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It's a real shame they didn't or couldn't go with this. It was from some live show they did in between leaving Top Gear and starting GT. Watch the whole thing, or skip ahead to 0:45 for the funny.

https://www.youtube.com/v/rvt_4Uii5AU[/youtube]

I've been watching it in hopes it gets better. But not much is changing. It's good for a chuckle at times. Not very informative about cars. And they spend far too much time doing some extra stupid shit that doesn't make any sense. I don't terribly understand why the show travels to different places to be hosted from and then does their driving and other excursion type stuff somewhere on the other side of the planet. It just doesn't correlate well.

Hans wrote:And they spend far too much time doing some extra stupid shit that doesn't make any sense.

Agreed. I was hoping they might change that with the Maserati bit. James was all relaxed, and I was sure he was going to do something sneaky and go to a British embassy or something. That'd be considered "English soil". But....no.

Hans wrote: don't terribly understand why the show travels to different places to be hosted from and then does their driving and other excursion type stuff somewhere on the other side of the planet.

I get it. The logistics and cost of hosting the tent segment AND doing some kind of big feature film in that area would be horrendous. Still, I'd like to see them do at least a little more local content.

Like when they sent James to the drifting thing. Making it something he hated was stupid. But the core idea wasn't bad.

The final episode (13) of the series was one of the best of the year I think.

Season 2 - December 8th

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v_NRSoVncJQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jahD1bkVqNI

The Tent will no longer be traveling. They set it up on some guy's property, about 15 minutes from Clarkson's house.

They said they did it because the schedule was grueling, and the hosts are old. It was said in a joking way (as usual) but it's not wrong either.

They weren't really engaging the local crowds much, but I'm still going to miss that aspect of the show.

Supposedly they did is also because of sickness and injuries. Clarkson got pneumonia really bad and Hammond fucked up his leg in that bad crash.

They also are said to have listened to what the people wanted and did more of the traveling/adventure style episodes than ever before.

Will have to see if they bring back the American.

The guy can drive, but they either need to change his character, or just mute his damn microphone.

I got 4 episodes in got bored and never turned it back on.

That's about as far as I got as well. Sorry, but there just isn't enough substance there to make it work for me.

We stayed with it, but it was more miss than hit for us. I think this next season is going to make or break the show for a lot of people. It's good for us, but bad for them, that Top Gear was able to recover so quickly. Hopefully the GT producers learned the same lessons and took them to heart.

[quote=""Jeff V.""]We stayed with it, but it was more miss than hit for us. I think this next season is going to make or break the show for a lot of people. It's good for us, but bad for them, that Top Gear was able to recover so quickly. Hopefully the GT producers learned the same lessons and took them to heart.[/quote]

Ya. We liked maybe 1/2 of season 1. We will give them a shot with season 2 to see if they made the right changes. If not, then it will just be another show of the thousands out there we don't watch.

Yeah for me they took a lot of what I wasn't too fond of with them on Top Gear and made an entire show about that. When I really enjoyed Top Gear it was mostly an informative car show with some antics/comedy thrown in. During that time even the travel specials were also informational. At some point it became an antics/comedy show built around cars.

Chris wrote: At some point it became an antics/comedy show built around cars.

That was my complaint near the end of their Top Gear run too. They had become caricatures of themselves.

No "American" for season 2:

http://www.grandtournation.com/5809/ame ... rand-tour/

Perhaps if they just let Skinner be himself, things would have been better?

This. Regardless of whether it was Skinner or anyone else. Find someone who can drive, and talk. Someone like Tanner Foust, or even the OG Stig Ben Collins. Hell, even Sabine. Let them be themselves. Not a caricature, not an exaggerated stereotype.

Good. The whole idea of that character sucked.

Tanner would be a good choice. He's articulate and a monster of a driver.

I don't think it was just a matter of lack of character development - more of a "this shit gets old" kind of thing. Really the entire show has little going for it now, and I don't see the benefit of making more episodes unless they really change the format into something more interesting. And I don't mean "add more silliness."

Had they given some background on "The American" as to why he's a good driver, why they have him on the show at all, etc. it may have helped - but the bottom line is that it was a one-dimensional character with very little redeeming quality.