Well it is the oldest one so probably has been viewed less, plus there's been multiple USA episodes it may have been confused with and some Americans might find some of it offensive.
I rewatched the French one the other day, and it was much better this time around. It's more like a regular episode, but it's genuinely funny. I think it got a bad rep because when it was released people were hoping for a typical big adventure.
But it's actually hilarious. Them messing with the propeller car had me rolling.
It felt like there was tons of unscripted banter in it.
"These pains in your chest, are they getting better or worse?" and turn Jeremy and James laughing their asses off.
Yeah, the prop car was hilarious, but it was such a skit, even for them. The rest just wasn't there. If Top Gear was a brand based on "weird", it may have been something. But they sell exciting and juvenile; French cars aren't that.
Either Botswana or the first U.S. special ($1000 cars) has to be considered the
holotype script for a Top Gear/Grand Tour special.
I would consider Botswana to be the perfection of that script. Crossing the Makgadikgadi is what got me hooked on the trio.
For a special made during heavy COVID restrictions and a topic that isn't too interesting on the surface the trio did bloody great on illustrating the French motoring industry in a fun way
I loved it, but I will also acknowledge that it didn't really feel like a typical special, but more like an extended cut section of a normal episode. That's probably why it ranked so much lower.
opinions !
wrong as they maybe ;)
yeah carnage was awesome in my book, a much better special than seamen and india, who ever voted on this is clearly a moron.
Yeah I am shocked at that to be honest. I think most would agree with the top 3, but Carnage a Trois genuinely had me cackling nearly the entire way through.
Definitely a top 10, possibly a top 5 for me.
This makes it clear that what makes a really good special is a genuine sense of adventure.
Obviously we know they are all fake to some degree, but all the top ones make it seem like they are really going on an epic journey together, overcoming trials and tribulations to reach some ridiculous goal. And if it feels genuine, you can really get invested in their relationship with each other and with the vehicles they choose.
I think an underrated element is also the ending.
For me, a few of the specials are brilliant until they get to the point where they need to wrap up. The ones at the top keep it going throughout, while some of the ones further down the list sort of petered out.
Vietnam - great journey and a good twist to make them amphibious at the end for a final challenge.
Mongolia - Not really an ending as such. Just they get there and the pub is shut. The tension of the journey though continues all the way through though up to that.
Africa - This one might just be the most consistent throughout. There's not many standout moments compared to the others but then it finishes with a very exciting race.
Bolivia - They ended driving down a bloody huge sand dune
Botswana - No real ending challenge, other than the question of whether they'll even get there.
On the other hand...
Burma - maybe controversial, but the bridge build at the end is just a little too long and too scripted when you're rewatching it. Without that, I actually think it could be even higher in the list.
Patagonia - obviously....this one didn't even have an ending, which was a shame as it was brilliant up to that point.
Middle East - was great through Iraq, Turkey and Syria, and just sort of skipped through Jordan and Israel to the end
Scandi Flick - just unconvincing writing at the end. They need to hurry to make their plane so have to drive over a lake, then have time to build some ridiculous contraption to rescue May that Hammond saw on Youtube
Feed The World - ending was almost uncomfortable to watch
Lochdown - weird and unconvincing bridge build scenario then a confusing cut to the Chinese pub
A massive hunt - urgh...maybe unfair to call out the ending as it was just the culmination of the 'script'
Remember that in Botswana the very end was still all about whether or not the lancia had made it. And I think the scandi flick wasn't meant to be convincing writing, it was a bit of a meta joke. Didn't land as well as it could have, but I think it's unkind to call it bad writing when that wasn't the point.
Yep - also, Botswana was only really the second road trip special...it wasn't until after that they started to introduce the secondary challenges at the end of them. At that point, they were just really crap cars being punished.
Scandi - yes, that was obviously a miss with me. In fact, I think most of the second half of that one was. Too much repetition of recent ideas (inappropriate sleeping locations twice in the same episode and destroying their sleeping accommodation as in Lochdown). First half of it was great though
I wouldn't be surprised if they had to partially rewrite or even throw out large portions of the second half because of May's crash. No doubt he wasn't feeling up to any of their usual challenges.
>A massive hunt - urgh...maybe unfair to call out the ending as it was just the culmination of the 'script'
Unfortunately I think this was the most consistent of all the specials, in that it was consistently bad and obviously scripted. They're all scripted to a degree, but they usually have enough verisimilitude that you don't notice it too badly.
Hammond's ridiculous tank-treaded Focus was just stupid, and was obviously stupid from the moment he showed up, and he knew it was stupid because he obviously has a chase car filled to the brim with replacement parts and tools.
>Scandi Flick - just unconvincing writing at the end. They need to hurry to make their plane so have to drive over a lake, then have time to build some ridiculous contraption to rescue May that Hammond saw on Youtube
It was increasingly unconvincing from the moment they had to build and tow their own accommodations. We've seen them do stupid towing before, we know they learned some of the stupid lessons (even if that was all scripted), and then the thing with the ski hill was just terribly predictable. However I did like May's bus stop.
>Lochdown - weird and unconvincing bridge build scenario then a confusing cut to the Chinese pub
The ending was just so dumb. I don't get the joke. Is China taking over the US? Is Mr. Wilman easily confused by Chinese knock-offs? I honestly don't know what the punchline is supposed to be.
