The Grand Tour on Amazon prime

So, May, Hammond and Clarkson's new programs name has been decided.
We've been toying with the idea to join up to Amazon prime for a while now. We're going to switch over from Lovefilm by post.

Until midnight on Monday, the annual subscription for Prime is reduced to £59 instead of £79.

Hopefully we'll get our monies worth from Primes' film store, and the trio's tomfoolery will be an added bonus.

I can't wait.....

I know it's yet another subscription, but some of the series on there are fantastic, especially some of the Amazon Prime originals.

Half price if you know someone with a school/uni/Further education email etc ... In fact may still be 6 months free and then half price..at least it was when I signed up

I can confirm this is correct having just done it myself

Six months free, then £39 a year after that.

same here roll on the grand tour

And of course if you buy something with Prime delivery and it doesn't show up on time and you complain, they bung am extra month on your subscription. It must be nearly 2 years since I paid for Prime....

Just watched episode 1. Don't want to spoil it for anyone so all I will say now is... Great opening segment and mostly enjoyable but IMO some bits didn't work very well.

Opening sequence was brilliant, but then? It just seemed stunted, with 16 minutes still left, I decided to do something else, I hope it gets better, as the format seemed jaded but the videography was great.

Also, James May and Clarkson, there seems to be a lack of warmth between them and I noticed a reviewer picked up on that too....

"May seems more out of sorts. Clarkson has repeatedly said during his round of interviews to promote the programme how much he hates his co-presenters. The assumption that this is a tongue-in-cheek comment, adding a dynamic to the sitcom feel the show has of three middle-aged male characters haplessly going about their business as car journalists. But the screen chemistry between him and May suggests there's a ring of truth about Clarkson's claim, which is not much fun to watch."

Good in parts, but does seem to pander to the Yank Audience too much. Parts were a bit like Neil Kinnock at the Sheffield convention!

All I can say is Meh! Not sure why there was such a wait for this.

Cars and film packages are - as they were before - excellent, but the studio guff is well ...er...guff. Even worst than TG.

On the whole good enough to keep watching but a little disappointed it wasn't a bit more special. I will reserve judgement until a few more episodes have aired though as it was always going to be tricky.

Lovely cars. La Ferrari sounds epic.
Clarky and May look quite a bit older than when in the last TG.
The picture quality was variable, as was the sound.
Overall, I'm glad they are back.
And it's not Bake Off. Win win.

I enjoyed it, they did 'the holy trinity' and the result was worth watching.

Like most 'new' shows I'm sure the few rough edges will smooth out after a few episodes.

Does that mean we can have a return to the 'Oh my god, Top Gear Three Blokes in a Car was on again last night, and it's dreadful, but you don't have to watch it?' threads?

Another stooshie in the making, ah well, makes a change from bake off

Well, if anyone has been following the rise of youtube vloggers over the past 1 year or so, you'll see that the GT is no longer that relevant! If you want to see the latest cars and kit, just go to youtube, various races and comparisons have been done months and months ago for the holy trinity. The GT is old news. In the old days, you would refer to TG to see what's happening and coming. No longer needed ......

Dinosaur...

Yes - based on what I've heard (and the clips I've seen) I have no compulsion to watch the GT.

Never watched, but it is what it is, simple...

I liked it, to me it was basically an above average episode of the "old" Top Gear.

I liked it, I'm easily pleased though, just like my dog who happily chases his tail for ten minutes and then I realised I just watched my dog chase its tail for ten minutes.

That made me laugh more than I'd care to admit.

On the whole I thought that it was good. My only negative would be that some sections went on for a bit longer than needed.

Looking forward to the next episode.

The hothouse Flowers sounded really good even after all these years! Shame the same cannot be said for the rest, which seemed to be a repeat of a new-TG episode at the same track! I feel TG and GT are about equal. Both have good photography, good cars, but questionable comedy. GT spent far too much time taking the mickey out of the BBC and the old TG - pointless and at the expense of actually doing anything new. It ended up being only half a show which went steadily downhill after the opening scene. My not-petrolhead wife had to be pursuaded to watch it through. She happily sat through and enjoyed the new TG! More hype than quality content but we already had Amazon Prime so it did not cost us anything extra. I hope it does get better!

