Can we now admit that The Grand Tour isn't very good?

"Just wear your damn mask..." (jimal) 12/09/2016 at 09:37 • Filed to: None

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I’m watching Episode 4, which is in fact the fourth episode of this first season, and SPOILER ALERT, it isn’t any better than the previous three. It is like The Grand Tour is a Top Gear cover band; it is supposed to be an homage to the original, but every member of the band is more a caricature of the band member they’re imitating and the whole thing seems exaggerated.

EDIT: To clarify, even though The Grand Tour features the same three hosts as Top Gear, they are a cover band because they are not presenting any new material. They are touring on their old library. That is what makes them a cover band.

sm70- why not Duesenberg? > Just wear your damn mask... 12/09/2016 at 09:43

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Even I have to admit it. That was terrible.

Bman76 (hates WS6 hoods, is on his phone and has 4 burners now) > Just wear your damn mask... 12/09/2016 at 09:49

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I liked the 911 review (except for the brief part where Skinner was talking). The challenge was too outlandish for me to really care.

CalzoneGolem > Just wear your damn mask... 12/09/2016 at 09:49

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I haven’t even watched it.

Just wear your damn mask... > Bman76 (hates WS6 hoods, is on his phone and has 4 burners now) 12/09/2016 at 09:54

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It was okay, but it felt like we’ve seen it before, and the whole thing felt forced and predictable.

Panther Brown Tdi Volvo Shooting Brake Manual Miata RWD Wagon Stole HondaBro's Accord. > Just wear your damn mask... 12/09/2016 at 09:54

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I like it....

Then again I also like the transformers movies. I like splosions okay.

DasWauto > Just wear your damn mask... 12/09/2016 at 09:56

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No, because it isn’t ‘not very good’. In fact, it’s still among, if not the best car-based programming we’ve got and instead of bitching about menial shit we need to be thankful that Amazon has seen fit to give these guys the budget to make this show as well as they can.

It’s not a TG homage either, it’s a continuation, merely broadcast differently with a couple of words changed to avoid upsetting BBC lawyers. It doesn’t pretend to be anything else.

Now, it’s not perfect, I’ll admit. Much like Old-new Top Gear, there are segments and bits that are hit or miss. That’s life though, we can’t expect everything to be a hit for us, especially not by the artificially high standard created by rose-coloured glasses romanticism about past TGUK seasons because lets face it, those weren’t perfect either.

Enjoy it while it lasts. These guys won’t be around forever, we can only hope someone will be able to fill their shoes when they choose to move on.

LongbowMkII > DasWauto 12/09/2016 at 09:57

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I expect hit and miss, but I haven’t seen a single hit so far

LongbowMkII > Just wear your damn mask... 12/09/2016 at 09:59

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It reminds me of TGUSA.

*pew pew*

DasWauto > LongbowMkII 12/09/2016 at 10:01

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I thought the M2 review, the Ebola-drome and the Aston Martin Vulcan bit were spot on and I absolutely loved the tour of Italy from episode 3. I haven’t watched episode 4 yet but those are the highlights for me so far.

Just wear your damn mask... > DasWauto 12/09/2016 at 10:02

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I’m not watching this through any rose colored glasses. In fact, this is pretty much what I was fearing or expecting, and said so months ago, based on the mass genuflection around here during the build up. I was hoping to be proven wrong.

bhtooefr > CalzoneGolem 12/09/2016 at 10:04

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Neither have I.

TGUK version 2 series 23 was, honestly, getting old, and I watched it because why not, but... I’ve even got a Prime subscription and don’t see the point of watching Grand Tour.

...I haven’t watched TGUK version 3, either.

Tripper > Just wear your damn mask... 12/09/2016 at 10:05

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Yea I mean I’m not in love with it, however its the only car show I will watch. Way better than those trash shows on discovery channel.

J_P_Cars10s > Just wear your damn mask... 12/09/2016 at 10:07

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I haven’t finished a single episode still awake yet.

I’ve gone back and watched old episodes of TG on Prime and a lot of them suck too.

We all have a “best of Top Gear” memory. There was some incredible television there between season 5 and 15! But a lot of garbage too.

Another factor for me is age. I’m a 22 year old mechanical engineer. My sense of humor and threshold for entertainment is not the same as it was 10 years ago.

Just wear your damn mask... > Tripper 12/09/2016 at 10:08

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It is funny how the months of hype around here have become a sense of resignation and settling.

