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| Image courtesy of www.telegraph.co.uk |
This at the time was just after the first season of revamped Top Gear had ended, and was months before the first season of The Grand Tour began, and I wrote about what Top Gear could improve upon and looking forward to what The Grand Tour had to offer. Well fast forward to now, the first season of The Grand Tour has ended and the next season of Top Gear is around the corner, so it's a role reversal.
First off, I will be critiquing The Grand Tour, because there are some things that I didn't like and I hope are rid of for this November's next season. Let's start with a few things I do like though, because there were plenty.
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| Image courtesy of www.theverge.com |
So for me, I loved The Grand Tour for the most part. The concept of going all around the world and having a mobile studio with a different view every week, that's something that makes this show more international than Top Gear and all inclusive, and more cultured dare I say? Maybe? I think for a show named The Grand Tour, a normally basic idea like having a different base location and going around the world, it's a stroke of genius.
When talking about The Grand Tour initially, I said I wanted to see more of those road trips (Or 'Grand Tours') more frequently with the higher performance vehicles, and we saw some. Episode 3 where Clarkson had an Aston Martin DB11, Hammond had a Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat and May had a Rolls-Royce Dawn and they went to Italy.
That episode was one of my favourites, even with Hammond's obnoxious ways. Old Top Gear with those three going somewhere such as Italy with a Lamborghini Aventador LP700-4, a McLaren MP4-12C and a Noble M600, or through America with a Ferrari 458 Italia, Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG and Porsche 911 GT3 RS. I thought we would see more of those with The Grand Tour but we didn't, because as unpopular as this opinion is, I don't like those cheap car challenges that old Top Gear had.
So with the heavily international format that The Grand Tour has, I do wish we could just see more exotic cars going to exotic places because like I said in my original article, we live out our pipe dreams through these three plebs. That's what I am hoping for really, because these motoring YouTube accounts don't surge in popularity because of buying three cheap cars and falling over, they become popular by allowing access to high performance vehicles that we losers could only dream of owning. Why do you think so many video games have all these types of cars?
Next thing, I do like the touch of the test track, though I despise its nickname 'Eboladrome'. It's an amazing track, but what I don't like is Mike Skinner, AKA 'The American', the driver tasked with lapping all of the cars. He's dreadful! I'd much rather they completely remove the in-car scenes and just have him lap the cars and that's it, he has no comedy and no charisma at all.
I get why Amazon wanted an American, but why did they pick someone so uninteresting and with no charisma at all? I'd be more than okay with it if we just didn't see him and all he was is a guinea pig who served no other purpose than to lap the track and set lap times, but the second we join him in the cockpit, it's so un-joyous and there's nothing that feels fluid in what he's saying.
Next up, the bollocks that was Celebrity Braincrash. It was a funny thing at first, with Jeremy Renner, Armie Hammer and even Carol Vorderman all 'dying' and as much as I love the idea of it all going wrong to some degree, it became stale. I touched upon this in my original article, the celebrity thing on the facelifted Top Gear was a bit shit, asking what their first car was, best car and then going to their laps where Chris Evans would ask the audience to go 'WEYYY' when the rallycross Mini splashed through the puddles or got some air time.
The old TG format was unpopular though because it was just a chat show but with their competitive lap, I know a lot of my friends weren't interested. I for one will never get over the fact that Superman actor Henry Cavill was scheduled to appear on the final episode of the season that didn't happen because obviously, what happened with Clarkson.
I for one would like to see a proper celebrity segment, and I feel like I have an idea of what could be done. We never obviously find out what this braincrash machine does and frankly, I don't want to, so instead I'd like to see celebrities brought on every episode and there is a gaming wheel set up with Assetto Corsa for PC, with the mod installed to race around The Grand Tour test track.
So in short, more high performance vehicles grand touring around the world, less of that dull arse American and a much better celebrity segment. But before I move on to Top Gear, there is another thing I want to bring up, and it's about the presenters. May and Clarkson are contracted for the next three seasons along with Hammond, and apparently May and Clarkson are planning to do two more after the next two on their current contract before stopping. The thing is, they can't go on forever and I want to see The Grand Tour continue thriving even after the current three presenters stop, I for one would love Jenson Button to become a presenter, he's got the same kind of humour and charisma as all of these three. Feel free to let me know who you'd like to see as presenters.
Anyway, now onto Top Gear.
So with the heavily international format that The Grand Tour has, I do wish we could just see more exotic cars going to exotic places because like I said in my original article, we live out our pipe dreams through these three plebs. That's what I am hoping for really, because these motoring YouTube accounts don't surge in popularity because of buying three cheap cars and falling over, they become popular by allowing access to high performance vehicles that we losers could only dream of owning. Why do you think so many video games have all these types of cars?
