Latest Top Gear Episode Was A Direct Copy Of Previous Top Gear and Grand Tour Episodes
We know you guys usually don’t like Top Gear, often favouring The Grand Tour on Amazon Prime Video with Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond, and James May at the helm. We think that’s a great shame, as Chris Harris, Paddy McGuiness, and Freddie Flintoff are doing great things with the BBC show. But after watching Episode 2 of the latest series, we have to admit, there was some prime copying going on.
First of all, Chris Harris races the F-35 jet with the new McLaren Speedtail. It’s invigorating watching with plenty of wow moments to keep you on the edge of your seat, but even they admitted that they’d done it before. Richard Hammond had raced a Euro Fighter jet plane with the legendary Bugatti Veyron over ten years ago.
And fine okay, it’s a great sequence and the Speedtail is a truly magnificent car with a top speed of over 250mph making it the fastest British car in the world. But then the episode continued and Paddy had created a new car to compete with the new and overpriced Land Rover Defender. Remind you of anything?
That’s John, a car the presenter of The Grand Tour made so they could find their way out of Mongolia during the last season. And while Top Gear insisted that the reason they built their car, the ‘Dirty Rascal’ was different from the reasons behind John, the premise is still the same.
We must interject quickly, though, and say that the sequence was hilariously funny and showed true comradery between Harris, Flintoff and McGuiness. It also showed just how hardcore Flintoff can be as he joined a group of lads from the SAS in a competition against the off-roader. Chris and Paddy also showed excellent on-screen chemistry with hilarious clips of them laughing and joking while trying to get the vehicle unstuck from the hazardous terrain.
But, and this is a big but, the fact that this had all been done before made it feel a little ‘been there, done that’. I thoroughly enjoyed the episode, but Top Gear really needs to start thinking outside the box with its ideas, or at least spread these repeated scenarios throughout the episodes. This is difficult, though. With Clarkson’s Top Gear running for almost 20 years, it’s very difficult to come up with something new, so while this is a shame, I do have sympathy for the guys.
Let us know your thoughts below on what you think Top Gear could do next.
What I think I’d grande tour need to start making more episodes or something because thy did one and stopped and now thy complaint against top gear,like both of the shows so now come on get some exciting episode or more of grande tour if they need the people to follow them get show on believe not making anything gonna make any mone please New episodes and not speaking wrong about the other TV show
I no longer able to watch the BBC Top Gear here in the US, because I am not going to be forced into signing up for yet another streaming service, the “Motor Trend” service, just to watch one program. Sorry BBC.
Seems like a desperate move by Top Gear. The trio leaving dealt a harsh blow to the show, and they should have made all efforts to keep them. In my opinion, it was a big mistake on BBC’s part to let them go. The fans have followed the trio to TGT. Top Gear, since their leaving, has just not been able to bounce back and is just uninteresting. I miss the trio on Top Gear and wish things could go back to the way they were. If you ask me, BBC should wave the white flag of defeat and hand over the show back to the trio that made it successful.
These car shows seem utterly contrived and boring to me nowadays. There is little interesting technical content (Harris does have some actual expertise.. occasionally allowed) and generally an appeal to the wider populace with grasping attempts at humour and inane over the top laddishness.
Fifth gear is now actually looking good by comparison.
Have each guy work with a random reader for some reasonable time and time the readers around a track.
The Bungee jump off the dam was also a total rip off of a previous episode.