MonkeePuzzle > Just wear your damn mask... 12/09/2016 at 10:08

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The Grand Tour is a Top Gear cover band

this is an excellent assessment. they need to jam together a little longer me thinks, find their own groove within the covers.

Invinciblejets > Just wear your damn mask... 12/09/2016 at 10:08

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They should have went with the same recipe as TG USA by just jumping straight into the adventure rather than the super beyond cringy cheesy studio audience nonsense.

Tripper > Just wear your damn mask... 12/09/2016 at 10:17

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I was never that hyped about it. I was/am happy that the original 3 are doing a show about cars, but I knew the delivery would not be the same.  

MasterMario - Keeper of the V8s > Just wear your damn mask... 12/09/2016 at 10:22

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Besides the specials, every episode of Top Gear was the same too. The show follows a formula, like all shows do. Do a car review, cover some news, star in a cheap car, etc, etc...

Every episode on Top Gear was “the same” just with different cars...why would this be any different?

CalzoneGolem > bhtooefr 12/09/2016 at 10:24

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I recommend against TGUK 3.0 but TGUK 3.1 might be better. 

Future next gen S2000 owner > Just wear your damn mask... 12/09/2016 at 10:35

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To me, the Grand Tour is basically on par with the last few years of Top Gear . I’m meh about the whole thing. Is it great? No. But it can be entertaining and is worlds better than most car shows. So par for the course. I’d rather have an okay Grand Tour than no Grand Tour.

unclevanos (Ovaltine Jenkins) > Just wear your damn mask... 12/09/2016 at 10:36

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LongbowMkII > MasterMario - Keeper of the V8s 12/09/2016 at 10:44

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Because it’s no longer restrained by BBC regulations and budget

marshknute > Just wear your damn mask... 12/09/2016 at 10:44

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Unlike the India Special or that hostage rescue skit from GT episode 2, I actually was ok with this episode. It was obviously scripted and stupid, but it was so far out of the box, that I could start to enjoy it.

But I still wish the format for each episode was to take 3 cars on a grand tour across whatever country they’re filming in, and finish with driving the cars into the tent to an awaiting live audience. Right now, I don’t really see the point of moving the tent around the world.

MasterMario - Keeper of the V8s > LongbowMkII 12/09/2016 at 10:48

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Every show has a formula, and what they were doing at the BBC worked, so why would they stray far from what worked?

RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht > Just wear your damn mask... 12/09/2016 at 10:51

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It sounds like you’ve cut yourself going both ways - overhype backlash AND a massive confirmation bias on your fears. In other words, an impossibly high standard was set, and you’ve tuned yourself to “see” particular expected failings to the point where anything even close sets your radar a-pinging.

“Cover band” is not even remotely the right analogy, even among music ones. Was Velvet Revolver a G’n’R or STP cover band? No. Is the Michael Schenker group a UFO cover band, even when they perform UFO songs? Not really.

Look, any type of media that depends on a fandom and interaction between a set of leads is going to try fan capture by convincing their fans that what initially brought that fandom is still present. That’s just the nature of things. It doesn’t mean the format has no room to grow - Velvet Revolver did some interesting things outside of “STP as played by G’n’R”.

I for one did not set my expectations sky high; neither did I anticipate it would be free of the awkwardness and teething problems of a new show on an old pattern. There’s a lot of the same kind of trouble as when Clarkson TG first kicked off - trying to match the old magazine format with failure, hamming, and trying to maintain the old forms without what made them work about a quarter of the time.

RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht > Just wear your damn mask... 12/09/2016 at 10:53

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To clarify: “touring on their old material” is inaccurate. “Touring on their old style” is more accurate. It’s more like Def Leppard trying to maintain all albums post-Pyromania in the same kind of style for good or ill. They’re not literally doing the exact same things - they’ve shuffled the format a bit, they’re reviewing new cars, and they’ve thrown out some of the old.

LongbowMkII > MasterMario - Keeper of the V8s 12/09/2016 at 10:57

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Because they had to know like everyone else that it was getting tired. Evolve or die.

for Michigan > Just wear your damn mask... 12/09/2016 at 11:01

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No, because it’s perfectly fine.

Are there some flaws? Yes, but not any more so than when they were Top Gear. It’s the exact same thing it was before, with just enough changed to keep from attracting the BBC’s lawyers.

If you don’t enjoy it, that’s fine, but don’t pretend like you speak for everyone else when you voice your dissatisfaction.