Didn't like it myself. But then I bitch and moan about everything. I'll still watch the next one.

Interested in the views of ep2 on here. Elsewhere the comments are that it was bad. I've not watched

It wasn't their finest hour truth be known but still gave us some giggles.

The studio and actual car related stuff was fine but the army training thing in Jordan was very poor and took way too much of the overall running time. Beats me why that was even included in the episode from South Africa, even just driving around the countryside would have been more interesting.

It's was ok as nothing else was on, the Aston Martin part was enjoyable, the army scene just didn't really make any sense and I didn't see the purpose of it.

I won't hold my breath but I do hope it improves soon.

I enjoyed episode 1, taking it for what it is. The army scene in episode 2 was absolutely dire. Cringeworthy.

Agreed. More cars, less twaddle.

Poor at best,

Lets face it, we all wanted it to be good, but it ain't. Shame! Sometimes it's best just to move on!

Did get a few laughs but the military stuff, hmmmm. Still don't care much for 'The American'. The 'Celebrity Brain Crash' feature is already getting old.
I did like the nod to the chap who built a replica Sauber Mercedes C9. Bit more exposure of enthusiasts and their creations / ingenuity could be a good regular feature.

Agreed Barney that car was epic shame they didn't make more of it.

I find it hugely disappointing that they had all the time to develop something special and they end up with a TG clone which seems more stale than before.

It seems to me that Amazon have given the guys free reign to showcase all the stuff they are crap at. Their last TG shows were generally poor and it felt like they had run out of ideas and TGT seems to be reinforcing the view.

I certainly would not take up Amazon Prime simply because TGT was included. I'm not sure I will bother watching any more either and, as Amazon have increased the price of Prime in Germany, I'm now even less sure I will extend my membership.

To say old TG was generally poor seems a little harsh but I agree wholeheartedly they were running out of ideas.
I suspect waning originality has been compounded under Amazon by risk of BBC copyright infringement. Losing accesss to successful regular features is patently a major setback, but even the way Clarkson, Hammond and May speak to each other is intensely scrutinised. With commonly used phrases and established gags disallowed it's no wonder some of the on-screen chemistry appears to have faded. If earlier incarnations of Clarkson's Top Gear weren't great, it'll take time for the team to adapt and develop TGT, they really are starting again. Here's hoping anyway!

I didn't say old TG was poor, just the last shows

Previously they did a Peugeot and an ambulance sketch that were pathetic attempts at comedy. The same direction was seen in the Jordan training sketch. I fear they are exploring a type of comedy for which they appear to have little talent. For example, what is the point of pretending to invite an interesting guest and then showing them die? It just seems to say "we could do something interesting but we really can't be bothered". Is this really how you pin an audience to their seats?

I expect if they actually do grand tours through interesting countries, with exciting cars and wind back the slapstick, they will rebuild a foundation to work from. The stuff they appear to want to to just makes them look third-rate.

Couldn't agree more. I always got the feeling that lesser episodes in the twilight years of TG were just filler, budgets running low or maybe the interesting new cars had already been featured. Poor comedy is their attempt to compensate for lack of quality content. No doubt some ideas sound great on paper (while drinking) but don't translate well to the screen.
Probably optimistic but I hope the complete reboot, with legal obstacles, is at least some of the reason TGT underwhelms. Hopefully they'll figure out that crap gags aren't the only recourse to fill a 60 to 70 minute programme.

Meanwhile, "back in the studio" new TG is stuck with fresh presenters failing to deliver the old team's concept of a car show. They're the ones who need to start anew.

well, i beg to differ. Thought the first show was a bit naff but the second one gave me more smiles and even a couple of laugh out loud moments . I must be easily pleased !!

The Grand Tour tent is up on the shores of Loch Ness not that far away from me.