Next thing, I do like the touch of the test track, though I despise its nickname 'Eboladrome'. It's an amazing track, but what I don't like is Mike Skinner, AKA 'The American', the driver tasked with lapping all of the cars. He's dreadful! I'd much rather they completely remove the in-car scenes and just have him lap the cars and that's it, he has no comedy and no charisma at all.
I get why Amazon wanted an American, but why did they pick someone so uninteresting and with no charisma at all? I'd be more than okay with it if we just didn't see him and all he was is a guinea pig who served no other purpose than to lap the track and set lap times, but the second we join him in the cockpit, it's so un-joyous and there's nothing that feels fluid in what he's saying.
Next up, the bollocks that was Celebrity Braincrash. It was a funny thing at first, with Jeremy Renner, Armie Hammer and even Carol Vorderman all 'dying' and as much as I love the idea of it all going wrong to some degree, it became stale. I touched upon this in my original article, the celebrity thing on the facelifted Top Gear was a bit shit, asking what their first car was, best car and then going to their laps where Chris Evans would ask the audience to go 'WEYYY' when the rallycross Mini splashed through the puddles or got some air time.
The old TG format was unpopular though because it was just a chat show but with their competitive lap, I know a lot of my friends weren't interested. I for one will never get over the fact that Superman actor Henry Cavill was scheduled to appear on the final episode of the season that didn't happen because obviously, what happened with Clarkson.
I for one would like to see a proper celebrity segment, and I feel like I have an idea of what could be done. We never obviously find out what this braincrash machine does and frankly, I don't want to, so instead I'd like to see celebrities brought on every episode and there is a gaming wheel set up with Assetto Corsa for PC, with the mod installed to race around The Grand Tour test track.
So in short, more high performance vehicles grand touring around the world, less of that dull arse American and a much better celebrity segment. But before I move on to Top Gear, there is another thing I want to bring up, and it's about the presenters. May and Clarkson are contracted for the next three seasons along with Hammond, and apparently May and Clarkson are planning to do two more after the next two on their current contract before stopping. The thing is, they can't go on forever and I want to see The Grand Tour continue thriving even after the current three presenters stop, I for one would love Jenson Button to become a presenter, he's got the same kind of humour and charisma as all of these three. Feel free to let me know who you'd like to see as presenters.
Anyway, now onto Top Gear.
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| Image courtesy of www.digitalspy.co.uk |
The last season of Top Gear wasn't brilliant but it looks like they have listened to the few people who are actually showing some kind of support to them, like me! I gave the BBC the benefit of the doubt when I said in my original post, "I think Matt LeBlanc, Chris Harris and Rory Reid are brilliant, more of them!" and we are indeed getting them. Those three are becoming the main presenters, with Sabine Schmidt and Eddie Jordan coming on occasionally, and Chris Evans no longer in the picture.
It would seem that Top Gear is heading towards its inevitable demise since apparently, their beloved test track is now going to be torn up in favour of real estate, and this season could be its last since the vast majority of fans are flocking over to Amazon Prime to watch the old trio.
There isn't a lot that can be said, and I am personally looking forward to this new season of Top Gear. It airs on March 5th, and apparently James McAvoy is a guest on the show and Chris Harris is thrashing around in a Ferrari FXX-K. Hopefully a lot of you out there give this season a chance, last one wasn't that good but they seem to be learning from it.
Anyway that'll be all from me. If you have enjoyed reading this article and would like to stick around to see more, you can follow by email by putting yours in a box up in the top right if you're on desktop. Or you can stalk me on Twitter @TheLucaFormat.
Hope to see you all soon, so until we meet again.
Luca.
It would seem that Top Gear is heading towards its inevitable demise since apparently, their beloved test track is now going to be torn up in favour of real estate, and this season could be its last since the vast majority of fans are flocking over to Amazon Prime to watch the old trio.
There isn't a lot that can be said, and I am personally looking forward to this new season of Top Gear. It airs on March 5th, and apparently James McAvoy is a guest on the show and Chris Harris is thrashing around in a Ferrari FXX-K. Hopefully a lot of you out there give this season a chance, last one wasn't that good but they seem to be learning from it.
Anyway that'll be all from me. If you have enjoyed reading this article and would like to stick around to see more, you can follow by email by putting yours in a box up in the top right if you're on desktop. Or you can stalk me on Twitter @TheLucaFormat.
Hope to see you all soon, so until we meet again.
Luca.
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