a pandemic, and tank your show's ratings for a play on words.

Andrew Wilman stated they had hours of footage and people got excited about that pleading for the crew to get the green light to release the full seven hour special (more of a fanatical cry of support than an actual wish). After having seen the episode I'm sure those seven hours are mostly the entire crew wading through mud and helping Hammond fix his tracks' PLASTIC wheels.

 

[Samus]

It's just like they forget that a road trip has to have incidents between A and B to be interesting. It also helps if the viewer believes there is genuine jeopardy in them getting to B, like the North Pole episode, or any episode where they had beater cars unsuited for the journey. Getting stuck in a bit of mud using professionally made custom cars really doesn't cut it.

Seems like "Have a drag race" is about all they came up with on this one in terms of doing things.

Mind you, it still could have been worse. The India Special will always exist.

 

[Sentry87]

Anyone watch Jeremy Clarkson's Farm on Prime? Binged all 8 episodes it was actually pretty entertaining. Didn't seem AS scripted as TGT, a bit educational, and hilarious. You can tell he was really trying and at the end had a great understanding and respect for the farming industry and all the struggles. It had heart. I highly recommend.

 

[TB]

Anyone watch Jeremy Clarkson's Farm on Prime? Binged all 8 episodes it was actually pretty entertaining. Didn't seem AS scripted as TGT, a bit educational, and hilarious. You can tell he was really trying and at the end had a great understanding and respect for the farming industry and all the struggles. It had heart. I highly recommend.

I haven't finished it yet but I have to agree - there are plenty of what feel like scripted shenanigans (it is Clarkson, after all) but the scene where he was delivering lambs convinced me that he was at least putting some effort into this being legit. He still has a crap ton of help behind the scenes but it looks like a decent effort out of him. I've been entertained so far. I'll probably finish the last few episodes tonight.

 

[Tornado]

Have watched a couple episodes so far. Seems a lot more earnest and less by the numbers than Top Gear was the final few seasons; even though you can tell it's the same creative staff involved.

 

[Jezza819]

I've watched a couple of episodes and I like it so far. I'm no expert on the size of land but he seems to own a hell of a lot of it. That kid he's got helping him sure knows his stuff.