Last December, we reported that Clarkson, Hammond and May would be giving their Amazon Prime vehicle The Grand Tour a bit of a facelift, scrapping the studio segments and putting the focus on longer travel films. A year later, the three have made good on their promise with a trip through the Mekong Delta.
They call their new special ‘Seamen’ because the trio makes its way from stunt to stunt by boat in this one. And also for the other reason which becomes immediately clear in the trailer. I don’t know what else I expected.
Judging by the trailer, it looks like there’ll be collisions, yelling, condescending pantomiming at locals, and all of the other things we’ve come to expect from one of these travel films. And we’ll watch it. They knew we would.
I suppose they’ve done the research and know that the travel specials are the big draw these days. It makes sense. They’re what bring in viewers who don’t know a Mercury from a Mercedes and frankly don’t want to know and that’s going to be the focus. And they should. They have the best job in the world and seem to still have fun doing it. And there are people out there who enjoy it too.
I guess I shouldn’t be too sour about where The Grand Tour is right now. There have always been duds, even back in the Top Gear days, but there also have been really impressive films, like the Lancia film from last year. If they can crank out any more of those, I’m in.
In any case, the special drops December 13 on Amazon Prime.