New Grand Tour

[Mystic]

So, the new iteration of The Grand Tour is out, with the hosts from Throttle House - Thomas and James - paired up with Tiktok train geek Francois Bourgeois filling in for the old trio of Clarkson, Hammond, and May.

I enjoyed Top Gear more than I enjoyed The Grand Tour, as it started to feel a little overproduced towards the end. What made Top Gear work was the illusion that three idiots were just given some cars, a crew, and an expense account, even though it was also highly produced. Later Grand Tour felt like three idiots executing a $5 million screenplay about three idiots being given cars and an expense account.

Anyway, I'm only 3 episodes in at this point, and I'll be watching the rest. The first episode was pretty meh, but it definitely got better in episodes 2 and 3. Episode 3 with the kei car human centipede school bus in particular was fricking hilarious.

I was ambivalent on Francois at first, but he definitely fills in a needed gap, and is growing on me. I think they made the right call with him. The show would fall a bit flat without a slightly weird/eccentric third presenter, and he falls into that role perfectly without feeling like he's just filling in for May.

Thoughts?

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[some_guy]

Yep, I'm into car shenanigans and the funny friendships/ relationships of the British TG/GT crew. The new TG guys aren't great together and I'm sure the GT crew will be just as unremarkable. At least that is me opinion

 

[HighDesertRanger]

What made Top Gear, and later the Grand Tour great is that they weren’t really car shows. They were just Clarkson, Hammond and May being Clarkson, Hammond and May. They just happened to have cars thrown in. Put those three in anything else and I’d still watch it. Same reason I watch Clarkson Farm. Those are big shoes for anyone to fill.

 

[skinnyjimmy]

A lot of people saying the new trio won't match Clarkson, Hammond, and May are comparing them to how CHM were at their peak. At their peak, they felt like three friends constantly ripping into each other where they knew each other for a decade. But look back at the first three seasons of Top Gear with CHM and those seasons were rough. Lots of awkward moments, and their chemistry took a while to develop. It's the same here. The chemistry between the new presenters is already pretty good, but give them 2-3 seasons and their chemistry will be very solid.

Final point. We don't want them to be a copy of CHM. That just feels disingenuous and that they're trying to copy the success. With these six episodes you can tell they aren't trying to be CHM. They are themselves: passionate car lovers doing stupid stuff mixed in with emotional car reviews and that is the whole point of the show.

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