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Anyone else here enjoy watching Hamster, Mr. Slowly/Captain Slow, and the Ape do hijinks in cars?

Season 3 of The Grand Tour has begun, and after watching the first episode, looks to be off to a swell start. Some crazy cars (including the McLaren Senna. . . but I won't spoil how things go with that), and beautiful on location shooting, as is now their norm.

No I don't enjoy watching Crash Test Dumarse, Captain Slowed, and Smug Colleague Abuser engaging in carefully staged "hijinks" that make Big Brother look like a patrician and thoughtful documentary by comparison.

In a sane world Clarkson would be unemployed, and maybe imprisoned.

I’ve not actually seen a single episode. Is it basically the same as top gear? As a car enthusiast I eventually got sick of watching top gear because it’s less about the cars and more about the personalities, personalities that get a bit obnoxious after a while. So when grand tour rolled around I didn’t really look in to it at all.

AllSeeingSkink wrote:
I’ve not actually seen a single episode. Is it basically the same as top gear? As a car enthusiast I eventually got sick of watching top gear because it’s less about the cars and more about the personalities, personalities that get a bit obnoxious after a while. So when grand tour rolled around I didn’t really look in to it at all.

It is similar, but different enough to satisfy legal teams (seriously, BBC informed them that if they copied anything that "belonged" to BBC, even if the guys were the creators of it, then the BBC would sue Amazon/Grand Tour over IP).

I'd say that the Grand Tour is more about the cars, but because of the internet you're able to see more of the genuine friendship the three of them have.

Top Gear of the late 00's was a wonderful exploration of three men children - including banter, abuse, comradeship, competition and piss taking. Nobody who watched it cared in the slightest about the cars, it was the interaction of the three that kept us coming back.

Then whoever produced Top Gear tried to condense that magic into something that could be scripted and mass produced, and Top Gear became crap. Then Clarkson behaved like the oafish bore that Clarkson is (which is fun when we think of Clarkson the character, less so when we know this isn't a character and the man really is this much of a chimp) and punched someone.

Then we have the Grand Tour. I cannot speak of how the program has evolved, but I managed to make it through two episodes of the first season - and it was two of the worst episodes of motoring television I've ever witnessed. It was terrible. It was completely lacking in the charm that made the golden years of Top Gear so wonderful.

Now while it could never be argued that there aren't enough programs on TV that explore the bonding rituals of middle aged white men, our viewing delights do seem to have suffered without the particular blend that Top Gear was once the best at.

But fear not, we have a substitute in modern day television. Want to see a program where grown men have fun, take the piss, exchange banter, go on adventures, meet celebrities, take on challenges? Doing it all with a loving camaraderie and friendship without the toxicity of an atavistic dimwit to host it?

Then watch A League of Their Own.

That's the long winded way of saying Grand Tour may work for some, but the rest of us have moved on.

 Henry wrote:

Then we have the Grand Tour. I cannot speak of how the program has evolved, but I managed to make it through two episodes of the first season - and it was two of the worst episodes of motoring television I've ever witnessed. It was terrible. It was completely lacking in the charm that made the golden years of Top Gear so wonderful.

Yes, the first 2 episodes of the first season weren't great. . . but I'd say give it another shot, I may even be inclined to argue that you may want/need to skip season 1, and jump straight into season 2-3, as I think it is hitting its stride. The boys are more free to have their banter, piss taking and other nonsense, and have figured out at this point what they can and cannot do, and not get sued by BBC.

Just in time for them to stop!

Always loved Top Gear, despite not being a petrol head or having much interest in cars. Still need to give this a go at some point, wanted to hop on back then, but sadly we didn't get access to the show until later.

I felt like the season 3 opener was a bit ‘tame’, but none the less I enjoyed it, because there was some pretty good shots and banter.

I enjoy it for what it is - 3 guys doing daft things which happens to involve cars (or vehicles of some kind) and occasional they zoom around in a sports car talking about how great it is.

I enjoyed the second season most of all, first season they had a fe running gags that were a bit flat and a few elements that needed polishing; but by and large its been good fun!


I enjoyed this first episode - it did feel a touch tame, but overall felt like good old solid Top Gear of old. Settled and comfortable without having to force things.



The only thing I think that they should start doing is letting their new (well I say new she's been with them 2 seasons now) race car driver get a little more air and talking time. Much like how the Stig got a fair bit in the TG days. I say that only because as time goes on I think they need to start introducing a 4th person to the series. Not so much to push one of the others out, but to step up and step into their own place when one of the core 3 moves on. Clarkson and May are getting older each year and both are likely to retire at some point. It would be far better for the show to steadily advance a 4th person into the series so that there's a natural smooth transition and that the new person can be their own character. I'd rather that than the mess of TG currently where they tried to replace the actors with people trying to emulate them. We don't need a new "Clarkson" you just need someone to slip into that 3rd slot.


Of course they might be planning on sticking at it for another 10 years so we might not see this until much later. But still I'd rather like to see their test driver get a bit more air time. Original TG the Stig was the "4th" person many times.

Yeah season 1 tried out a few new ideas which didn't really work out. Season 2 had some real gems in it though!

Enjoyed the latest episode, nothing too scripted and they all looked like they were having a blast racing through Boston.

I imagine that once the trio retire then Amazon will just stop producing the series rather than trying to replace them. The next season won't even feature Abbie Eaton I imagine as they are ditching the tent and just going to produce the special episodes (by far my favourite ones) where they just spend the whole time in a different country.

I wouldn't be opposed to seeing a new cast take over provided they find some good people. I was a little underwhelmed by the rebooted top gear although I did really like Matt LeBlanc in it,

I never watched the normal Top Gear episodes, but their specials, like the one where they drive across India and built a bridge to Burma, were really good.

James May's "Toy stories" was an epic show.
The Hamster doing his "Idiots doing dumb stuff explained by physics" (the science of stupid)" was cool for the first season.

Clarkson? Nob. End of.
Top Gear was never about cars. It was about 3 blokes who like to bang on about cars and stuff. Well, 2 blokes and a tit.

James May’s “Cars Of The People” is one of my all time favourite series ever.

The travel-show parts of TG/GT are why we usually watch either show. Specials, foreign trips, etc.
Grand Tour had a few ideas where to take it, and most flopped. They might do a few again in season 3, but I've only seen S3/ep1 so far.

 chromedog wrote:
James May's "Toy stories" was an epic show.

Fun facts. I've cycled the path they built the toy train on on many occasions. In fact, I vaguely recall annoyance at not being able to because of the filming.

The model (flying, not the giant kit) plane episode was filmed about 20 minutes away from where the train one was, I quite often meet up with friends there because their little girl loves the arcade, and I spent a week's residential trip on Lundy Island where it landed when at school.

I have never met, or even seen, James May. He might be CGI.