The Grand Review

(Incase you are yet to see the Grand Tour, there are spoilers in the review, so come back when you have watched it!)

ONE WEEK TO GO

The hype for the new ‘Grand Tour’ programme has hit a bit of a low recently for me, with it being something that I almost forget about before being kindly reminded with a subtle hint on Amazon’s website or after a quick browse on Facebook. It does seem like ages since the days of good Top Gear. Or BC as I call it. Before Chris (Evans). In fact, it has been a whole 20 months since that punch with a producer which spiralled Top Gear on the slippery slopes down to the bottom of the ratings. 20 whole months. Since then Britain has left the EU, Trump has been voted in charge of America, Top Gear has gained 6 new presenters and lost a few of those, I’ve started Uni and this Blog was formed. It’s been a long wait, but it has been made ever more exciting by the short trailers.We started with the search for the name of the programme and finally we are reaching the final finished show trailers. Each one of which is actually revealing more and more of the show. I doubt this will happen but I hope they aren’t just showing all of the best bits in the trailers. But if this is anything like Top Gear, I know there will be plenty more comedic moments to look forward to.

Quickly looking back at the latest trailers, I am so glad that they are sticking with the whole Top Gear theme for everything but the name. The same comedic timing is apparent and it seems that, although it is classed as a motoring show, it is more entertainment and everything is done or said for laughs. I expect that they won’t need any laughter clips to cover for any painfully difficult jokes. I expect there will be a story behind the cars they drive to give them a personality which we will all remember. (I could quite easily remember each car that the trio have driven in their Road Trips and also each modification done to them, but for new Top Gear… err… I can’t name many of them at all. There was no story or character, the producers focused on famous faces that presented the show. In a side note, that was also a mistake, because Clarkson, Hammond and May were unknown on the big screen before they got the jobs on the BBC.)

One of my favourite moments of the build up is the excruciating painful interview with Hammond and May on The One Show. No mention of the words ‘Top’ and ‘Gear’ together, a constant aggressiveness towards the Grand Tour and its presenters, and a distinct lack of a big baboon made the programme laughably terrible. The two kept it strong though and were good sports in the face of passive aggressiveness. But don’t expect to see either of them on the BBC again anytime soon.

With less than a week to go, I am thoroughly looking forward to the first episode. 20 months of waiting are finally reaching its conclusion.

ONE DAY TO GO

Well, it’s just a few hours to go now actually. The countdown has been reducing whilst the amount of info we are given has risen. The daily 16 second long videos have finally concluded and the hype is real for the new show. I won’t be watching it instantly as it comes out but instead, I will wait until early evening to sit back and relax with the show.

Will they keep their catchphrases or cleverly bend and twist them through the loopholes of the law? What will be different and what will stay the same? Just what even will they do every episode? There’s not long to find out now.

Note: I always thought it would be funny if they reincarnated the Stig as the ‘Stug’ or something similar, and I just remembered that they have already been seen doing this. I should’ve copyrighted it. Or they should at least give me some credit.

FRIDAY 18TH NOVEMBER 2016

This was my reaction as I woke up from my sleep this morning and remembered the importance of the day…

(Only I wasn’t driving a Toyota GT86 unfortunately, I was stuck in a bed in Coventry)

I’ve not watched it as soon as the release, but it is now time. A big drumroll please, as the show is about to commence.

THE REVIEW

First impressions are, that was brilliant. Basically, everything that we loved about the good old days of Top Gear has been brought back in a witty and exciting way. The whole show had its ups and downs, as I will talk through, but on a whole, it was well worth the wait and it is a great start to improve upon.

Even though it has been almost 2 years since we saw the three on our screens, the segue between Top Gear and The Grand Tour was effortless. It quickly shows Clarkson leaving the ‘BBC’ for the last time and heading to America, where soon after, his three friends join him. The is the in-between ground that I hadn’t realised was needed between old and new, but it was worth it and it set the show up brilliantly. Budgets are clearly improved too, with the whole starting scene covering a vast distance and getting captured at a better, more cinema-like quality. I have to say, the stage scene was one of my least favourite sections, but the dialogue stick made me laugh. Because the three have been working together for so long, the chemistry between them is perfect and needs no work. They were relatively unknown before the show, but as they have bonded and improved, nothing can outdo their ability and friendship.

The car reviews are refreshingly back to being brilliant and appeal to everyone, whether they are a car enthusiast or not

 

The car based segments worked brilliantly too. All of them are automotive journalists and manage to appeal to a wide audience. Complex technical specifications are kept to a minimum, and yet there is still enough information being conveyed to interest a proper enthusiast. This is still much more of an entertainment show like previously, and that is definitely a big selling point. The segments are something I wish to remember and I expect I probably will. They have the ability to be watched and repeated without losing any of the charms which I wasn’t getting from the new Top Gear.

At points, however, the programme did go strange. ‘Conversation Street’ was laughably bad, with the presenters knowing it, and the new celebrity section which was more just an introduction, also happened to be a bit sketchy. It was bad, but funny. Everything was so acted but there was something there which I still found funny.

I wonder just how much they paid Carol Vorderman to lie on the floor for 5 seconds though?

Another painfully awful scene was the one about the RAF, but that was so bad I feel it definitely needs glossing over. Please don’t go down the audience anticipation route, because it didn’t go well for others.

Are the trio secretly trying to promote a programme for ITV with this?…

 

I was pleased to see a brand new track though. As of yet, it obviously doesn’t hold as much charm as the original test track, but the witty names are back.None of that ‘Watersplash (Yay!)’ rubbish here, instead we have the ‘Eboladrome’ and ‘Isn’t Straight’. I feel I need to see the track more to learn to love it, but that is just like playing a new track on a racing game. It takes a while to know it and enjoy it. There were also no off-road sections too, it was just a twisty and rough tarmac track.

I like that The Grand Tour is kept for entertainment purposes because that means that the BBC can produce a more factual show so that they don’t have to directly compete. Some people would like the BBC for that, others wouldn’t, but it is best to leave Amazon alone and not fight for viewing figures because, at the end of the day, people are watching this for the trio.

Overall for the show, it was definitely a success. We have 11 more weeks of new episodes to go as well, which means that this will be continuing well into the new year. The main introductions are over too, which I know all frustrated some people, so the episodes should run smoother. All I can hope is that they produce more of the same, high-quality content, but they leave out some of the amateur pantomime style audience inclusion sections. And as for the celebrity section, I would be happy without that being included, but we just have to wait until next week to see what this looks like.

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Credits 

Jeremy Clarkson in a GT86 GIF – http://imgur.com/efeMgs8

The Grand Tour trailer logo – http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/how-to/internet/how-watch-grand-tour-online-when-is-grand-tour-on-3641335/

Rest of images used, including title, are screengrabs from Amazon’s The Grand Tour programme.