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Waiting to watch it with the family tonight, we're all quite excited - which considering our ages/demographic, shows the wide appeal of the show.
Just finished the very first episode.
For me, very entertaining. Like the old Top Gear on steroids (ie even more money). But then again I am one of those who really liked the old Top Gear, which many found annoying.
Anyone else watched it yet? Any thoughts?
Alex
Waiting to watch it with the family tonight, we're all quite excited - which considering our ages/demographic, shows the wide appeal of the show.
I am so looking forward to watching it as I love those three together and I know I will love it.
Not for me. It's like the Grand Tours of old, where rich, spoiled folks waste lots of money enjoying themselves! Nothing changes!
:(
Will let you guys know tomorrow. I'm still buffering....
TBH the brashness of Clarkson would make the show good for me.
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Really looking forward to it also and one of the reasons I joined Prime last weekend (and to watch the Man in The High Castle etc).
Cheers
Neil
Just watched it , loved it. Those 3 really have a great chemistry. Yes some things need to evolve as I don't think they worked but it's a thumbs up for me.
'Against stupidity, the gods themselves struggle in vain' - Schiller.
Everything had been plugging this for November the 18th, but I clicked on the link last night and was surprised to find it available.
As someone who gave up on Top Gear many years ago, and was fed up of the format and presenters, I actually enjoyed it. Believe me, I wasn't expecting to.
Loved the way it was filmed, and I think the idea of the tour really works. Some of the show will even get another viewing. Well done Amazon
Loved it. I was in tears when the special guests arrived (I wont spoil that for those who haven't watched!). With a £4.5M budget per show... it needed to be good! Cinematography was top class as ever - cgi insights into the insides of those hyper cars was brilliant.
Can't wait.
I agree with some previous comments that it had become stagnant on the BBC, but those three have a chemistry that you just can't make up.
The Tours were the best part of TG for me, so I'm super excited.
Enjoyed it - great to have them back. Love 'em or hate 'em they make good telly.
Mark C
I think that's a realisation they came to themselves: that the most enjoyable bit, the one we were all looking forward to (and rightly so, as it was consistently top notch) was the Tour of the Week, as it was always there that their chemistry came into play and made it something more than a stagnant car showOriginally Posted by demonloop
Alex
Is that the new format for all the new Grand Tours?
No more studio or stig or guests?
Cheers
Harry
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The format of Top Gear belongs the BBC so the Amazon show has to be different, as different as a 3 man, car based show can be.
they aren't allowed to use the previous format - studio/stig/star in a car. So they came up with a better(?) alternative. If they succeed with this series the BBC may be quietly kicking themselves for 'doing the right thing' but then maybe it all needed to be shaken up anyway.
I watched the first half of this before work today.
I have to admit that Clarkson/May/Hammond do this kind of thing well (still not convinced I like the "thing" though).
They've definite thrown a lot of money at it though - great opening montage.
Looks great in UHD HDR as well!
The opening is on YT and is simply stunning and a kick against the shinbone of the BBC. Well played.
Menno
GRRR... I would be buffering for a week to watch UHD. I hate my broadband or the lack of it zzz.
On a good note, I'm downloading the episode using my work wifi :D Will watch it at home tonight with my wife and 1Y/O and 3Y/O daughters.
The man's gotta do what the man's gotta do....
Wasn't bad for a first attempt, a few bits that misfired a little, but you can see why, as they have to avoid any copying, which would be difficult. Overall you can see it had money thrown at it to make it as good as they could, and it showed in some of the segments. It was good to see that Clarkson has calmed down a bit and learnt from his mistakes in the way he leads the show and how they structured it over a season.
Weird how they said the new track wasn't an airfield, when it clearly looks like they're doing it at Wroughton Airfield?
That opening montage is rumoured to have cost £2.5m. It better had be impressive at that price!
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TBH I was a little unsure whether I'd have enough bandwidth - I get 35/40meg, which doesn't leave much room when they state at least 25 for UHD. There's also the issue that the router isn't near the TV.
It's been a pleasant surprise that I've been able to watch both Netflix "Dolbyvision" and Amazon UHD HDR without more than the odd glitch. I suspect I'm pretty close to minimum spec though. (For some reason I can't get the higher 76meg service, even though I theoretically should).
http://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-38024595...cheesy smiles are not a set up to a joke, but a precursor to them taking to the stage in the manner of rock stars on tour. A huge crowd of cheering fans has amassed at their feet. There is no irony. It feels uncomfortably hubristic."
Oozes vinegar... You decide.
Menno
Looking forward to it, depending.. I'm out with mates tonight and all of us Excite!!
Fas est ab hoste doceri
Wow I can just imagine how awesome slow mo shots would look in 4K....
H
If you give people nothingness, they can ponder what can be achieved from that nothingness.
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Had started to give up a bit on TG but really enjoyed this and realised how much I had missed the three of them. Good fun and will have to be fresh so all good. And as others have said you can see where the money has gone!
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I enjoyed it. I like the change in format even though the core elements remain very similar to Top Gear but that's hardly surprising. Good luck to them.
Deffo a little bitter.
So good to see them cocking about again
If May hates Clarkson why on earth would he join the show?
Great to see them all back together, and looking good in 4K UHD. Same old top gear just how I like it.
Liked it a lot. Looks fab in 4K and that opening sequence was lovely :)
Slightly cheesy in places, but every show has to find it's feet.
Excellent. Can't wait for the next :)
I enjoyed it, but I'm a bit baffled by those who say the old format was stale and this was better.
For me, it was just old Top Gear again...
M
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Breitling Cosmonaute 809 - What's not to like?
