f13.net

Anyone else watch this?

I assumed it would be pretty similar to TG but I thought they may change up some of the formatting or take a few chances with some content. Instead this is an exact carbon copy of TG except for the set and track.

That being said still pretty entertaining. I do wish they would do less scripted bits and have more of them just hanging out being natural jackasses with the cars. 

I have a sense that they will mix it up episode by episode based in their statements re next week's. Seems like they ditched the celebrity bits based on them killing the guests which I thought was  pretty funny. That was usually my least favorite part of the show.

They killed Charlize Theron in the second episode.

At least they didn't turn her into a USB stick.

enjoyed first episode, 2nd, well I never liked that type of episode in Top Gear (though the homemade ambulances one was good) so no surprise that them playing the role of Elite Soldiers was a snooze fest for me.  As mentioned above, less scripted, more tomfoolery

The second season has started and OMG was the first show a snooze fest.  They brought back celebrity racing on a track that is suspiciously like the new Top Gear track.

The primary story was slow and boring as well.  Quite a feat considering we all knew what happened at the end.  Plus all three of the guys looked very old and tired.  It may be the time to wrap the whole thing up.

How was the first season anyway ? Never got around to watch it.

It was decent with some excellent shows and some so-so shows.  Worth a watch.

They need to stop pretending that this is a serious car show and embrace the stupid.  TG/TGT is at it's best when it's CMH doing dumb shit in shitty cars.  Oddly, TG USA hit on this earlier, despite the hosts being less entertaining.

Season 3 starts January 18.

I didn't even know season 2 had come out.

I thought Season 2 was pretty solid although the finale travel episode (which are usually their best) was one of the weaker ones (and somewhat offensive in total, not just some random Jeremy comment) they have ever done IMO.

Amazon has picked up Season 4 of the show.  But in a new twist they will only be doing the epic adventures they are known for.  No more tent and I assume no more reviews of cars (which is a shame). 

I will not miss the celebrity racing as that was boring as hell.

I've finally caught up with Seasons 2 and 3 and compared to the heyday of TG it's still pretty meh most of the time. The travel episode of season 2 (we bring the foods to the Africans) was probably some of the most offensive and at the same time mindboggingly stupid shit I've ever seen even for Clarkson who's always been "old man yelling at cloud" sorts of stupid.

To be honest Clarkson's schtick feels more and more out of touch with reality and lamer each year. May and Hammond are far more connected to and interested in current developments in cars/motoring than him. Using Detroit as a big "playground"/racetrack (completely ignoring both the issues Detroit has and the steps people took to make things better) for example while driving over plants to make some sort of point about how Detroit should be all about cars and how less than 2 sq. m. of community farming grounds are basically the anti christ isn't even controversial or political. It's just ultra lame.

Hammond manages to piss me off the most though because everything - including his hair implants - about him screams "I don't want to be old", especially his weird jackets and the goatee. It also feels weidly out of place when he stands besides his two co-hosts and highlights everything he has gotten done even more.

I don't mind them getting rid of the celebrity segments because they are usually quite weak and I tend to skip over them most of the time.

Most insightful segment for me was probably the "what if we didn't skript our show" segment which at least shows you the sort of effort that goes into producing even just some car show on the internet.

They are still able to make great segments though. They've become rarer though

The historical segments are probably my favorite as the focus on euro racing is something I know very little about. The one about Jim Clark in season 3 was really good and the season 2 one on rally racing between the Lancia 037 and Audi Quattro was good too.

Both produced by Hammond. That's what I mean though.

Almost all history segments - even when they were still making Top Gear - have been produced and narrated by Richard Hammond. The one about Jim Clark was great, the one about Lancia vs. Audi was as well. (Also Walter Röhrl is a national treasure).
James May has a unique - albeit often quite quirky - perspective which leads to some great insights about cars and car tech. He's also the most technologically interested of the three. Most of the great tech or "look at this cheap yet awesome car" segments have been made by him. The segment about the Renault Alpine for example or his Fiat Panda 4x4 vs Audi A6 Quattro and another sports sedan segment on Top Gear. The 50 year anniversary of the Ford Transit - one of the best segments on Top Gear - was produced by May and Hammond. Including the 10 minute lap of a Transit around the Nürburgring by Sabine Schmitz.

Clarkson's contribution these days seems to be mostly 50's jokes about the gays and environmentalists, casual racism, yelling at clouds, making fun of Hammond for very nearly dieing twice and ruining perfectly good tires while powersliding all over the place. Also putting a quarter mile drag race into everything.

Which drives me mad because Clarkson is a bona fide great car reviewer and motor journalist he just seems like he can't be bothered to do that anymore. 

Jeremy gets emotional at end of last studio show (https://www.radiotimes.com/news/on-demand/2019-04-13/the-grand-tour-jeremy-clarkson-cries-during-final-episode-end-of-studio-tent-amazon-prime-video/)