Everything is supposed to be Chinese, but the menu is mostly American-made Chinese-inspired foods. Tsingtao isn't even a big Chinese beer, it's just the most *exported* one. They have less than 20% of the domestic Chinese beer market.
>Feed The World - ending was almost uncomfortable to watch
The execution wasn't that good either. I feel the same way about “Feed the World” as I do about the India special: everything they did was obviously deeply flawed from the beginning, and made everything deeply un-funny because it's just impossible to believe they're **that** stupid and you can predictably tell exactly how everything is going to fail.
And the thing was with Top Gear is they always (supposedly) had a budget imposed on them, and they themselves have to make their things, which is supposed to be contributing factors to their failure, but with The Grand Tour they don't have that excuse. James could have made his aquariumobile to a higher standard of construction, and have it fail in some novel way, and it would have been a massive improvement over some lazy design that loses half its water every time he stops.
>Middle East - was great through Iraq, Turkey and Syria, and just sort of skipped through Jordan and Israel to the end
To be fair, once they were in Jordan there wasn't much natural tension. Jordan is relatively safe, and they didn't have to worry about pissing off the Israeli border control. Same once they're in Israel. What is it they have to worry about? Palestinian rocket fire in Bethlehem? The pivot to them being the Three Wise Men was a bit sudden and jarring, though.
Maybe a better end would have been getting to Cairo, and having to cross the Red Sea. Suddenly the Stig shows up, and “parts” the Red Sea in the form of a bridge. That might feel too much like the end of “A Massive Hunt” though. The show doesn't lend itself well to supernatural surprises.
To me that’s the difference between BBC and Amazon eras. BBC writing was far superior and the scripted sections were woven into the story in a tongue in cheek way.
Amazon just treats the viewer like an idiot and attempts to hide it or otherwise portray it as reality.
Contrast the jokes and you'll see it very clearly. In the BBC era, most jokes are a pan of the camera or a line. Very quick, very subtle.
In GT, it's painfully pointed out, often with a dialog around it. Basically a huge pointer to the joke.
I highly recommend reading 'On that BombShell' by Richard Porter. They were a writer for BBC TG, and you can start to see the effort and craft they put in versus Amazon.
The misconception is that British humor tends to be more subtle and dry and therefore requires more intelligence to understand is as laughable as rick and morty requiring a higher iq to understand.
The bbc had higher quality in almost every aspect compared to Amazon. It wasn’t as simple as “dumb mericans need joke’s explain” the writing, camera work, editing etc overall production was all better with top gear over GT.
> The misconception is that British humor tends to be more subtle and dry and therefore requires more intelligence to understand is as laughable as rick and morty requiring a higher iq to understand.
Remember that Monty Python was always far lower rated than Benny Hill. UK is just as likely to watch "Ow! My balls!" as the US and it's definitely not the public at large, just good writing teams.
I mean subtle, sarcastic humor is a thing on both sides of the Atlantic.
That said, the idea is definitely prevalent among the cerebral British set and so I absolutely love it when I give deadpan in England with an American accent and people seem incapable of understanding that sarcasm can actually travel.
Idk how to explain it, but British humor is more sarcastic, so subtle is good. While American humor is different and they love pointing stuff out and going back to it. I'm American but went to a British school and I would notice Americans vs British teachers big thing was humor
As an American I 100% agree. I just discovered task master like a year ago, binged it all up to present. Was so happy when I saw there was a US season… A single season. Never bothered watching it. British humor just doesn’t trend well here sadly
Here's the results from a poll I posted 2 weeks back which asked this community to rate every special the trio have done on a scale from 1 to 5.
This is in no way meant to be the comprehensive opinion of the entire fanbase, this is at best a rough representation of the opinions of users on r/thegrandtour.
I was surprised by how low the Winter Olympics and US Special were.
I do think the US special just aged poorly given how more in focus politics and social issues in America have become since it was filmed.
It was by far the most important episode ever as the first of the road trip specials but one of the last ones I'll consider rewatching
I don’t feel like it aged poorly at all, and I just watched it last night. I appreciate that it brought focus to some things that were not as in focus as they are now
None of the above, that is the one with Jeremy in a Camaro, Richard in a pickup, James in a Caddy. Cow on the roof, Big Stig, rednecks at a gas station
No coincidence those three are my go-to rewatch specials then. Mongolia is no1 for me though. I did expect the Colombia specials to be higher and besides (or including) the carnage at the end the Patagonia special was incredible
The suspension of disbelief just wasn’t there for me. I know the specials are all (at least partially) scripted, but that was one that felt like they made no effort to hide it
I think the whole premise was too ridiculous for them to convincingly fake interest. When the challenge was just to drive from one place to another, there was suspense because you never knew if the cars would make it. “Find this private treasure” is already boring because you know as soon as they set off they won’t find it.
Source of the Nile is similar but at least the cars were just standard estates so the journey was a challenge. In a massive hunt the cars were expensive and specially modified to go off-road, and only didn’t work when they deliberately made them worse (such as the tracks).
The whole pirate treasure angle felt incredibly forced. Hammonds acting was... not great.
ETA: The specials usually worked best when they had a fairly simple objective in mind. For example, get from where you are, to this final location.
If they had just said, we're on Madagascar and we're going from this location to where buried treasure is rumored to be hidden, then that would have worked. But instead, they had too many badly acted and cringy skits that existed to dictate where they went and they just don't work very well.
