I’m about half way through the NEW Grand Tour.
Been a fan of GT and TG franchise as a whole over the years. Less so the one with Joey - but I’ve moved on.
Also a long time fan of Throttle House and the hosts, Thomas Holland and James Engelsman. I even like the new (to me) host, Francis Bourgeois.
But I’m not sure rehashing the same story lines, including original cast cameos, is a formula that is going to work for the NEW GT. I hope they’re just shaking the bugs out.
That’s a bummer to hear. I don’t have any ill feelings towards the Throttle House guys, I think they’re fine, but I think after so many years of TG, TG USA (4 different reboots!!!), multitple TG UK reboots, all the other English speaking variants, plus hordes of YouTubers aping the format, then 3 full seasons of GT and 8 specials… where was I? Oh yeah, I may just be burnt out on car shows where quirky hosts interact in semi-scripted challenges.
I watched the first (so-so) episode and I’ll watch the next. I was definitely burned out on the three cartoon characters that Clarkson & Co. had become. This is a test to see if I am also burned out on the format.
I find it slightly amusing that of the three original characters: Clarkson has his farm and seems to be having a blast with being a gentleman farmer; May has his gin and is embracing being semiretired while doing youtube about stuff that happens to amuse him; Richard Hammond, who seemed the most sociable of the lot, is now the one that comes across as most jaded and generally annoyed with having to continue to be part of the franchise.
I binged all of it and I feel these guys understood the assignment. They captured the spirit of the show without trying to copy the characters and just rely on their own chemistry, which is what made the original work in the first place. I like that they are unknown in this space. I loved it and look forward to another season.
Yeah I got tired of Clarkson being a bigot- or maybe just a hater- and the really mean “practical” tricks they played on each other. That was not fun,
I’m more of a road trip guy than a car guy so I’m partial to the Top Gear and Grand Tour “specials”. (I did like the “star in a reasonably-priced car” and comic card-modification segments). While I totally understand how people got tired of the “three stooges” and came to hate Jeremy, I have always found them entertaining. I’ve seen a few of the reboots but the replacement characters just don’t do it for me.
I watched the second episode. The Singapore car vending machine and the Malaysian car bisection facility would have been interesting grist for the mill but they just shrugged both off with a shake of their heads and an unspoken “crazy foreigners…”
I’m watching it and enjoying it. The first episode had wayyyy too many ads, but they backed off in the second. The jet race in ep 1 was pretty intense!