AkursedX > DasWauto 12/09/2016 at 11:01

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I like the show except for the whole celebrity not actually showing-up thing.... I wish they would have gone with ‘A Celebrity in a Celebrity’. I think seeing stars competing in a 1986 Chevrolet Celebrity for the best lap time would have been even better than the ‘Star in a Reasonably Priced Car’.

MasterMario - Keeper of the V8s > LongbowMkII 12/09/2016 at 11:12

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Hopefully they do. I do think it could be better, but it was a safer bet to keep it closer to Top Gear than not starting out.

DipodomysDeserti > Just wear your damn mask... 12/09/2016 at 11:16

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I don’t watch a lot of TV, but when I put this ahow on I’m entertained.

Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) > Just wear your damn mask... 12/09/2016 at 11:32

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I was absolutely in love with episode three. They got rid of some of the boring crap and the trip part was perfect. So you are wrong! I look forward to watching episode 4 later today!

RiceRocketeer Extraordinaire > Just wear your damn mask... 12/09/2016 at 11:33

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It feels like Jackass with 3 old people.

Berang > Just wear your damn mask... 12/09/2016 at 11:33

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I’ve liked all the episodes so far - to a point. I find everything goes on a bit too long. It’s almost as if the Star in a reasonably priced car and News segments ensured all the fat was cut out of their Top Gear segments. Hmmm.

The result is every segment goes on a little too long and they end up leaving stuff in (or forcing “interesting” things to happen) that almost certainly would have been cut for TG.

I’m also sensing that some bitterness for their old employer is causing them to do things that are funny to them - but nobody else.

Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) > DasWauto 12/09/2016 at 11:34

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I cannot hate on any show that features a Hellcat doing donuts until the tires are roasted. Reminded me of many Roadkill moments. What I REALLY want to see though is Roadkill with the budget of GT. That would be epic!!

Just wear your damn mask... > for Michigan 12/09/2016 at 11:34

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The last I checked, offering an opinion in the form of a question, and providingthe reasoning behind that opinion isn’t “speaking for everyone else”.

If you enjoy it, that’s fine, but don’t pretend like you speak for everyone else when you voice your satisfaction.

Just wear your damn mask... > RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht 12/09/2016 at 11:43

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Your Guns N’ Roses example supports my premise. No, Velvet Revolver wasn’t a GnR or STP cover band, but I would argue at this point that GnR is now a GnR cover band. They haven’t put out an album in eight years (arguably their last commercially successful album was back in 1991), but they got the core group back together and are touring on their material from Appetite to Use Your Illusion I & II. The set lists might be different, and there might be different backing players, but due to age and atrophy it is a caricature of what it once was.

jasmits > Just wear your damn mask... 12/09/2016 at 11:54

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Go back and watch season one or two of Top Gear, it seemed a little bit scripted too. It takes a bit to settle into a new format and feel natural. Also, the bulk of Top Gear episodes weren’t incredibly special, we just remember all the best moments

bob and john > Just wear your damn mask... 12/09/2016 at 12:03

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me thinks you expected a giant revamp and not more of the same. and now that its not meeting your expectations, its ‘shit’

RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht > Just wear your damn mask... 12/09/2016 at 12:04

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Perhaps, but we need a better term than cover band for the phenomenon. It’s not the right one (because original musicians are more than covering when they perform their own material or in their established style), and because it *can* touch on new material, it’s limiting as well to describe it as covers only. It also leaves open a gray area: what mix of old and new is okay for a band to *not* be a cover band of itself in your framework, both in cast and live performed material?

New G’n’R, to support *my* point was neither primarily old cast, nor a guaranteed irrelevance until Chinese Democracy flopped. Few bands have that kind of a clean dividing line... and before that line, it was absolutely something more than just a retread simply by the fact that there was new material in the offing. Even if it wasn’t very good.

...or, to look at things another way, as a rabid Dio fan might, one could consider old old Top Gear to be Ozzy Sabbath, new old Top Gear to be Dio Sabbath (and clearly better, such a fan might say), and now that the Beeb is back at the reigns, il Triello might be said to be performing like “Heaven and Hell” (a Dio Sabbath band reissue band comprised of Dio Sabbath). Definitely worth seeing in concert for a Dio fan, even performing no new material - which isn’t really the case for Clark’s MayHam and wasn’t even strictly true for H&H.

Actually, I think I like that term: “reissue band”. Some of the same material from original source, but may have wanking attached and, like a remaster, definitely will have some things going on that alienates a portion of fans. Also takes things a step beyond a pure “self-cover” band, which you might call a touring band or something like that.

