The Quality Divide between Top Gear and Grand Tour is Not As Dramatic As People Say.
Posted by AfterThrowParty@reddit | thegrandtour | View on Reddit | 8 comments
So, over the last two or three months, I've fallen into a massive Top Gear/Grand Tour re-watch. I've gone through both shows, in order, from the first episode of TG series 1 featuring Jason Dawe in place of James May, all the way to Grand Tour's "One For The Road" special.
I've come to a conclusion that I suspect would be controversial amongst Top Gear fans and that's simply this; Top Gear isn't significantly better than Grand Tour, as a lot of fans over the years have claimed, in fact I'd actually argue that Grand Tour is more consistent in quality throughout its run than Top Gear was.
The biggest reason for this boils down to one simple fact for me. Top Gear's creative "peak" was significantly shorter than people seem to remember.
The show really didn't "find what it was" until pretty late into its run. It was a pretty typical car magazine program with some sporadic standout moments of brilliance here and there, but things really didn't gel properly until series 8 or 9, around the time Hammond had his accident, and then post accident.
Up until that late in the game, I think Top Gear was fairly forgettable. It got amazing after that, which was halfway through the full run of the trio on the show. Then even after that I think the show "jumped the shark" and was starting to repeat itself way too often and run out of steam with only the likability and chemistry of the hosts holding it all together.
So, in reality, it kind of feels like the iconic Top Gear that everybody loved... only really was that good for 3 or 4 out of the 20-odd series that the trio did. I argue that while Top Gear had higher highs than Grand Tour ever had, it also had significantly lower lows. Something that anyone will find by going back and watching those first several Top gear series without nostalgia glasses on.
To sum up in rewatching I found that Top Gear took years to find itself and then quickly completed the bell curve and started on its way down again, whereas in my opinion The Grand started a bit bunpy and got consistently better and better with each season, and had very few genuine "clunker" episodes.
So. That's my hot take of the day. My "bombshell" opinion, if you will. Now, back to the studio.
devilspawn@reddit
To quote the dude - that is just, like, your opinion man. I'd disagree with you on TGT. TGT felt very manufactured and over polished for me, apart from a handful of stand out episodes like in Mongolia. The early TG stuff is pretty funny a few series in but yeah, a chunk is pretty unforgettable. But, like, thats just my opinion, man.
AfterThrowParty@reddit (OP)
So I can agree with you on Grand Tour feeling much more polished than Top Gear. That's absokutely undeniable. But in rewatching both shows the thing that stood out to me a lot was just how scripted/staged Top Gear actually was when you go back and watch it. I argue it's equally "manufactured" as Grand Tour was.
Top Gear was dropping pianos on cars and faking accidents about every 2nd or third episode. I just think people sort of forget all that staging when they reminisce about the show. When you go back and watch Top Gear it's equally as scripted and staged as Grand Tour.
devilspawn@reddit
Well yeah, its a TV show, there has to be some sort of a script or plan. I personally notice the staging a lot less in TG than TGT. For me TGT breaks the immersion too much while in TG it blends just enough to pass it.
SheepAtog@reddit
And on that terrible disappointment - for top gear - back to the tent.
Evening-Physics-6185@reddit
Top gear fell away in quality for the last few years and TGT continued on from there. TG series 9-15 were amazing.
mistertrotsky@reddit
The early TG specials are certainly high water marks. TGT… Mongolia definitely stands out.
Cefer_Hiron@reddit
Never saw someone claim that
AfterThrowParty@reddit (OP)
Im sure I'm not the only peraon who has ever said it. The "lows" of those first several series are really low. Especially that first series with Dawe as a host, and it takes a long time for the show to really find itself. I'm by no means arguing Top Gear is a bad show, but I do think the peaks and valleys are much, much more dramatic in comparison to Grand tour.
It's really a case of "consistently enjoyable" vs "sporadically brilliant."