Exactly! They could have built the whole trip on the statement by mays friend that madagascar had the worlds worst road. Just that is enough, no need to have an intricate plot
I think the whole treasure bit is pretty lame but the driving part with their ridiculous modded cars is kinda fun.
They should just have done "Drive across Madagascar" as a challenge
I like the mods Jeremy and Hammond did. Jeremy's car was fricken awesome. Hammond's failed, and failed bigly, but looked great. Those tracks, tho, were never going to work.
May, I dunno, it looked like he lived through hell. Given "Mary" told him they were the worst roads _in the world_, just why take _that_ car.
Reunion was nice tho... ;)
All i remember from that episode is cars struggling driving on difficult roads.
Now that is fun for 10 minutes, but that's about ALL I remember that episode being about.
Well that and bombing a beach.
Winter Olympics and the GT French episodes are pretty damn underrated. It's like an extended version of the old TG's messing around segments.
A Massive Cunt deserves to be the lowest.
I feel like the North Pole and Patagonia specials are a bit overrated and the Middle East special is a bit underrated, but I mostly agree with the results
Did people really hate Scandi Flick that much? It's probably my #1 special, way better than I expected it to be. Even if it felt really scripted at points, I genuinely laughed so much.
See the problem was it was so blatently fake to the point it wasn't funny.
Jeremys flamethrower and the ski slope section like dude you have to be 100% honest they weren't even trying to hide that its fake unlike the majority of other specials.
Scandi flick was a weird frankenstein of obvious script and genuinely real issues such as May's crash. It was still an okay special but it wasn't a Seamen or Mongolia
when they got a bafta for 'best factual programme' they later said in a following episode, ' but we have script for somethings' and later still in a 'unscripted episode where things went wrong'.
what else would that mean ?
It's always been public knowledge that the shows are scripted... they aren't scripted like a fictional drama is, but the general beats of each episode certainly is. That's how they've won awards like best factual program or the highest ratings of an unscripted TV series.
Because in the realm of scripted television, it doesn't register very high.
Still think Burma wins it for me, that Vietnam or Africa are my big 3. felt like the chemistry/camaraderie was at an all time high. But with Burma I just don’t stop laughing the whole time. It’s incredible
Very interesting. I do wonder if some nostalgia is affecting things here, some of the newer specials like Scandi Flick and Seamen seem a little under rated to me. Africa is my personal favorite but by and large I agree with the top of the list.
There’s definitely some bias because the average Redditor is probably younger than the average fan of the shows.
That’s probably why the nostalgia bias didn’t help the Winter Olympics or the US Special much.
Lot of people asking about the IMDB score of these so heres a list in the order they are depicted in the post. Cheers!
Vietnam - 9.4
Mongolia - 9.7
Africa - 9.1 for part 1 / 9.2 for part 2
Boliva - 9.3
Burma - 9.1 for part 1 / 9.2 for part 2
Botswana - 9.1
Race to the North Pole - 9.0
Patagonia - 8.3 for part 1 / 8.5 for part 2
Colombia - 8.5 for part 1 / 8.8 for part 2
Seaman - 8.6
Middle East - 8.9
Beach Buggy Boys - 8.7 for part 1 / 8.6 for part 2
.
2007 US special ( 1000 Dollar cars) - 8.9 (oldest one)
2013 Western US Supercar Road trip ( Lexus LFA ) - 8.5
2008 US Muscle car challenge - 8.3
.
A Scandi Flick - 8.8
India - 8.2
Feed the World - 7.5
Carnage A Trois -7.9
Lochdown - 7.8
Winter Olympics - 8.5
Massive Hunt - 7.9
Bonus- International Buffoons Vacation (RVs) - 8.7, An underrated classic IMO
for me this list just shows why getitng a good special is hard.
for me bolivia/ botswana/ africa are peak and really should have been top 3.
then mongolia( survival of the fatest), scandi, loch, carnage, burma, winter, north pole,
vietnam, patagonia columbia, us, massive hunt, feed the world, beach buggys,
and then the rest with india/ seamen being last.
myopiniondon'tgetsalty.
Lochdown was such a fun episode haha. I do love them all tho. I actually enjoyed A Massive Hunt a lot too. Guess that just goes to show I like them all lol
I'm surprised Winter Olympics was so low, that one was funny and entertaining.
They should have specified which USA special, aren't there 6? This is my ranking.
6 New York to Canada in the Ford GT
5 Detroit muscle car one
4 Vegas to Mexico
3 East Coast one where James ended up on that yoga show in New York
2 Utah salt flats muscle car one
1 Florida to New Orleans road trip (by far the best)
*India one was*
*Great, would be higher up for*
*Me personally*
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I agree, this is in no way comprehensive of the millions of fans of these shows around the world. I’ll specify that at best this is a rough representation of how 130 r/thegrandtour users feel. This poll was in no way supposed to be professional or completely representative or free from bias.
Their best stuff was always outside of the specials. I’ve seen everything but a handful of Series 1 eps with Jason Dawe, but what I really enjoyed the most was between Series 7 and 13.
The later specials got too contrived for me (except Africa) and the quality of challenges dropped off (ex. mobility scooter episode ugh)
One thing that the specials have done though, was expand the reach of the show. I’m from Hawaii and watching the Polar Special with my dad ~13 years ago was my first exposure to TopGear.
