Anyone watching The Grand Tour

[MiniDave]

..........this Friday? I don't have an Amazon Prime, Netflix or whatever subscription you need to see it, so I'll have to rely on others to tell me how it goes.

While I really enjoyed most of Top Gear (England) when it was on, I confess to being tired of Jezzas screams for power as he slid yet another Mercedes sideways around the track.

I really liked James Mays alternative shows, and Richard's usually good for a smirk or two.

It would be great if someone could record it somehow and post it up here for us poor underfunded school teachers..... 4.gif

[jedduh01]

I cant wait for the show!  Pure entertainment ....




I would politely suggest borrowing someone's prime subscription (login and PW for access :)

[MiniDave]

Don't you have to pay for the show also?

[jedduh01]

Pay per  Episode or Show.  = No way  not with prime.

The Grand tour + other Amazon Originals and Exclusive Shows are a perk view with your Prime Membership subscription.



https://www.amazon.com/b/ref=atv_tv_hom_3_slct?_encoding=UTF8&filterId=OFFER_FILTER%3DPRIME&node=2864549011

Another great way I have never owned a cable subscription! Content galore these days.

If you don't have Prime = Take the trial 30 days. its free , its easy  and easy to cancel too.

Prime - i havnt been to walmart in 6 months = all my walmart goods are delivered in 1-2 days with prime... my choice of products not Walmarts abismial stock of things when needed, you go there= and not in stock...

Dogfood , baby supplies, toiletries , tune up parts for mowers and cars.  I swear i get a prime box every day between the wife and I... We also share are prime account with my Mom and Dad  and Sister... Choose your shipping address and payment method. and share.

Give it ago Enjoy!

[Jims5543]

Just checked, it is included with your Prime subscription.

I know what I am doing this weekend.   ;D   I forgot this launches.

[MiniDave]

Cool, I have a friend with a Prime account.....

[BruceK]

I'm really looking forward to it. 

And, I seem to remember hearing they were not going to release the full season's episodes all at once.  I hope that is correct.   I'm not a fan of the current "binge watch" fad.   It seems way too much like finding 4 gallons of ice cream in the freezer and deciding to eat it all at one sitting. 

I prefer delayed gratification - to ration my viewing out and have something to look forward to.   Easier for me to do if they cooperate and don't put the whole shrimp platter right in front of me. 

[BruceK]

I watched episode 1 and here are my thoughts:

Grand Tour = Top Gear.  Shocking, isn't it?

GT is basically the familiar Top Gear show we all love, but with what appears to be a bigger budget.   Many (all?) of the familiar elements are there, staring with the three hosts, fantastic videography and editing highlighting striking visuals accompanied by great background music.  I guess they figured, if it ain't broke...

Here are the differences:

Instead of an audience standing around in a hanger, they have an audience standing around in a (traveling) tent.   
Instead sitting around on green leather car seats, they sit behind a desk on little stage.
Instead of using a track around an airport, they have a track sort of built in an abandoned factory area back in the UK which runs near an old lady's house.
Instead of "The Stig" running lap times, they have a crass "The American" driver (not sure if the Brits thought this was hilarious, but it wasn't)
Instead of writing lap times on magnetic strips with a Sharpie and posting them, they now have a electronic monitor showing lap times!
Instead of a celebrity guest driving around a track in an inexpensive car, they um... treated some celebs differently.

And, I seem to remember hearing they were not going to release the full season's episodes all at once.  I hope that is correct.   I'm not a fan of the current "binge watch" fad.   It seems way too much like finding 4 gallons of ice cream in the freezer and deciding to eat it all at one sitting. 

I prefer delayed gratification - to ration my viewing out and have something to look forward to.   Easier for me to do if they cooperate and don't put the whole shrimp platter right in front of me.

Yes, unlike when Netflix or Amazon Prime releases a TV series and typically makes all episodes available at one time, the Grand Tour is apparently being released at the rate of one new episode per week. 

[roadhouse]

Planning on watching this evening.

Amazon Prime is worth the cost even without GT! Love 2 day shipping and all the shows/movies on my fire stick

[Jims5543]

The opening sequence was VERY well done.  Cannot express how much I liked it.

I actually went back and watched the first 5 minutes a second time because I thought it was that powerful.

Good the see the boys back, I am not going to compare this to TG.  This is a new show with a similar format. I am just happy to see not that much has changed and it appears we are in for a fun season of car shenanigans.

[BruceK]

The opening sequence was VERY well done.  Cannot express how much I liked it.

I actually went back and watched the first 5 minutes a second time because I thought it was that powerful.

Good the see the boys back, I am not going to compare this to TG.  This is a new show with a similar format. I am just happy to see not that much has changed and it appears we are in for a fun season of car shenanigans.

With the episodes being rationed out a one per week, I think a lot of people will be watching them several times while waiting for the next one to be become available. 

I know I will re-watch Episode 1 again. 

[Merlin]

I'm with Bruce on this one, the show is basically Top Gear with enough changes to avoid getting sued by the BBC. However, the production team is the same and the cast is the same, so the vidography is going to be the same.

I like that they are making the studio mobile. I also like that they are ditching the interviews. I enjoyed the interviews on Top Gear, but wouldn't miss them for more car shots. I have been a big fan of American-Top Gear format where they spend time on adventures, so I hope that without a real track, they will do the same.

The Top Gear track was developed by Lotus to fully test a car to the limits. The Ebolatrack is clearly set up to get some good shots of the cars. Not sure if I like it, and I am not sure if they really need the lap-time board anyway.

