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flyonthewall2983 wrote:Chris Evans stepped down as presenter today.

Great news.

There was a bunch of articles going around how Matt Leblanc / most everyone on the team absolutely hated Evans and threatened to leave the show if he wasn't sacked. The articles also mentioned how after like four episodes, the viewership has steadily tanked.

I've only watched the first episode of this new incarnation, and it was on par (as bad as) Top Gear USA and I have no interest in seeing anything else. They've lined up an interesting selection of alternative presenters, but you only see them for pre-filmed segments, thus you were stuck with Leblanc/Evans for everything. I'm surprised the BBC thought any of this was ever going to work. We'll probably get the old three back in a year after Bezos cancels "The Grand Tour" for being too expensive, and the BBC version having worse viewership than some local access show.

First episode of The Grand Tour premiered on Amazon today. It's basically the same show as TG, but with additions. Some good, some bad, some questionable.

Spoiler

Instead of the Stig there's a NASCAR driver who's job it is to drive the cars on their track, while making disparaging comments about foreign cars. Some of the other scripted stuff went on for a bit, and wasn't too funny.

Overall, with some time and tinkering, it could prove to be a good show. Just good seeing the three of them together again.

Yes, was more evolution than revolution, but why fix it if it ain't broken. Now they've introduced the format and humorously covered the necessary references, they can just focus on the show on future episodes.

The editing of the show was just incredible. Some of those films are just absolutely gorgeous.

And I think it was all shot in 4K, one more reason to understanding why Amazon gave them such a huge budget. It looks spotless.

After some tepid and downright bad spots, this week's episode feels more like Top Gear than anything else from the show so far. Plus it brought back the Christmas gift review, one of the few recurring comedic bits I always loved on TG.

Bar the awful Episode 2, TGT has been excellent so far.

I guess the "joke" Richard Hammond that men look gay eating ice cream has been stirring up controversy. Frankly his goatee is more the joke now.

The Namibia special has the charm of the old specials, with some of the cringe factor in it but not too great to be distracted by it.

Friend of friend saw this in LA today:


I can't quite pin it down, but I haven't been enthralled with any of The Grand Tour (am 6 episodes in). It is just really unimaginative + mediocre - like the Eco car challenge where all they had to do was cross a river and then .... enter a race. I also wonder if the censorship of the BBC ultimately helped - as they would be forced to be more creative with their jokes and not quite as brutally/obnoxiously childish. And are they seriously going to do the exact same jokes (... Celebrity Braincrash) week after week after week? I'm not giving up yet, but I'm not looking forward to two more seasons of this.

For you I would say the best is yet to come, the two-part Namibia special is good, and there are some good segments in individual episodes following. The main segment in the latest episode feels straight from peak Top Gear.

What I was really hoping for was just an entire show centered around those remote segments, with no need for studios (or a big tent in this case) or even the car reviews they each do individually. I still have some hope that could happen.

For what it's worth I find it amusing when Clarkson says "Celebrity Braincrash".

For me, bar episode 2, this has been vintage Top Gear. Really enjoyed it.

Would like more road trip films, but you can't have everything.

Final episode of the season was last week. Hammond learning how to drift was more interesting than it had any right to be. I guess I understand the importance of it if you're testing out tires, and it looks impressive enough (like what his instructor was doing, and the other contestants at the competition).

BBC America is doing another go at Top Gear America, hosted by the natural first choice, beloved actor William Fichtner

I suspect you're being sarcastic but Fichtner is awesome

Yes, but he's an incredibly, incredibly strange choice for this kind of hosting job and I really cannot begin to imagine how they ended up with him as their guy

Any choice, possibly outside of people who made their living in car racing, would seem strange. It also speaks to how special and unique Clarkson, Hammond and May were, and how integral that chemistry was to the show's success.

While the first two episodes of the new season had their moments, they felt fleeting under the obvious attempts at telegraphing their hosts' personas. They've also seemed to remove almost any trace of British-ness that Top Gear was steeped in, despite their base of operations taking place there now. TG could be chalk full of any sort of local references and slang that while going over my head admittedly, I found it funny nonetheless.

I think Top Gear may well be better than The Grand Tour now. I’ve always liked Matt LeBlanc and the hosts are starting to get more comfortable, both together and just in terms of being themselves. There’s more interesting films too and they are happy to keep the in studio sections down to a bare minimum. The Grand Tour feels full of filler in comparison and they should have taken the split as a chance to overhaul the format and either focus on specials/road trips entirely or get rid of the studio format at the very least.

That said, there’s room for both shows and hopefully both can get back to two series a year.

The two-part Columbia special that went up this week is maybe the best thing they've done so far since going to Amazon.

The latest episode of their adventure in China was quite impressive, and actually funny in spots. The bridges are staggering to look at in HD.

Seems they've finally understood that people just want more episodes dedicated to them travelling or pratting about and less studio stuff.

I'm quite enjoying TG with Joey too.

Amazon greenlit 6-part series of James May in Japan. Sold.