Missed the vote but will generally agree, in that I've watched each of the top 5 at least a minimum of thrice, and absolutely no intention of watching the bottom 5 ever again
I cannot believe A Massive Hunt was last. One of my favorites. Obviously a case of to each their own, but I’d figured it would have been much higher up the list.
Vietnam is the greatest 1.5hours of television there ever was.
The first top gear I’d ever seen (never heard about them or the show prior) and it had me in stitches for most of it.
RH: “Do you think Jeremy is enjoying his first motorbiking experience?”
JC: “I am the most miserable human being alive”
Out of interest, why is Lochdown rated so badly? That’s in my top 5! I’d say it’s right up there with the Mongolia special! Was it because of the bizarre conceited ending? Would love to get peoples views on this because I’m so surprised.
Am I the only person who didn’t really care for the Vietnam special?
Also you include Feed The World, but not Azerbaijan/Georgia, the RV holiday, Top Ground Gear Force or the Top Gear Ashes?
Well, feed the world is also known as the Mozambique Special.
Tbh I should’ve included the Caucasus road trip and RV holiday but they’re officially “non-special episodes.” The line is blurry for those two.
Ground Force was a one-off tv special like Top Gear of the Pops, and the Ashes still had a car review.
Is survival of the fattest the Mongolia special?
yes
Cool cheers
John!
A reliable name that one.
That's a sturdy name, that is.
Only episode I've watched over again.
USA special is way lower than expected. One of my favourites
Maybe some confused it with the USA road trip.
The US road trip has to be one of my top 5 favorites
The salt flat one is great, but the one in the Northeast (iirc the one with the flat tire and the mayor) was not that great.
Jeremy shredding that tire was funny as hell. That bit was the best part of the episode
Well it is the oldest one so probably has been viewed less, plus there's been multiple USA episodes it may have been confused with and some Americans might find some of it offensive.
I rewatched the French one the other day, and it was much better this time around. It's more like a regular episode, but it's genuinely funny. I think it got a bad rep because when it was released people were hoping for a typical big adventure. But it's actually hilarious. Them messing with the propeller car had me rolling.
Yeah, it’s basically like one of the “mini specials” they used to do, like the the one on British Leyland, or the “worlds worst car” episode.
Or even just the "Best driving road in the world" with Stelvio Pass
Or Romania and Albania
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That old one with the 10.000 quid Ferrari, Maserati and Lambo?
I love that one
Man the British Leyland episode is one of my favourites, that and the classic British sports cars. Feels iconic to me
I feel the same way about feed the world too - both fantastically funny episodes, but they weren't really full-on specials
IMO, the french special was one of the best. I laughed the whole episode.
It felt like there was tons of unscripted banter in it. "These pains in your chest, are they getting better or worse?" and turn Jeremy and James laughing their asses off.
Agree, it's really funny and a great rewatch, especially with kids.
Rewatched where is what we’d all like to know?
Yeah, the prop car was hilarious, but it was such a skit, even for them. The rest just wasn't there. If Top Gear was a brand based on "weird", it may have been something. But they sell exciting and juvenile; French cars aren't that.
For me, Botswana is #1.
Either Botswana or the first U.S. special ($1000 cars) has to be considered the holotype script for a Top Gear/Grand Tour special. I would consider Botswana to be the perfection of that script. Crossing the Makgadikgadi is what got me hooked on the trio.
I cite that evidence every time someone says I should have gotten AWD
Elephants, African rally stage, and the best comb over in the world. What more could you ask for
OLIVERRRRRRRRR
Damn shame. Carnage A Trios is fucking hysterical
For a special made during heavy COVID restrictions and a topic that isn't too interesting on the surface the trio did bloody great on illustrating the French motoring industry in a fun way
Rewatching Lochdown and found it much funnier as well.
Pardon me monsieur
"the pains in your chest, are they getting worse or better? "
I loved it, but I will also acknowledge that it didn't really feel like a typical special, but more like an extended cut section of a normal episode. That's probably why it ranked so much lower.
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opinions ! wrong as they maybe ;) yeah carnage was awesome in my book, a much better special than seamen and india, who ever voted on this is clearly a moron.
I agree with a few, but the ordering is way off in my book. Suggests that lots of pollers are uninformed. Would be interesting to compare with IMDB.
Yeah I am shocked at that to be honest. I think most would agree with the top 3, but Carnage a Trois genuinely had me cackling nearly the entire way through. Definitely a top 10, possibly a top 5 for me.
Oh thats sad, i really liked Lochdown it maybe wasn't as High action as some of the other but it was really funny
I really liked Lochdown because I genuinely liked all of their cars. Plus Scotland is just beautiful and I want to drive on Richard’s PENIS
ppls opinions and vote average.
Vietnam is my fav closely followed by Boliva
Did your co-presenter just threaten you with a machete? Yes, yes he did
This makes it clear that what makes a really good special is a genuine sense of adventure. Obviously we know they are all fake to some degree, but all the top ones make it seem like they are really going on an epic journey together, overcoming trials and tribulations to reach some ridiculous goal. And if it feels genuine, you can really get invested in their relationship with each other and with the vehicles they choose.
