Donate to Remove ads

Got a credit card? use our Credit Card & Finance Calculators

Thanks to johnstevens77,Bhoddhisatva,scotia,Anonymous,Cornytiv34, for Donating to support the site

Grand Tour Namibia Special...well worth a watch

Passion, instruction, buying, care, maintenance and more, any form of vehicle discussion is welcome here
redsturgeon
Lemon Half
Posts: 8910
Joined: November 4th, 2016, 9:06 am
Has thanked: 1309 times
Been thanked: 3665 times

Grand Tour Namibia Special...well worth a watch

#19209

Postby redsturgeon » January 1st, 2017, 2:05 pm

I'm half way through and throughly enjoying spending a lazy, wet NYD afternoon on the sofa watching it.

John

NomoneyNohoney
Lemon Slice
Posts: 972
Joined: November 4th, 2016, 10:31 am
Has thanked: 336 times
Been thanked: 438 times

Re: Grand Tour Namibia Special...well worth a watch

#19215

Postby NomoneyNohoney » January 1st, 2017, 2:33 pm

You may find the program is split into two parts. The second part/episode is also good.

Clitheroekid
Lemon Quarter
Posts: 2856
Joined: November 6th, 2016, 9:58 pm
Has thanked: 1384 times
Been thanked: 3771 times

Re: Grand Tour Namibia Special...well worth a watch

#19310

Postby Clitheroekid » January 1st, 2017, 9:55 pm

Having now watched both parts I enjoyed it overall, but it was significantly too long. It could have been edited down to an hour with very little loss.

Although it was the most Top Gear like project to date, and all the better for the lack of the irritating features such as The American and the dead celebrity the basic idea seemed a bit stupid. The 3 `beach buggies' were of little intrinsic interest, and the task itself - driving 1,000 miles to the Angolan border - was completely pointless. For me it would have been more entertaining if the vehicles had been ones to which I could relate - say standard road vehicles costing no more than $2,000.

And although the scenery was dramatic I was getting bored after a while, as one bit of sand looked much the same as the next. This was the section that needed editing down the most.

I also couldn't stop myself wondering just how realistic were the hardships they were suffering, bearing in mind that they were obviously accompanied by a whole support crew. Did they really sleep under the vehicles, or was there a nice mobile home parked just out of shot? And did they actually drive the whole distance, or were the buggies piled on a trailer and then brought out at intervals to be filmed?

I'm aware that I might be accused of taking it too seriously, and what does it matter if the end result is entertaining, but I think it does matter. Rightly or wrongly I never really doubted that the projects they undertook in TG were basically authentic, whereas I had niggling doubts with this.

Neither could I accept that three intelligent blokes could behave so stupidly. Yes, I know it was for entertainment purposes, but at least in TG they reacted to silly challenges in ways that were at least superficially rational. The idea that they could, for example, be so dumb as to set off and then arrive back at the same place several hours later was just beyond credible, and I found these aspects of the show irritating and rather tedious.

And what was that rhino poaching sequence all about? Whilst it was good to flag up a serious subject I felt it was being trivialised, the content was only mildly amusing and again the basic idea of them going into the bush at night to track down poachers was just so stupid that it wasn't even funny. I just couldn't see the point of the sequence.

The best bits for me were, as with other episodes, the scenery and the photography, which were both superb, and the interaction between the three, though it's always seemed more scripted and less spontaneous than TG. And some of the humour - the `gear knob' for example - was just lame, and added to the feeling I've quite often had that the show is aimed more at American rednecks than the traditional English audience. I realise this is inevitable as it's a US show and has to take American tastes into account, but unfortunately it seems to me that it's the Americanisation of the show that has produced its worst aspects so far.

But with virtually no competition from other motoring programmes I'm enjoying it enough to stick with it, and in overall terms it does seem to be gradually improving.

NomoneyNohoney
Lemon Slice
Posts: 972
Joined: November 4th, 2016, 10:31 am
Has thanked: 336 times
Been thanked: 438 times

Re: Grand Tour Namibia Special...well worth a watch

#19419

Postby NomoneyNohoney » January 2nd, 2017, 12:37 pm

Clitheroekid wrote:... and the task itself - driving 1,000 miles to the Angolan border - was completely pointless.


With these guys, it's about the journey, not the destination.