Tbh it was just the Top Gear that they did with more money thrown at it. I don't think you can really get away from that fact given it has the three of them acting the same way around cars. The stars bit was very dull as was the RAF banter. Other than that the rest of it was good and it was filmed superbly.
I rather enjoyed it, and as others have said the three of them certainly have great chemistry and parts of the show were very amusing. But for me it was just Top Gear remixed, and no matter how gorgeously filmed there's only so many 'brightly coloured shiny car goes round a corner in slo-mo' shots I can watch before my attention span wanes. More than anything it shines a bright spotlight on just how poor the BBC Chris Evans Top Gear series was. Whisper it but I prefer to watch Wheeler Dealers, at least that's a show about cars, not just 3 blokes dribbling over ludicrously expensive cars which barely anyone can afford!
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But we can have both! I have the last 48 episodes of WD on my Sky box that I can choose from when I fancy some peaceful car viewing. WD can cock things up but the last one where they did an original Bronco was pretty good.
Going slightly off topic here, I really want to watch this but don't have broadband at home at the moment. Can I get a fire stick, pop it onto my PC and then tether my phone to the PC and watch it using the hotspot allowance on my phone?
Disappointed to be honest. I thought the format of this was to be more like the old top gear road trip specials, which i loved. It was just the old top gear studio format to me. Felt just like an old top gear episode to me, and not even one of the better ones, just 'meh'. The 3 way hybrid hyper car test was ok, but the result was ruined by Clarksons bet, which we know from news reports a while back, he lost. Disappointing.
Brighty
If you have Amazon prime you can download it on your phones
'Against stupidity, the gods themselves struggle in vain' - Schiller.
Enjoyed most of it. The start was amazing. Some silly bits with the celebs and RAF etc. The budget must have been huge. Loved the cars and the filmography and the graphics as they went into the innards. Overall, glad to see them back and will be watching next week.
Perfectly watchable, no new ideas apart from the tent moving around the world, filmography was excellent (as good as the BBC's) and the pacing was a bit patchy - too long on the hypercars, overall content a bit thin.
I'll certainly watch it, but I don't think they'll ever reach the heights of the North Pole expedition or the Toybota again.
I'll be happy to be proved wrong though.
PS - I did think the opening was overly smug though, the reason he didn't have his contract renewed by the BBC is because he behaved like a spoilt abysmal celeb.
So clever my foot fell off.
Exactly. I've got no time for Will Gompertz (and not just the absobloodyridiculous haircut).
I think they pretty much had to make reference to the whole "fracas"/contract thing, and the way they handled it was in the usual TG "irreverent" manner (that you may or may not find annoying - I find it a bit much, but it's their thing).
I think at this point I prefer to think of it a regrettable case of "Clarkson" the TV personality spilling over into Clarkson the person. I'd like to think he's not really too much of a knob, and it's mainly an exaggerated on-screen persona. Most social groups seem to have someone who likes to play the opinionated oaf, but (usually) we know them to be decent at heart.
Hey. You could just use the Amazon Video website on your PC to watch it while at tethering. No need for fire stick. Fire stick is for Non-smart Tv.
H
If you give people nothingness, they can ponder what can be achieved from that nothingness.
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I'm going to go against the popular opinion here and admit that I wasn't particularly fond of the first half of the show. It was just too 'Hollywood-y'. Top Gear was just better because it wasn't influenced by the americans. It was a breath of fresh air among all of the explosions filled crap coming out of the USA. The jokes they were trying to crack were poor at best and on some of the segments it felt like they were trying too hard.
The second half was way better, if a little predictable at the end. Overall it was watchable and I'll keep watching it, but it just goes to show that just because you throw more money at something it doesn't necessarily make it better.
SWMBO reminded my last night that we have Amazon Prime (I keep getting confused between this and Netflix etc)
Looking forward to watching this over the weekend - the ads look great.
I have noticed that at the relaunch of Top Gear people went out of their way to focus on the negative, whereas with the Grand Tour it's the opposite, i doubt the Grand Tour will fail, as stated it was alright for a first show but they did waste a bit of money and time on things that just weren't needed or didn't quite work, the only concern is that unlike Top Gear, this season has all been filmed, so how do they fix what's broken until next year?
The different focus is perfectly understandable as TG was JC, RH & JM. So whoever took their place were usurping in the mind of spectators. Whereas the public expected to have the GT as a "proper" TG and whatever reminded them of what they used to watch was seen as a return to the good old days.
'Against stupidity, the gods themselves struggle in vain' - Schiller.
Watched it yesterday and thought it was great, but as mentioned before the silly guest section that wasn't and the RAF parts were poor.
Looking forward to the rest of the series.
Great to see the 3 of them back having the best time ever.
I enjoyed it. Not perfect, but that fully understandable. Looking forward to what may come.
I just hope they keep to 12 (or more!) episodes per season. I got fed up with TG's move to six-episode series.
They did pander to the Americans even stating "fired" instead of sacked in the script. At one point I expected Clarkson to say "aloominum". I say this because he's always been vocal of how the Americans mispronounce words. I thought May was extremely relaxed, though and even looked happy. Hammond was his usual awful, fake brown nosing self doing the shouty thing he does. I can see this getting a ton of viewings to begin with and then viewers leaving once the curiosity has been satisfied.
It badly missed The Stig, too. He's a great character in his own right and it's great for someone to drive without babbling on about any old tripe.
Last edited by Tony-GB; 19th November 2016 at 13:33.
I'll give it a meh.
The segments with the guests arriving and the RAF were just silly and cringe worthy. And they could have cut minutes of the track racing and put in more about the cars.
But I'm just a grumpy old man.
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