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
Everyone is entitled to their opinion!
….. Your’s is wrong; but you’re entitled to it none the less.
this article doesnt deserve to be here
did anyone consider that it was “boring” because of all the restrictions the BBC imposed on GT?
All the things we liked and made Top Gear the Show we loved have been banned from use on GT so the guys have to invent and find new segments and that takes Time.
AFAIK GT can’t do a “News” Section or “Celebrity in a reasonably priced Car” or a “Lap Time Board”.
hahahahaahhaahahahhahaa…..its not boring…its just you who feel boring…
Please bring the cheap car challenge again
“the three best motoring journalists on the planet” … posts comment … closes browser
I loved it, great show - of cause not perfect - when you wait “so much time” for it. But all in all I liked it. Also the preview for the season showed awesome moments - I hope the next episodes are even more like the top gear specials like Burma/Africa and the other ones
I agree Chris Harris did a far better job - and published exactly 1 year earlier. Problem with this episode was their hands were tied; they had to do the 3 hypercars no matter what. And it was never going to be done the way CHOC did it.
Plus the first round was always going to be a bit awkward - but i challenge anyone to watch the first episode of Top Gear and say they preferred it.
‘The American’ was awful.
The celebrity bit was awful, after Armie they should have moved on.
The opening was brilliant.
The jokes were good.
The cars were fantastic.
The track was.. good but surprising.
The main film was (if you don’t compare it to CHOC) really very good indeed. And you shouldn’t compare the two really, because they’re very different.
In short, the important bits, apart from the American driver, were spot on. A 6.5/10 from me!
I quiet liked it. But yeah maybe they hyped it up a bit to much for what we saw in the first episode, but I’m sure that future episodes will reach our expectations
Well I just finished watching it. No doubt it was way better than the first episode of the new Top Gear. Would I say boring? Well for a person that’s not easily amused maybe, but not for me. For a first episode I’d say they did good. I don’t even want the 1 hour of my life back