PrincessB
Lemon Slice
Posts: 440
Joined: November 10th, 2016, 3:26 pm
Has thanked: 99 times
Been thanked: 175 times

Re: Grand Tour Namibia Special...well worth a watch

#19491

Postby PrincessB » January 2nd, 2017, 3:21 pm

But with virtually no competition from other motoring programmes I'm enjoying it enough to stick with it, and in overall terms it does seem to be gradually improving.


While a little off topic, I'm really enjoying Lucifer which is also on Amazon Prime. I'm enjoying Lucifer so much I've run through series one and am up to date with series two until the next episode comes out later this month. More topical is that Lucifer appears to be one of the shows that has 'worked' and they have extended the series to 22 episodes which can only mean they didn't just make a 13 episode series and then show it, they must be working on the next episodes now.

I've studied the Toyota method of building cars and 'just in time' manufacturing with components being delivered continually as the cars progress down the production line. I never ever expected the same principles to be used for TV shows but it appears to me they are.

I suspect (and this is a guess) that they filmed about 75% of TGT and as it aired they listened to feedback and are at this moment hard at work re-editing next weeks show using a combination of new stuff and pre filmed stuff - they also have an advantage the BBC never had as they can vary the length of each episode by a huge degree.

Where Clarkson, Hammond and May are in the world right now is not something that interests me, they might well be out in a warmer part of the world filming a later episode of the show right now and that might well explain the overly scripted nature that detracts so much.

I'm pretty sure the Amazon editing rooms are a bit busier than the ones at BBC were at this time of year.

B.

iain123
Posts: 32
Joined: January 5th, 2017, 1:08 pm
Has thanked: 8 times
Been thanked: 2 times

Re: Grand Tour Namibia Special...well worth a watch

#20339

Postby iain123 » January 5th, 2017, 1:44 pm

I found it a bit to long as well and tedious in places but as always, totally in awe of the filming quality and the landscapes. It’s a shame they’ve moved so far away from just background filming 3 guys interacting to such heavily scripted set pieces for what are 3 non actors. Where May plays the fool and the other two silly caricatures of themselves. I now watch it for the occasional moments of excellence and try an ignore some of the cringle worthy primary schoolboy ‘humor’. Was it last week they had the ‘p e n i s’ jumpers? Had they just quietly worn them it may have been mildly amusing when you noticed but they made such a big deal about putting them on you knew the ‘joke’ was coming(ho ha) to you spoon fed and dumbed down an already dumb, tired, limp (seriously?) joke.

redsturgeon
Lemon Half
Posts: 8910
Joined: November 4th, 2016, 9:06 am
Has thanked: 1309 times
Been thanked: 3665 times

Re: Grand Tour Namibia Special...well worth a watch

#20676

Postby redsturgeon » January 6th, 2017, 1:25 pm

An interesting critique of The Grand Tour, that I have to say has a lot of truth to it.

https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radi ... -to-offend

John

NomoneyNohoney
Lemon Slice
Posts: 972
Joined: November 4th, 2016, 10:31 am
Has thanked: 336 times
Been thanked: 438 times

Re: Grand Tour Namibia Special...well worth a watch

#20988

Postby NomoneyNohoney » January 7th, 2017, 6:41 pm

That critique is quite good, but I'm assuming it was written before this week's episode. Their using scripted and unconvincing swear words seemed way too contrived. Despite that, it's a simple bit of entertainment and undemanding, so I'll probably keep watching for that reason. Just hope that as the series progresses, the editors let them and their real characters show through, without Hammond always have to be playing the stooge.

DrFfybes
Lemon Quarter
Posts: 3731
Joined: November 6th, 2016, 10:25 pm
Has thanked: 1171 times
Been thanked: 1964 times

Re: Grand Tour Namibia Special...well worth a watch

#21281

Postby DrFfybes » January 8th, 2017, 5:56 pm

I only realised the other day, I'd watched the first 2 as I'd been sent a link, and than made no effort whatsoever to look for the rest, even though my sister has an Amazon Prime account and offered me a login to watch them.

That kind of sums it up for me.

Paul

Clitheroekid
Lemon Quarter
Posts: 2856
Joined: November 6th, 2016, 9:58 pm
Has thanked: 1384 times
Been thanked: 3771 times

Re: Grand Tour Namibia Special...well worth a watch

#21314

Postby Clitheroekid » January 8th, 2017, 7:22 pm

NomoneyNohoney wrote:That critique is quite good, but I'm assuming it was written before this week's episode.

I actually thought this week's episode was pretty enjoyable (though admittedly my critical faculties were possibly affected by the best part of a bottle of wine!)

