Grand Tour Episode 2 Mixed Utter Ridiculousness With Flashes Of Brilliance
Most of you will be aware that I wasn’t a huge fan of The Grand Tour’s debut episode. I seemed to be very much in the minority with my more negative review of the hypercar infused installment, and I reckon the only way I could have pissed off the petrolhead community any more is if I’d have set an R32 Skyline GT-R on fire. And put the flames out with my own urine.
So, one week on, I was very keen to get stuck into the second episode of Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May’s Top Gear follow-up, to see how it measured up. And as much as I don’t want a virtual mob brandishing virtual pitchforks at my door again, I have to report that I wasn’t 100 per cent sold on this effort either.
There was certainly a lot to like. The Aston Martin Vulcan film was utterly stunning, and the decision to take it around the tight, twisty and bumpy ‘Ebola Drome’ rather than a full size track was a brave one.
Yes, I very much enjoyed watching Chris Harris take a Vulcan around Yas Marina circuit on Top Gear earlier this year, but the Grand Tour Vulcan film gave me a much better idea of just how much effort it takes to drive the damn thing. Clarkson’s always been good at relating what a car’s like to drive, and this was Jezza at his very best.
It was also great to see James heading out and sampling some local car culture. It was like a throwback to the sort of segment that might have been on Top Gear many, many years ago, and I sincerely hope they continue this feature in each of the show’s stops. Although I’m not sure they’ll have found quite so much in the way of tyres smoking antics in Whitby…
So, those were the good bits, but what about the not so good? The big military exercise feature that the episode hinged around is the most important point to touch on. It had its amusing points and some epic sequences (I’m thinking the Audi S8 car chase), and I must admit there was a perverse pleasure to be had in seeing the boys form the world’s worst special forces team. But it frequently descended into farce, and had the feel of a bad action film spoof.
Elsewhere, the already tired celebrity death joke made an unwelcome appearance, and “The American” continued to be deeply unfunny. Which is a shame, as that balls to the wall Vulcan lap looked amazing.
Am I being overly harsh? Perhaps, but we all know the brilliance this trio and the people behind the scenes were capable of on TG, so I’ve no doubt the very best GT has to offer is yet to come.
What did you think of episode 2?
Growing up on a diet of World Rally Championship highlights and lengthy Gran Turismo 2 sessions, a life in cars was as good as inevitable for Matt.
Comments
I had a brush with death when Jeremy’s pants fell off. I literally was almost falling out of my chair.
I rather enjoyed everything about this episode. Yes, they are clearly doing scripted work, but uh, Top Gear was also pretty scripted. The difference now is they’re taking it over the top, and I think there’s an argument there for whether or not they’re going too far. At least in their former lives, even the obviously scripted segments still had just a bit of realism to make you wonder whether or not they’re actually being serious. I’m still unsure how I feel about that, but I’ll say this much—people who wanted something a bit different than what they did on TG, here it is. They’re definitely taking a bigger step into the comedic world. The question we need to ask ourselves now is whether or not they’re as good at comedy as they are at cocking about and talking cars. Again, so far, I’m unsure on that.
The American is growing on me, and I think that’s because he is without question the anti-Stig. Stig was silent and cool — the American is noisy and very un-cool. And as much as I hate to admit it, the quip about his NASCAR race truck having as much horsepower as the Vulcan but room in the back to haul a deer—that was SPOT ON for the typical V8 good-ol-boy ‘Murican. I laughed my behind off when he said that because I could hear some of my friends saying the exact same thing. And it’s true BTW — the trucks that race in NASCAR’s Camping World Truck Series can run 800 ponies. My only hope with The American is that they give him at least some redeeming qualities, because I can see him being real annoying after awhile. For me he’s borderline annoying now, and I suspect I’m in the vast minority on that opinion.
It will take a bit of time to fine-tune the new formula. Until them, I’m just enjoying this for what it is — neat car stuff with some crazy comedy from the holy trinity.
Give it some time and it will be better.
I find the American growing on me. I’m revealing my age as a fellow American as well, because Mike Skinner is a very talented driver. One of the NASCAR truck series best ever in my obscure unimportant opinion.
Audi s6*
Yay aston martin vulcan
Yeah ‘the American’ is doing nothing for me…. His attempt at humour and sarcasm is somewhat lacking, the rest of the episode wasn’t too bad though. It felt less forced than the first episode
I’d have to agree. They are at their best when you can see the natural chemistry coming through like it used to on all their various challenges. This is all very fake a staged and bad acting. I think they have too much money and don’t know what to do with it. I just want to watch them taking some battered old 4x4 and trying to get over a mountain or any other cheap car challenge. I guess it’s back to watching RE-runs on Dave for me
I was so a huge fan of old TG that I saw every episode about a thousand times. The great thing for me about GT is that they backed a little from the motorist bits they had to assume on the Beeb and now have fun about whatever they like. And at the moment I have fun watching that! I just hope they will find something to do with the American and Celebrity Brain Crash other than what they are now.
they really do need to cut out the bits with the american talking, and really it should be easy enough to go back and cut him out