I don't think that the American Stig stick will last. I think that it was a one-shot joke. I have seen some clips where they have dragged out other drivers, including the actual driver who was the black stig, to race these cars. The stig thing was to allow them to use different drivers while making it look like it was the same guy. I don't think they care about that this time...

The show looks good though. Jalopnik reported that the opening scene cost 3 million to film, so they look like they are going to put some cash into this. Let's see what next week brings.

[MiniDave]

I thought it interesting that they made it look like they were at Burning Man, but they weren't, they were at Edwards......

I don't understand why the test track is in England if the show is based out of California, but whatever....and I also think the Ebola track was chosen so they could get lots of shots of Jezza sliding a car around and smoking the tires off of it. If he wants to be a drifter he should go to Tokyo and just do it.

Frankly I'm tired of expensive cars being slid around sideways shots.

BUT, I did like listening to the sounds of that Mac and the Ferrari The Ferrari on track.....wicked!

So Portugal, England and the USA on this show, next show they're in South Africa, they mentioned Barbados....they certainly are getting around the world.....but I wonder what they'll do next year? How long can they keep trekking around?

[jeff10049]

Well Crap! I'll have to try again later it will play the trailer but not the first episode even though it shows up I get a dark screen.
The one thing I want to watch out of all the crap on amazon and it won't work go figure.

[Jims5543]

Lots of very good and insightful comparisons and reviews here.  Bottom line for me, now that it has sunk in is that it is very good and looks like it is going to be a lot of fun.

I suspect some of the world tour stops they make will be less "car-centric" and more about doing stupid things with stupid cars.

[Jims5543]

Well Crap! I'll have to try again later it will play the trailer but not the first episode even though it shows up I get a dark screen.
The one thing I want to watch out of all the crap on amazon and it won't work go figure.

If you are using a Firebox try rebooting it.  Mine gives me problems from time to time and a reboot fixes it.

[BruceK]

I thought it interesting that they made it look like they were at Burning Man, but they weren't, they were at Edwards......

Did you see they called it Burning Van?  :)

I don't understand why the test track is in England if the show is based out of California

Is it?    I kinda got the idea they were going to be traveling nomads from now on - with no particular home base.

[MiniDave]

Yes, the Ebola Dome is in England, someone on Jalopnik found it....

But their tent is going to wander around the world, each in-tent audience will be from a different country - South Africa is next I think....

[Merlin]

I watched a great interview with Andy on the making of this show and it turns out that the change in tracks and leaderboards are all lawyer driven. It was deemed that handwriting the times was grounds fora lawsuit and a track at an airfield was grounds as well. Christmas special shows are a no-no as well as doing the "news".

One of the next episodes will have them going through the skeleton coast and the lawyers sat down and watched the "Botswana Special" and picked out things that they couldn't do or say during the filming.

Check it out.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JVZIx9e592k

[BruceK]

I just watched the 2nd episode.  The honeymoon is over.

And I am remembering what my mom taught me:  "If you can't say something nice, then don't say anything at all".












Actually, I can't hold back.  This episode was... not good.   I'd give it a 4/10 at best.  The whole SAS training bit in Jordan was an unfunny mess that would not end.  We all know a lot of the interactions of the guys on Top Gear seemed improvised, but were, in reality, fully scripted.  This time, there was no pretense about the scripting and it was a quite bad amateur effort in doing so.  Plus, I'm sorry to say, the not funny "The American" driver was back again.   

[jeff10049]

That sucks about the second episode I got the first one to play it locked up again on the second but I guess I didn't miss much I hope it gets better. I want it to be a good show.
Jim, It's a smart TV that I play it from not sure what the problem has been. I  had to watch the final 10 min. of the first on my laptop as it locked again. Anything else I pick plays just fine I'm hoping it just fixes itself with a update or something. Worst case I can try using the xbox to play it after reading bruce's review I don't know if I care.

[MiniDave]

There were some funny moments, but frankly I got bored with the Groundhog Day take-off after a while and turned the sound off .....why couldn't they shut off/disconnect the beeper on the truck?

I'm also already tired of the killing off the "celebrities" joke......

Is it us, have we just become jaded?

At this rate I don't see a second season for this.........show.

[BruceK]

There were some funny moments, but frankly I got bored with the Groundhog Day take-off after a while and turned the sound off .....why couldn't they shut off/disconnect the beeper on the truck?

I'm also already tired of the killing off the "celebrities" joke......

Is it us, have we just become jaded?

I don't think we've become jaded - nothing wrong with expecting more.  We know they can do it.

At this rate I don't see a second season for this.........show.

I believe the Amazon deal was for 3 years at 12 episodes per year, so there should be 34 more of them in the pipeline.   

Lots of time to do better and get it right.  I hope. 

[jeff10049]

The second episode played for me today... I thought it sucked really really sucked I also turned the sound off and then completely lost interest. I hope the next is better.

[jedduh01]

I completley agree with all comments.. Epi 2 was = bad... boring, repetitive and gross.

My thoughts, they are needing to distance The Grand Tour from  a carbon copy of Top Gear. If BBC owns many of these items of the automovie show, they must be something Different... and the different adventures can appeal to other audiences too.

I'm sure they also need to build their trust in manufactures to earn honors to feature new cars = Ford GT ,  Mustang R , Corvette's . Or will this remain - ebola track.. European heavy cars...
They did manage to get Mclaren Porsche Ferrari to play together . Also the Aston   but will Ford + GM join the fun??

Week by week everyone will still watch = hopefully looking back on it the producers will be able to refine future seasons as the 12 are already produced and recorded or the next 12 weeks.