The one thing I did notice, though, is how the best material now seems to be coming from James May. I really enjoyed his review of the new Honda NSX. He was genuinely enthusiastic about it, and for once it was just an honest report about a car, not overlaid by silly self-referential commentary.

I recently watched him on the BBC4 series, `The Reassembler’. Although the subject matter, reassembling a Kenwood Chef from the 70’s, sounds like watching paint dry it was actually very enjoyable simply because he comes across as a normal, if slightly eccentric, bloke, and has a real enthusiasm for engineering.

Sadly, after the good review of the NSX we had to suffer by far the worst aspect of GT, namely the indignity of a fine car being driven by that fat prat known as The American, which was just embarrassingly awful. Surely even the US audience must cringe when they watch this? It really must be scrapped ASAP.

I also thought JC's attempts to build a SUV were genuinely amusing (though again I'm sure the wine assisted) and some of the comments in the tent were also quite funny, particularly the bit about German motoring fines.

Unfortunately, the episode deteriorated at the end with Hammond's contribution. I'm beginning to find him increasingly irritating, and it’s as though he's the resident representative of the US redneck audience, always running the most stupid teenage shoot 'em up stories. The whole sequence about his survival vehicles was simply tedious, and became pointless after his second attempt was demolished by the RPG as it was quite clear that this weapon could very easily take out anything he could come up with on the third attempt.

I also felt sorry for the hen!

And Hammond's dyed hair just looks weird and gives him a rather ratty appearance. Unfortunately, he's now by a considerable margin the weakest of the three, and his interchange with the other two sounds far more forced. I get the impression that Clarkson and May as two grumpy old men quite like each other but that they both find Hammond a rather irritating little twerp.

But as before, sufficiently entertaining overall to keep me coming back.

Incidentally, when's the next series of TG due to screen? It'll be interesting to see how they've changed it.

bungeejumper
Lemon Half
Posts: 8063
Joined: November 8th, 2016, 2:30 pm
Has thanked: 2845 times
Been thanked: 3938 times

Re: Grand Tour Namibia Special...well worth a watch

#21316

Postby bungeejumper » January 8th, 2017, 7:30 pm

DrFfybes wrote:I only realised the other day, I'd watched the first 2 as I'd been sent a link, and than made no effort whatsoever to look for the rest, even though my sister has an Amazon Prime account and offered me a login to watch them.


I haven't got Amazon Prime and so I haven't seen any of the episodes. At first, I thought it would be like withdrawing from any addiction. But you know what? It doesn't actually hurt at all.

Now, maybe they've genuinely changed their tired old formula, and maybe they've just turboed it up with a mega-million budget. I wouldn't know, and I don't particularly care. The Beeb are currently re-running Jago Cooper's series on the Olmecs and the Incas, and I could watch that fifty times over and not get bored. Even though it doesn't have Richard Hammond's driveshafts falling to pieces and having to be welded up at the top of some sacred Bolivian mountain. Funny, that.

BJ

Clitheroekid
Lemon Quarter
Posts: 2856
Joined: November 6th, 2016, 9:58 pm
Has thanked: 1384 times
Been thanked: 3771 times

Re: Grand Tour Namibia Special...well worth a watch

#21331

Postby Clitheroekid » January 8th, 2017, 8:44 pm

bungeejumper wrote:[The Beeb are currently re-running Jago Cooper's series on the Olmecs and the Incas, and I could watch that fifty times over and not get bored.

Ah, but I count myself very fortunate in that I can enjoy both that programme and GT :D

iain123
Posts: 32
Joined: January 5th, 2017, 1:08 pm
Has thanked: 8 times
Been thanked: 2 times

Re: Grand Tour Namibia Special...well worth a watch

#21441

Postby iain123 » January 9th, 2017, 10:17 am

If your finding the last few TGT a bit tedious there is increasingly good quality competition coming from you tube. I think a lot of the newer honestjohn car reviews are getting pretty good and manage to give an enjoyable mix of decent car review along with humor just like top gear of 12 years back. Sure they need a little polishing but I reckon they're entertaining to watch. (the product reviews not so much so….)

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLI4XO ... oieiIUxKQw

Also like Harrys garage who’s interesting ex EVO magazine guy;

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIB5XX ... Ow6guIMYCg

And carwow who are just car reviews;

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCUhFaU ... TNX2VKVSVA

bungeejumper
Lemon Half
Posts: 8063
Joined: November 8th, 2016, 2:30 pm
Has thanked: 2845 times
Been thanked: 3938 times

Re: Grand Tour Namibia Special...well worth a watch

#21453

Postby bungeejumper » January 9th, 2017, 10:47 am

iain123 wrote:Also like Harrys garage who’s interesting ex EVO magazine guy;


That's a new site on me, thanks :D .