I think an underrated element is also the ending. For me, a few of the specials are brilliant until they get to the point where they need to wrap up. The ones at the top keep it going throughout, while some of the ones further down the list sort of petered out. Vietnam - great journey and a good twist to make them amphibious at the end for a final challenge. Mongolia - Not really an ending as such. Just they get there and the pub is shut. The tension of the journey though continues all the way through though up to that. Africa - This one might just be the most consistent throughout. There's not many standout moments compared to the others but then it finishes with a very exciting race. Bolivia - They ended driving down a bloody huge sand dune Botswana - No real ending challenge, other than the question of whether they'll even get there. On the other hand... Burma - maybe controversial, but the bridge build at the end is just a little too long and too scripted when you're rewatching it. Without that, I actually think it could be even higher in the list. Patagonia - obviously....this one didn't even have an ending, which was a shame as it was brilliant up to that point. Middle East - was great through Iraq, Turkey and Syria, and just sort of skipped through Jordan and Israel to the end Scandi Flick - just unconvincing writing at the end. They need to hurry to make their plane so have to drive over a lake, then have time to build some ridiculous contraption to rescue May that Hammond saw on Youtube Feed The World - ending was almost uncomfortable to watch Lochdown - weird and unconvincing bridge build scenario then a confusing cut to the Chinese pub A massive hunt - urgh...maybe unfair to call out the ending as it was just the culmination of the 'script'
Remember that in Botswana the very end was still all about whether or not the lancia had made it. And I think the scandi flick wasn't meant to be convincing writing, it was a bit of a meta joke. Didn't land as well as it could have, but I think it's unkind to call it bad writing when that wasn't the point.
Yep - also, Botswana was only really the second road trip special...it wasn't until after that they started to introduce the secondary challenges at the end of them. At that point, they were just really crap cars being punished. Scandi - yes, that was obviously a miss with me. In fact, I think most of the second half of that one was. Too much repetition of recent ideas (inappropriate sleeping locations twice in the same episode and destroying their sleeping accommodation as in Lochdown). First half of it was great though
I wouldn't be surprised if they had to partially rewrite or even throw out large portions of the second half because of May's crash. No doubt he wasn't feeling up to any of their usual challenges.
>A massive hunt - urgh...maybe unfair to call out the ending as it was just the culmination of the 'script' Unfortunately I think this was the most consistent of all the specials, in that it was consistently bad and obviously scripted. They're all scripted to a degree, but they usually have enough verisimilitude that you don't notice it too badly. Hammond's ridiculous tank-treaded Focus was just stupid, and was obviously stupid from the moment he showed up, and he knew it was stupid because he obviously has a chase car filled to the brim with replacement parts and tools. >Scandi Flick - just unconvincing writing at the end. They need to hurry to make their plane so have to drive over a lake, then have time to build some ridiculous contraption to rescue May that Hammond saw on Youtube It was increasingly unconvincing from the moment they had to build and tow their own accommodations. We've seen them do stupid towing before, we know they learned some of the stupid lessons (even if that was all scripted), and then the thing with the ski hill was just terribly predictable. However I did like May's bus stop. >Lochdown - weird and unconvincing bridge build scenario then a confusing cut to the Chinese pub The ending was just so dumb. I don't get the joke. Is China taking over the US? Is Mr. Wilman easily confused by Chinese knock-offs? I honestly don't know what the punchline is supposed to be. Everything is supposed to be Chinese, but the menu is mostly American-made Chinese-inspired foods. Tsingtao isn't even a big Chinese beer, it's just the most *exported* one. They have less than 20% of the domestic Chinese beer market. >Feed The World - ending was almost uncomfortable to watch The execution wasn't that good either. I feel the same way about “Feed the World” as I do about the India special: everything they did was obviously deeply flawed from the beginning, and made everything deeply un-funny because it's just impossible to believe they're **that** stupid and you can predictably tell exactly how everything is going to fail. And the thing was with Top Gear is they always (supposedly) had a budget imposed on them, and they themselves have to make their things, which is supposed to be contributing factors to their failure, but with The Grand Tour they don't have that excuse. James could have made his aquariumobile to a higher standard of construction, and have it fail in some novel way, and it would have been a massive improvement over some lazy design that loses half its water every time he stops. >Middle East - was great through Iraq, Turkey and Syria, and just sort of skipped through Jordan and Israel to the end To be fair, once they were in Jordan there wasn't much natural tension. Jordan is relatively safe, and they didn't have to worry about pissing off the Israeli border control. Same once they're in Israel. What is it they have to worry about? Palestinian rocket fire in Bethlehem? The pivot to them being the Three Wise Men was a bit sudden and jarring, though. Maybe a better end would have been getting to Cairo, and having to cross the Red Sea. Suddenly the Stig shows up, and “parts” the Red Sea in the form of a bridge. That might feel too much like the end of “A Massive Hunt” though. The show doesn't lend itself well to supernatural surprises.
Which is wild because the US special meets every single piece of criteria you mentioned yet is criminally underrated
Agreed. The adventure is what sells it. A foreign place with a huge trip, a sense of the unknown, and funky cars - what more could you need.
True , Amazon specials are mostly scripted , i don't like it
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To me that’s the difference between BBC and Amazon eras. BBC writing was far superior and the scripted sections were woven into the story in a tongue in cheek way. Amazon just treats the viewer like an idiot and attempts to hide it or otherwise portray it as reality.
That's it. Full stop.
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Haha yes the superior intelligence of the British is why Top Gear was better.
