Sorry my bad - you're right - it's on PRIME / Amazon. I just jumped at Netflix with it being the more usual contender these days for such shows.
Just watched episode 3 of series 4 of The Grand Tour, also on Amazon Prime.
Ep 1 went to Cambodia and Ep 2 went to Madagascar. Both were brilliant telly.
Ep 3 is in Scotland and to be honest was disappointing for a number of reasons. Partly the weather which rained for most of the time. But mainly because Scotland doesn't lend itself very well to The Grand Tour's premise. It's not particularly big and the roads are very good so the 'japes' felt forced and manufactured. Of course they're the same in every country but more believable. Perhaps because of the weather we didn't get as many helicopter aerial shots as we would have liked. Scotland deserved a better travelogue than this.
Totally agree re the Scotland jaunt - but I think it was more a case of them knocking "something" together out of nothing, but as you say it was all a bit contrived and felt like even they weren't buying it this time. It was interesting to read the other day how they said they found it tough as they kept bumping into just about every other UK "world roving" TV Show that exists and their film crews while filming and in every town they stopped at they kept bumping into more, to the point where it became funny / annoying. I'm sure the Scottish TV production economy must be doing very well out of this world "lockdown" and english TV show making needing "somewhere" to go and Scotland seemingly being "it".
Mind you after seeing all those various shows it did put Scotland in my head somewhat and in fact I've just booked myself and a few friends to head off to Edinburgh this very weekend no less, see, who says advertising doesn't work eh !
All of their material is contrived and scripted, but it's still often amusing.
I quite enjoyed Lochdown.
If the BBC have any better current output to justify the tax on my TV, I'd like to know what it is.
It is of course and you're right that that's what almost makes it funny sometimes you just KNOW that caravan is going to go off a cliff or the boat is going to sink, which is all part of the fun. I actually had to sit and explain that to my asian bf here as he didn't / doesn't get that and kept coming out with statements like "but they can't drive that caravan up that road, they're going to damage it!" - and didn't get that THAT was the ultimately the whole point !
PS Diverging a little - I thought it hilarious on Clarksons Farm when he needed a small area of land, which happened to be owned by the Camping and Caravan Club, that they ( allegedly) only agreed to give it to him after he made a "nice" promo video about the joys of caravanning - which considering he's spent his entire career cursing them and blowing the damned things up I thought so funny and it was the best "price" ever that they could ever come up with for him to pay. nice to see they have a good sense of humour :-)
Top Gear caravanning.
Those with a short attention span can skip to 6 minutes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zgRXi2svWPU
The Colombia two parter is two hours if the best armchair telly ever made and with a surprising twist if you didn't already know. If you do know there's no need to say here.
Gordon, Gino and Fred's Road Trip.
The idea is 3 chefs travelling together collecting ingredients for some wedding in Italy.
This is ITVs attempt at a buddy buddy buddy style show a la Clarkson, May and Hammond. And it stinks. More forced than a foie gras goose, more laboured than a stone quarry, it comes complete with camper van, terrible driving and 'comedy' set ups that wouldn't be out of place in a 1970s sitcom. Unwatchable, I gave up after 20 minutes such was the cringe worthy embarrassment of the show.
ITV have a history of trying to copy successful formats usually with very poor results but this is in a league of its own. Gruesome.
Aww we actually quite like it, it is a bit contrived for sure and Gino ( as usual) plays it up for the camera just a little too much ( as per every other programme he does when on other TV shows too with his fake Italian mispronounciations from a guy who's lived in the UK for over 20 years now).
Apparently Gordon and Gino are actually good friends in real life so I think that side of things isn't so fake perhaps and in fact it seems Gino's son is banging .....sorry dating...Gordons daughter even it seems.
So while it's not ground breaking TV when sitting with a glass ( bottle ) of wine of an evening relaxing we're not averse to sticking it on for a laugh or two.