I just checked out his review of the 1971 Fiat 500 classic, one of which was my first car. It was spot on. No synchro, crash gearbox, full-time sunroof, and flat out at 65 mph, but it would keep that speed up all day. We drove all over southern Europe in ours, and the only time we had a problem was when a bloody great Mercedes drove into us. :(

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zlR41Z86gFM . Eat your heart out, Clarkson.

BJ

Clitheroekid
Lemon Quarter
Posts: 2856
Joined: November 6th, 2016, 9:58 pm
Has thanked: 1384 times
Been thanked: 3771 times

Re: Grand Tour Namibia Special...well worth a watch

#21551

Postby Clitheroekid » January 9th, 2017, 2:51 pm

bungeejumper wrote:I just checked out his review of the 1971 Fiat 500 classic, one of which was my first car.

That brought back some happy memories. My mum used to have a red one - MTC 567G - and when I was about 13 I learnt to drive in it on Black Rock Sands in Portmadoc, North Wales. It must have been the 500F, as I recall it had a bright red dashboard.

It was a great little car, though at that age I was, of course, embarrassed by its slowness. I recall seeing one road test where the 0-60 time was given as ∞ ! But it carried my mum and us two kids for thousands of miles, and we were all very fond of it.

The guy in the video made a good point, that because it was so underpowered you always drove it flat out, and it actually felt like you were going a lot faster than you actually were. With a modern car you hardly ever use its full power - in fact when driving a high performance car you seem to spend more time deliberately restraining the amount of power unleashed.

The only downside was that it had a sunroof, and my mum used to complain that when she was stopped next to a big truck at the traffic lights they would sometimes use it as a mobile ashtray!

Seeing him lifting up the rear of the car also reminded me of an incident in the pub when we were late teens / early 20's. A friend had a Fiat 126, the successor to the 500, and had one night stormed out of the pub after a row about something. We followed him out, and when he got into his car to drive off we lifted up the rear end just so the wheels were off the ground. He hadn't noticed, as it was dark, and we killed ourselves laughing as he let the clutch in, the wheels spun round but he stayed stationary.

We were laughing so much we dropped the car, and with a yelp from the tyres he jumped forward about 10 feet before it stalled, which was even more hilarious (well it was after quite a few pints of Thwaites best bitter!) :lol:

dionaeamuscipula
Lemon Quarter
Posts: 1095
Joined: November 4th, 2016, 1:25 pm
Has thanked: 101 times
Been thanked: 374 times

Re: Grand Tour Namibia Special...well worth a watch

#22983

Postby dionaeamuscipula » January 14th, 2017, 8:00 am

Clitheroekid wrote:

I'm aware that I might be accused of taking it too seriously, and what does it matter if the end result is entertaining, but I think it does matter. Rightly or wrongly I never really doubted that the projects they undertook in TG were basically authentic.


They got caught out once when a stunt went a bit wrong and hit the papers. Essentially they were all set ups, at least towards the end of old TG.

MrsDM lasted one episode of TGT. I will probably watch some more. DMJr loves it, but has never seen TG.

Clitheroekid
Lemon Quarter
Posts: 2856
Joined: November 6th, 2016, 9:58 pm
Has thanked: 1384 times
Been thanked: 3771 times

Re: Grand Tour Namibia Special...well worth a watch

#23137

Postby Clitheroekid » January 14th, 2017, 10:19 pm

Having just watched episode 10 there seems to be a pattern emerging. The first part of the show is, to my mind, the best, as it contains actual car tests. These are usually interesting and entertaining, as was the review of the Alfa – quite a beast - in this episode.

The sequences in the tent are very mixed. There are some good jokes, but I think JC is trying too hard at times to be a non-PC naughty boy, and it becomes a bit wearisome. Hammond has become increasingly irrelevant and irritating. I actually think JM is the best of the three, but he seems understandably bored and/or embarrassed at being expected to perform for the crowd. His heart clearly isn't in it, and it's hardly surprising as he's by no means what you’d call an extrovert (and all the better for that).

The American is just dire, and by far the worst part of the show. Whoever thought it was a good idea to let some fat, ignorant hillbilly loose on decent cars and expect an intelligent or even amusing commentary needs to be taken into the backwoods of Tennessee and abandoned to the mercies of the local woodsmen.