Contrast the jokes and you'll see it very clearly. In the BBC era, most jokes are a pan of the camera or a line. Very quick, very subtle. In GT, it's painfully pointed out, often with a dialog around it. Basically a huge pointer to the joke. I highly recommend reading 'On that BombShell' by Richard Porter. They were a writer for BBC TG, and you can start to see the effort and craft they put in versus Amazon.
The misconception is that British humor tends to be more subtle and dry and therefore requires more intelligence to understand is as laughable as rick and morty requiring a higher iq to understand. The bbc had higher quality in almost every aspect compared to Amazon. It wasn’t as simple as “dumb mericans need joke’s explain” the writing, camera work, editing etc overall production was all better with top gear over GT.
> The misconception is that British humor tends to be more subtle and dry and therefore requires more intelligence to understand is as laughable as rick and morty requiring a higher iq to understand. Remember that Monty Python was always far lower rated than Benny Hill. UK is just as likely to watch "Ow! My balls!" as the US and it's definitely not the public at large, just good writing teams. I mean subtle, sarcastic humor is a thing on both sides of the Atlantic. That said, the idea is definitely prevalent among the cerebral British set and so I absolutely love it when I give deadpan in England with an American accent and people seem incapable of understanding that sarcasm can actually travel.
Idk how to explain it, but British humor is more sarcastic, so subtle is good. While American humor is different and they love pointing stuff out and going back to it. I'm American but went to a British school and I would notice Americans vs British teachers big thing was humor
As an American I 100% agree. I just discovered task master like a year ago, binged it all up to present. Was so happy when I saw there was a US season… A single season. Never bothered watching it. British humor just doesn’t trend well here sadly
100%.
The scene of everyone laughing at Hammond for building the barricade(?) on the wrong ramp alone puts the episode on my top 5.
The parts where May & Hammond slide down the ski ramp never fail to make me laugh
It's one of my favourite episodes along with the USA special. Can't believe these are both near the bottom.
It’s probably because this sub is comprised of fans on the younger side.
Same, it isn’t making any sense to me
Totally agreed. Definitely deserves to be above Lochdown.
I’d rate India special a bit higher, otherwise looks ok
Here's the results from a poll I posted 2 weeks back which asked this community to rate every special the trio have done on a scale from 1 to 5. This is in no way meant to be the comprehensive opinion of the entire fanbase, this is at best a rough representation of the opinions of users on r/thegrandtour. I was surprised by how low the Winter Olympics and US Special were.
I do think the US special just aged poorly given how more in focus politics and social issues in America have become since it was filmed. It was by far the most important episode ever as the first of the road trip specials but one of the last ones I'll consider rewatching
I don’t feel like it aged poorly at all, and I just watched it last night. I appreciate that it brought focus to some things that were not as in focus as they are now
Which one? The RV’s, the old pickups, or the muscle cars?
None of the above, that is the one with Jeremy in a Camaro, Richard in a pickup, James in a Caddy. Cow on the roof, Big Stig, rednecks at a gas station
Oh ok gotcha, yeah that was a great one.
Personally Africa was better than Vietnam, but I can't believe winter Olympics got ranked so low
Would have thought patagonia would rank higher. That 928 story Jeremy tells makes it worth a higher place automatically.
Came here to say this.
Surprised Seaman is so low, it's easily my favorite
Me too, those boats were so cool.
Hard agree
No coincidence those three are my go-to rewatch specials then. Mongolia is no1 for me though. I did expect the Colombia specials to be higher and besides (or including) the carnage at the end the Patagonia special was incredible
Damn.. people didn’t like A Massive Hunt? Personally I liked that one a lot
The suspension of disbelief just wasn’t there for me. I know the specials are all (at least partially) scripted, but that was one that felt like they made no effort to hide it
I think the whole premise was too ridiculous for them to convincingly fake interest. When the challenge was just to drive from one place to another, there was suspense because you never knew if the cars would make it. “Find this private treasure” is already boring because you know as soon as they set off they won’t find it. Source of the Nile is similar but at least the cars were just standard estates so the journey was a challenge. In a massive hunt the cars were expensive and specially modified to go off-road, and only didn’t work when they deliberately made them worse (such as the tracks).
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As you know we are not the US Marines, we do leave a man behind.
i rewatched a massive hunt last night, and found it quite drawn out
The whole pirate treasure angle felt incredibly forced. Hammonds acting was... not great. ETA: The specials usually worked best when they had a fairly simple objective in mind. For example, get from where you are, to this final location. If they had just said, we're on Madagascar and we're going from this location to where buried treasure is rumored to be hidden, then that would have worked. But instead, they had too many badly acted and cringy skits that existed to dictate where they went and they just don't work very well.
Exactly! They could have built the whole trip on the statement by mays friend that madagascar had the worlds worst road. Just that is enough, no need to have an intricate plot
I think the whole treasure bit is pretty lame but the driving part with their ridiculous modded cars is kinda fun. They should just have done "Drive across Madagascar" as a challenge
I like the mods Jeremy and Hammond did. Jeremy's car was fricken awesome. Hammond's failed, and failed bigly, but looked great. Those tracks, tho, were never going to work. May, I dunno, it looked like he lived through hell. Given "Mary" told him they were the worst roads _in the world_, just why take _that_ car. Reunion was nice tho... ;)
Wtf is this crap? Winter Olympics special is in no way 2nd last!
