That... was more like it. After the god awful tragedy that was Episode 2, my fears for the Grand Tour were bursting from their suppressed seams. A slow and steady uphill climb brought the show back to it's feet of the Old Top Gear aesthetic: that slightly crap, unsexy Dad vibe, where everything goes wrong with a sprinkle of cheesiness and a solid portion of untouchable British humour. That was what made the show, and it's big budget was set to elevate this trio to a pedestal above doing... well, simply dumb things to make us laugh. But here, in the Beach Buggy Boys I have found my redemption and above all, hope. It was gritty, things went horribly wrong, they laughed at each other a lot, little was scripted and I just got to sit back and watch three idiots do things I can only day dream about. My prayers have been answered. More of this my friends. More of this.
3 Reviews
C- sloppy work... need to shift gear to succeed as fantasy show
david-bullen14 July 2017
Warning: Spoilers
Too fake to be enjoyable.
After the end of day 1, Richard "hanging under a helicopter" was shot in such a way that he obviously wasn't, but worse, when he met up with the others, there was clearly a large city in the back ground, probably 20 minutes drive away. Given that they made quite a show of the fact that there was only one large city (the one they had left "two days" ago), this was all a terrible lie... leave the hotel, drive out to get the shot, then drive back.
Later when James is being "shaken to bits", he stops and lets air out of his tyres. The joke is that he is still "shaken to bits" but what spoils it is that the they reuse the same shots from before he lets the air out (same distinctive hill in the same position in the background).
And obviously Richard was not shot by a tranquilliser dart... not even a half-hearted attempt to pretend, just a badly edited sequence.
The previous Namibia episode was just as bad, lots of talk about uncharted territory when the lead beach buggy is clearly following tracks left by another vehicle... this happened more that once, more than twice... just lazy lazy editing or setup. And, the chance that they would actually get trapped between the tide and the dunes and drown did not seem even slightly realistic... the continuity of that scene was all over the place. And given the potentially fatal dune drop-offs, no one believes that they navigated by the stars, and went round in a circle, so why even pretend? Or if they are going to pretend, don't make it obvious that it is so potentially fatal that they obviously would not risk it.
Yes, they are getting too old to have real adventures or suffer real hardship... it is OK to pretend, but they need to do a better job of it. Jeremy is a clever non-fiction writer, but maybe not so good at fiction. Or maybe he is let down by the filming / editing / continuity. As it is it seems that they need to shift gear (so to speak) in order to successfully transition from being a quasi-documentary show to being a complete fantasy. (These aren't just Grand Tour problems... the death throes of Top Gear had the same problems, but now they are worse).
After the end of day 1, Richard "hanging under a helicopter" was shot in such a way that he obviously wasn't, but worse, when he met up with the others, there was clearly a large city in the back ground, probably 20 minutes drive away. Given that they made quite a show of the fact that there was only one large city (the one they had left "two days" ago), this was all a terrible lie... leave the hotel, drive out to get the shot, then drive back.
Later when James is being "shaken to bits", he stops and lets air out of his tyres. The joke is that he is still "shaken to bits" but what spoils it is that the they reuse the same shots from before he lets the air out (same distinctive hill in the same position in the background).
And obviously Richard was not shot by a tranquilliser dart... not even a half-hearted attempt to pretend, just a badly edited sequence.
The previous Namibia episode was just as bad, lots of talk about uncharted territory when the lead beach buggy is clearly following tracks left by another vehicle... this happened more that once, more than twice... just lazy lazy editing or setup. And, the chance that they would actually get trapped between the tide and the dunes and drown did not seem even slightly realistic... the continuity of that scene was all over the place. And given the potentially fatal dune drop-offs, no one believes that they navigated by the stars, and went round in a circle, so why even pretend? Or if they are going to pretend, don't make it obvious that it is so potentially fatal that they obviously would not risk it.
Yes, they are getting too old to have real adventures or suffer real hardship... it is OK to pretend, but they need to do a better job of it. Jeremy is a clever non-fiction writer, but maybe not so good at fiction. Or maybe he is let down by the filming / editing / continuity. As it is it seems that they need to shift gear (so to speak) in order to successfully transition from being a quasi-documentary show to being a complete fantasy. (These aren't just Grand Tour problems... the death throes of Top Gear had the same problems, but now they are worse).
Too old to do something for real
minunimion11 October 2020
All of them are too old to do something that might be real... only fiction, not funny at all.
What's now? No more a car show, so what? A comic show? I don't think so and if so, tell... this is a comic show, the cars are not important, then I won't watch this show anymore.
Now you see that it's just a mean to get money without respecting the audience, at least the car lovers.
I want to see the cars! I want to know strength and weaknesses of great, expensive, unbelievable cars that probably never in my life I will be able to buy.
Just that, nothing else, but races of course, everything about cars is welcome.
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