What if Heaven & Hell had chosen to roll with more new material and it had caught on? They were already more than credible as a group of musicians and more than a mere cover band (c.f. American Top Gear), so they could have gone places, beyond just three new songs. Which is what they actually *were* doing, right when Dio fell ill...

Age catches up with us all. Doesn’t mean it’s wrong to run.

Danger > Just wear your damn mask... 12/09/2016 at 12:09

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Forced and predictable, a great way to put it. That is what always turned me away from Hammond, I could just know what he was going to say or d0, it was such a hack comedy routine. But that is what his fans crave, apparently. They talk about him like he is a comic genius. Unfortunately cars only get really bad or watered down presentation in the mainstream (reality car shows or auctions). So unless there are more Seinfelds and Lenos in the world, we are pretty much at capacity for car programming.

Svart Smart, traded in his Smart > Just wear your damn mask... 12/09/2016 at 12:27

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The ‘we’ in your headline suggests you think others share your opinion, which might be true but also sounds a bit presumptuous.

for Michigan > Svart Smart, traded in his Smart 12/09/2016 at 12:30

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Exactly.

njp1589 > Just wear your damn mask... 12/09/2016 at 12:56

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Just wear your damn mask... > Svart Smart, traded in his Smart 12/09/2016 at 12:59

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?

This is a question mark. It is used to indicate that a sentence is a question, not a statement of fact. Would “Can we now admit that The Grand Tour is terrific?” be equally presumptuous?

Just wear your damn mask... > bob and john 12/09/2016 at 13:05

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For all the talk about having a bigger budget and being released from the chains of oppression that was the British Broadcasting Corporation, I was looking for them to take some chances and to do something new. So far it has been retreads of old material, which seems to be good enough for some/most.

swaptastic > Just wear your damn mask... 12/09/2016 at 13:26

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It insists upon itself.

Kanaric > Just wear your damn mask... 12/09/2016 at 13:43

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It’s as good as Top Gear was with the boys by the last couple of seasons. Can we admit that Top Gear wasn’t that great now too? It WAS great but everyone was saying how it has deteriorated quite a bit towards the end. The only reason why the hype was so good was because of HOW it ended. If the BBC ended that Top Gear saying they needed a fresh show instead of how it ended you may have seen less of a problem with it.

Jonee > Just wear your damn mask... 12/09/2016 at 14:43

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You are absolutely correct and I don’t get people defending it so vociferously. Every time I say I’m not crazy about it, people chew me out. It’s a pale imitation of Top Gear. Which is weird since it’s the original crew, but the jokes fall flat, the segments are meh, and everyone looks like they’re just going through the motions. I’m also getting a sinking feeling that there aren’t going to be any shit car challenge type things, and those were some of the old show’s best stuff. Notice in the latest episode they barely mentioned what kind of cars they were racing against in the sustainable car challenge (which, on the whole, was pretty underwhelming). On Top Gear, they’d make a big deal out of those cars being a Mondeo, GTI, etc., but here it was like they were avoiding calling them by their names except during the race. It feels like a car show that’s barely about cars.

bob and john > Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) 12/09/2016 at 16:16

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that wouldnt be roadkill then

CaptDale - is secretly British > Just wear your damn mask... 12/09/2016 at 18:05

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No, but it is boring and too scripted and not enough about either cars or driving. The only part I liked was that they were going to do that road trip through Italy, but then it just became them fooling around. I don’t want to see that. i want thoughtful real driving or testing of vehicles. Like when they did the Supercar Roadtrip through France on old new Top gear. That was a perfect episode. It was fun, passionate, and small bought of hilarity like Jeremy’s fuel consumption. So far they have done one GT out of the 3 episodes I have seen and again, it was not good. I have though been rewatching old Top Gear on Amazon starting with Season 2 and while not great quality of production, the show is great. I know they are trying to get away from the TG style show, but the GT needs to take a lesson from early TG. They need to be more informative, more car-centric, and honestly less baffoon-ish. And the Celebrity Brain Drain shtick was funny the first time, less funny the second, and not funny the third. I personally am happy there isn’t a reasonably priced celebrity car segment. It was my least favorite. I also dislike their track, but at least they have one I guess.

IanZ - limited-slip indifferential > Just wear your damn mask... 12/09/2016 at 18:47

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Why would I lie to myself?

Svart Smart, traded in his Smart > Just wear your damn mask... 12/09/2016 at 18:54

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Yes, it would be equally presumptuous.

Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) > bob and john 12/10/2016 at 19:59

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This is true. People with budgets don’t think about using leaf blowers as turbos lol.