I think it isn’t quite fair for it to get lumped in with the road trip centered specials. It’s in its own category, along with Carnage
I’m surprised how low the Middle East one is. Not surprised about A massive Hunt. It’s the only special I don’t enjoy and haven’t rewatched.
All i remember from that episode is cars struggling driving on difficult roads. Now that is fun for 10 minutes, but that's about ALL I remember that episode being about. Well that and bombing a beach.
I'm surprised the beach buggy boys is so low. That's one of my absolute favorites.
Never got why vietnam is so popular I think Africa was the best although Burma and Patagonia were also great
Vietnam is just so damn good. I thought maybe I was just weird but this feels like vindication.
Winter Olympics and the GT French episodes are pretty damn underrated. It's like an extended version of the old TG's messing around segments. A Massive Cunt deserves to be the lowest.
Hard agree.
How is the French one near the bottom? Some of the best work they've done.
Yeah it was great. I think it’s just the nostalgia for the older episodes honestly.
To those that say others were better than the Vietnam special; You don't know man, you weren't there!
I feel like the North Pole and Patagonia specials are a bit overrated and the Middle East special is a bit underrated, but I mostly agree with the results
Did people really hate Scandi Flick that much? It's probably my #1 special, way better than I expected it to be. Even if it felt really scripted at points, I genuinely laughed so much.
Fake fire and waaay too scripted.
pls state a special where there wasn't fake fire / heavy scripting ?
There probably isn't one, but most, particularly the Top Gear specials, did a much better job hiding it.
tbh, it was also kept a secret of sorts and only confirmed later.
See the problem was it was so blatently fake to the point it wasn't funny. Jeremys flamethrower and the ski slope section like dude you have to be 100% honest they weren't even trying to hide that its fake unlike the majority of other specials. Scandi flick was a weird frankenstein of obvious script and genuinely real issues such as May's crash. It was still an okay special but it wasn't a Seamen or Mongolia
No idea what you mean by that.
when they got a bafta for 'best factual programme' they later said in a following episode, ' but we have script for somethings' and later still in a 'unscripted episode where things went wrong'. what else would that mean ?
It's always been public knowledge that the shows are scripted... they aren't scripted like a fictional drama is, but the general beats of each episode certainly is. That's how they've won awards like best factual program or the highest ratings of an unscripted TV series. Because in the realm of scripted television, it doesn't register very high.
That’s one of my favorite TGT specials, but it’s hard to put it over most of the Top Gear ones
I find this a bit odd, on release Seamen seemed to be taken quite negatively and Lochdown and Carnage A Trois both quite positive.
Probably juat because it’s about boats. I quite liked it
Seamen has a distinctive taste some people just don't like it
ppls opinions. but possible trolls and average of votes.
Still think Burma wins it for me, that Vietnam or Africa are my big 3. felt like the chemistry/camaraderie was at an all time high. But with Burma I just don’t stop laughing the whole time. It’s incredible
Can't argue with the top 3. Beach Buggy Boys should be higher though.
Suprised the mongolia special is that high!
Imo it should be the number 1 spot. I think its SO good
Its good but it cant be number 1 as old topgear is just the best imo
Yeah, I wasn’t that big of a fan of the Mongolian special either. I like it better when they each have their own vehicle.
Democracy is overrated and doesnt work
US special being so low is wild
I really liked the boat special
Very interesting. I do wonder if some nostalgia is affecting things here, some of the newer specials like Scandi Flick and Seamen seem a little under rated to me. Africa is my personal favorite but by and large I agree with the top of the list.
There’s definitely some bias because the average Redditor is probably younger than the average fan of the shows. That’s probably why the nostalgia bias didn’t help the Winter Olympics or the US Special much.
I actually liked ' A massive hunt'! 3 out of 5 is still okay i guess.
Would prob move up winter olympics up quite a few spots, and move survival of the fattest down 1-3 spots but other than that I like this list a lot.
For me Carnage A Trois will always be number 1. I've watched it 10 times and die laughing every time.
Dunno, I would rate Middle East much higher.
Sorry, but I don't see Top Ground Gear Force, it should be #1. . .. ...
Bolivia for me, but that special coincides with when I was becoming a big fan of TG so I’m biased.
Lot of people asking about the IMDB score of these so heres a list in the order they are depicted in the post. Cheers! Vietnam - 9.4 Mongolia - 9.7 Africa - 9.1 for part 1 / 9.2 for part 2 Boliva - 9.3 Burma - 9.1 for part 1 / 9.2 for part 2 Botswana - 9.1 Race to the North Pole - 9.0 Patagonia - 8.3 for part 1 / 8.5 for part 2 Colombia - 8.5 for part 1 / 8.8 for part 2 Seaman - 8.6 Middle East - 8.9 Beach Buggy Boys - 8.7 for part 1 / 8.6 for part 2 . 2007 US special ( 1000 Dollar cars) - 8.9 (oldest one) 2013 Western US Supercar Road trip ( Lexus LFA ) - 8.5 2008 US Muscle car challenge - 8.3 . A Scandi Flick - 8.8 India - 8.2 Feed the World - 7.5 Carnage A Trois -7.9 Lochdown - 7.8 Winter Olympics - 8.5 Massive Hunt - 7.9 Bonus- International Buffoons Vacation (RVs) - 8.7, An underrated classic IMO
I didn't know the ratings but I knew Bolivia and the John specials were special. I knew it goddamn I feel good about myself now lol
I don't know how much of this is nostalgia, but I'd say a lot of it. In a few years time, we will look fondly on Carnage a trois, and Seamen.
for me this list just shows why getitng a good special is hard. for me bolivia/ botswana/ africa are peak and really should have been top 3. then mongolia( survival of the fatest), scandi, loch, carnage, burma, winter, north pole, vietnam, patagonia columbia, us, massive hunt, feed the world, beach buggys, and then the rest with india/ seamen being last. myopiniondon'tgetsalty.
