Grand tour: seamen

I don’t know how many here watch the amazon prime series “grand tour” but I gotta recommend the hour and a half special released this winter called grand tour presents: seamen.

GT is a car show, usually. This special is the 3 dudes, who know nothing about boats, trying to make their way from Cambodia to Vietnam down the Mekong River. Just watched it with my 13yo and we had a good laugh or 20.

For Motorhead lunacy it’s tough to beat the original British show Top Gear. Same cast as TGT, of course.

Clarkson can be a jackass, but the show is very funny. The show where they turn a Reliant Robin into a rocket and actually launch it is hysterical.

Grouse

I started watching this crew with my roommates in college back when it was still Top Gear, and you could stream almost every season. The time and effort that the entire TG crew (not just these three hooligans) put into the show was amazing, and honestly I was disappointed when the whole blow-up went down that ended their relationship with the BBC; TGT just hasn’t been the same. Personally, I REALLY enjoyed the car reviews and the cinematic that they put into reviewing the high-end sports cars, because when they are in their element, you can tell the three of them are die-hard motorheads. Listening to Clarkson talk about the quality of seat leather while he’s drifting an Aston around a corner at 65 is pretty impressive.

That being said, the specials have almost all been fantastic (TG and TGT) so I can see why they wanted to steer towards those vs. the tent setting. Clarkson, Hammond, and May aren’t getting any younger, so a slow down was almost inevitable.

They’ve all talked about hanging it up at some point, but as far as I know they’re still planning on filming at least a few more specials and no more episodic shows. Was introduced to em almost the same way as you Waldo, was lucky enough to catch maybe the last half dozen years of them on the BBC live. You’re spot on about their ability as presenters and critics, they’ve all been doing it long enough that it’s second nature to them. I will say my only complaint since they went to Amazon is it seems like they’re doing a lot more stuff that’s obviously staged, or at least being more open about it.

Watching the three of them try to handle boats was pretty awesome, even more fun than the ‘amphibious car’ episodes. I really liked Jeremy’s PBR choice too.

Thanks for the heads-up about Top Gear guys! My 13yo son loves this stuff, moreso than I even. He’s gonna be excited to find a treasure trove of older episodes.

TMF89 wrote:

Watching the three of them try to handle boats was pretty awesome, even more fun than the ‘amphibious car’ episodes. I really liked Jeremy’s PBR choice too.

The PBR rear ending a jetski was an amazing moment. “MOOOOOVE!” *crash* “Sorry mate!”