The second half now seems to be the section where the Grand Project is set up. Unfortunately, this idea, which generally worked quite amusingly in TG is beginning to look like an expensive fiasco.

The survival vehicle sequence last week was poor, and the attempt to create a reef in this episode was equally tedious. And it was so ironic that when they'd been jokily warned by Wilman earlier in the show that it was supposed to be a show about cars the reef project had only the most tenuous connection with things automotive.

I think the problem is that in TG they actually looked as though they were trying to achieve whatever task they had been set. Their attempts may well have often ended in failure, but they did display a lot of ingenuity and they behaved much as one would have expected them to.

But in GT that just doesn't apply. The scenes of them trying to load the car bodies on to the boat were just so utterly stupid that I found them annoying. They are three intelligent blokes, and they would all have realised that what they were attempting was utterly doomed, as did the viewers. It was therefore patently obvious that they were just acting out a script that required them to behave as though they shared a brain cell between them.

What the producers don't seem to have grasped is that there’s a very fine line between heroic failure and crass stupidity. One could (just) believe that when the projects on TG went wrong it was a result of heroic failure. But watching intelligent blokes behaving with gross stupidity and incompetence is more embarrassing than amusing, and that's what we've been watching in GT.

This was exactly the point I made about the Namibian project - expecting us to believe that they would end up in the same place they'd set off from 24 hours earlier was just showing contempt for the viewers' intelligence.

The producers seem to have forgotten that we all actually know these three so well through years of watching TG. We know they aren’t thick buffoons, and the whole willing suspension of disbelief completely breaks down when we’re expected to believe that they are.

It's a shame. There is some good material, and with the talent and money available there could and should have been a whole lot more. As it is, there’s still just about enough to keep me watching, but the Grand Projects aren’t working as they should and have achieved the fairly difficult feat of turning tales of the three musketeers into something that’s frankly rather boring.

staffordian
Lemon Quarter
Posts: 2298
Joined: November 4th, 2016, 4:20 pm
Has thanked: 1887 times
Been thanked: 869 times

Re: Grand Tour Namibia Special...well worth a watch

#23140

Postby staffordian » January 14th, 2017, 10:44 pm

I agree wholeheartedly with your summary of episode ten CK, and the format in general. I found the reef stuff so tedious I was winding through it, which isn't easy as you (or at least I) don't get any visual clue of progress when fast forwarding.

I'll continue to watch it, but with the remote handy for skipping the contrived rubbish.

Staffordian

redsturgeon
Lemon Half
Posts: 8910
Joined: November 4th, 2016, 9:06 am
Has thanked: 1309 times
Been thanked: 3665 times

Re: Grand Tour Namibia Special...well worth a watch

#23144

Postby redsturgeon » January 14th, 2017, 11:20 pm

Thank god "The Man in the High Castle" and "the Vikings" have made Amazon Prime worth having.!

John

PrincessB
Lemon Slice
Posts: 440
Joined: November 10th, 2016, 3:26 pm
Has thanked: 99 times
Been thanked: 175 times

Re: Grand Tour Namibia Special...well worth a watch

#23287

Postby PrincessB » January 15th, 2017, 4:00 pm

Well said CK, an excellent post.

The scenes of them trying to load the car bodies on to the boat were just so utterly stupid that I found them annoying.


Some time ago, I was chatting the font of all knowledge 'Namely the chap who looks after my motorbike' and discussion turned to American TV vs American Films.

His view was that much American TV is generally unwatchable as it is directed towards an American audience. American TV humour likes adults who behave like children or are in general more stupid than you could possibly imagine.

American films by comparison have to appeal to a global audience and are more refined as most people outside the states don't find a man who cannot walk in a straight line or complete very simple tasks without blowing something up or hurting themselves funny.

As I write this I'm reminded of the first couple of UK Mr Bean TV shows, quirky, bizarre but not stupid. They then made the film where Mr Bean goes to American and cannot wash his hands, destroys a famous painting, stuffs an entire turkey into a microwave oven with a resulting hilarious explosion and gurns a lot.

I'm not sure how the director of Bean the Movie got to be in charge of Grand Tour but it is quickly degenerating to that level.

This weeks episode was the weakest so far - On the plus side, there's a new episode of Lucifer in a few days.

Regards,

B.


Return to “Cars, Driving, Motorbikes or any Transport”

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 10 guests