Is It Just Me, Or Was The Grand Tour A Bit Boring?
After wrapping up at the LA Auto Show today, I went straight back to my hotel room, whipped out my laptop and headed straight for Amazon Prime. Yep, there was no way I was going to wait to watch the Grand Tour - wherever I was, I was going to get stuck into Clarkson, Hammond and May’s hugely anticipated car show.
However, from the drawn out, rather self-congratulatory and apparently very expensive opening scene onwards, it just didn’t excite me all that much.
Perhaps the problem was the Holy Trinity test that made up much of the episode. Sure, in the final days of Clarkson-era Top Gear we were all desperate to see the LaFerrari, McLaren P1 and Porsche 918 Spyder have a massive showdown, but that was rather a long time ago. And anyway, Chris Harris did that same test with the same cars and on the same track over a year ago, and I’d argue he did a better, more entertaining job of it.
Elsewhere, the celebrity segment trod a fine line between being amusing and downright stupid, and ‘The American’ was thoroughly unfunny. Suddenly I get why the Stig never utters a word…
There was plenty to like, though. The cinematography is stunning, for a kick off. It was cool seeing ‘our’ BMW M2 longtermer get damn good thrashing in the road test which apparently wasn’t a road test even though it was kind of a road test around the new, brilliantly gnarly ‘Eboladrome’ track too. But overall it just didn’t quite live up to the massive hype.
It’s far too soon to judge, of course: we have a 12 episode run to enjoy in this series alone, and perhaps after a few installments the trio will settle into their new environment a little better. As it stands, everything just feels a tad forced.
What did you think of the episode?
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 just realized that I think I might be the only one here that’s never watched Top Gear.
How is that even possible
At times the new GT felt like the old TG. And that was a good and a bad thing because over the past year we kept hearing from them they were going to make something different, new… not like TG. The opening scene for me, was simply pure magic. It captured the end of BBC life and the dawn of the new one. Also, who wouldnt want to show up to a meet with 2 mates and 20+ other random cars to a concert in the middle of a desert? Lets trust they know what they are doing and used the built up hype to get rid of all the boring stuff like an old hyper car test, the track, and new gitS. Still, it will be fun to watch this new GT and new TG. And when was the last time petrol heads have so many choices in quality car shows?
Uhm, it was always going to be? This was Top Gear as we left it with a huge budget, and honestly that wasn’t that good. C’mon. Admit it.
I loved it anyway
I agree that it wasn’t the most exciting show ever but it was very entertaining and I think they tried too hard due to it being the first show. The ‘holy trinity’ film although good was too long but hopefully the films in upcoming episodes will be shorter. All in all I love it and think it is far superior to the new top gear.
As Trump would say: “You are wrong!”
just give them a chance, it’s the first episode….even doe i didnt see it.
We gotta give them a chance, it’s only their first episode
To me it was just like the old top gear, with a different intro, location, and track. Im sure the track will change depending on where they are. Just wait until they do their usual challenges.
I think the bit where they were comparing MPGs and pointed out Porche is owned by VW was the funniest part.
The tent parts were a little flat, and idk whats going on with those little animations…
If the celebs get killed in a different way each episode then it could be a running gag like the stig intros in old Top Gear. Im not sure what they were going for though.
All in all, it wasnt bad. Way better than the first episode of new TG. It can only get better from here… i hope