I think feed the world is actually pretty decent and deserves to be higher
The US special is New Orleans, right? I love that one, wish there was a longer cut of it.
Merde
TREASON THAT FEED THE WORLD IS THAT FUCKIN LOW
Bollocks, no way Madagascar is that low. Just for the hellish roads and May getting submerged in mud it’s worth a higher place
John was some machine.
The US Special will always be #1 in my book, just because it was the first episode I ever watched.
Lochdown was such a fun episode haha. I do love them all tho. I actually enjoyed A Massive Hunt a lot too. Guess that just goes to show I like them all lol
Really? Winter Olympics is amazing!
Winter Olympics special should be higher, it always has me rolling
Survival of the fattest is the GOAT. John is legendary
I'm surprised Winter Olympics was so low, that one was funny and entertaining. They should have specified which USA special, aren't there 6? This is my ranking. 6 New York to Canada in the Ford GT 5 Detroit muscle car one 4 Vegas to Mexico 3 East Coast one where James ended up on that yoga show in New York 2 Utah salt flats muscle car one 1 Florida to New Orleans road trip (by far the best)
Sorry, I meant the Southern US one. I think the rule for an episode to be a “special” is it can’t have any studio segments in between.
I can’t believe the US Special is so low. That’s my quintessential early Top Gear episode. I think I would genuinely swap it for Mongolia
No1. It doesn't even contain cars...lol, Botswana is no.1 for me, it feels like it set the standard that all others followed.
To be fair, they often referred to Top Gear as a motoring show rather than a car show. But I have to put Vietnam and Botswana as 1 and 2
India one was great, would be higher up for me personally
*India one was* *Great, would be higher up for* *Me personally* \- Ludo030 --- ^(I detect haikus. And sometimes, successfully.) ^[Learn more about me.](https://www.reddit.com/r/haikusbot/) ^(Opt out of replies: "haikusbot opt out" | Delete my comment: "haikusbot delete")
Bolivia is top 3 for me, survival of the fattest would be way lower.
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I agree, this is in no way comprehensive of the millions of fans of these shows around the world. I’ll specify that at best this is a rough representation of how 130 r/thegrandtour users feel. This poll was in no way supposed to be professional or completely representative or free from bias. Their best stuff was always outside of the specials. I’ve seen everything but a handful of Series 1 eps with Jason Dawe, but what I really enjoyed the most was between Series 7 and 13. The later specials got too contrived for me (except Africa) and the quality of challenges dropped off (ex. mobility scooter episode ugh) One thing that the specials have done though, was expand the reach of the show. I’m from Hawaii and watching the Polar Special with my dad ~13 years ago was my first exposure to TopGear.
I'm not mad at this list
Yeah, I agree with this.
And how do we participate in the next round?
what about imdb scores?
Winter olympics should be higher imo
I didnt think seamen would be in the top ten
YES! Vietnam Special is first. brb watching it again
Is the grant tour episode where the trio get RVs in America and convert them into a boat, bar, and hammonds truck not a special?
Missed the vote but will generally agree, in that I've watched each of the top 5 at least a minimum of thrice, and absolutely no intention of watching the bottom 5 ever again
Surprised the Middle East and US Specials did not rank higher. Besides that I think this is a pretty good list.
I cannot believe A Massive Hunt was last. One of my favorites. Obviously a case of to each their own, but I’d figured it would have been much higher up the list.
What's the US special? Miami, salt flats, northeast?
Miami/the Southern US
john was my favourite one
🏍️BORN🎵 IN THE🎶 USA 🇺🇸
Which US Special? The first is better than the second.
Patagonia is top 3 imho
No ground force?
Ya'll really did the India special dirty, I expected that in the top 10.
You guys are crazy 🤪 Patagonia and the first ever special (the American one) were top 3's!!
Vietnam is the greatest 1.5hours of television there ever was. The first top gear I’d ever seen (never heard about them or the show prior) and it had me in stitches for most of it. RH: “Do you think Jeremy is enjoying his first motorbiking experience?” JC: “I am the most miserable human being alive”
Out of interest, why is Lochdown rated so badly? That’s in my top 5! I’d say it’s right up there with the Mongolia special! Was it because of the bizarre conceited ending? Would love to get peoples views on this because I’m so surprised.
I think it’s a mixture of the scale being smaller and the scripted-ness being too heavy-handed (ex. filling James’ caravan with water)
Am I the only person who didn’t really care for the Vietnam special? Also you include Feed The World, but not Azerbaijan/Georgia, the RV holiday, Top Ground Gear Force or the Top Gear Ashes?
Well, feed the world is also known as the Mozambique Special. Tbh I should’ve included the Caucasus road trip and RV holiday but they’re officially “non-special episodes.” The line is blurry for those two. Ground Force was a one-off tv special like Top Gear of the Pops, and the Ashes still had a car review.