From interesting to boring very fast

I want to disagree, but so far GT's been all the worst parts of JRJ's tenure on Top Gear with a much bigger budget.

I am liking it. Although I enjoyed Top Gear. This is more of the same. Not different. Perfectly entertaining and fun to watch on a Saturday morning.

I have to agree. (Old) Top Gear was my absolute favourite for its comedic values. E.g. their takes on the modern peugeot driver and Jeremy driving a robin reliant were some of the funniest things I've ever seen on TV.

I've only seen two episodes of The Grand Tour so far, so I hope it gets better. The scripting is just not funny.

Am I correct in assuming The Grand Tour script is written mainly by the hosts and that (old) Top Gear wasn't? The show, or at least certain elements of it, feels more like JRJ are doing whatever they want to with their enormous budget, like e.g. the hostage rescue in episode two; I have no doubt they had fun doing it, but I get the impression they don't care if it results in good TV or not.

Well, top gear got worse in the end.

At the beginning the show didn't seem scripted, it most definitely was, but you didn't notice it that easy.

In the end, almost all of the "challenges" seemed 100% scripted like in a bad reality soap.

I hoped with TGT they make a new start and go back to their roots, instead they are going the same direction, more explosion, bigger budget, more scripted talks and dialogues. It's kind of boring.

Almost nothing seems natural anymore, i might go and watch a Michael Bay movie, maybe that's better ...

It used to be about the cars with them just adding personal flavor now its all about them being "funny" It's almost like the shows too afraid to treat its audience like adults, The first episode was good all the rest pfft.. I thought with a title like The Grand Tour they would actually Tour in the cars like when they did their specials

"comedy"

The show is still watchable but I will concede that the most recent two episodes have been lackluster affairs to say the least. Apart from being under edited the first episode was great (they could easily have cut the last dead body and a couple of jokes from it and it would have been a better show for it). It does seem to be diminishing returns though especially now that they have fully embraced the world of Wrestling as it's guide to faked events that are never admitted to as being faked.

The show is beautifully crafted but is leaving less and less room for genuine spontaneity between the presenters and even with a show that is mostly a bit of knock about fun it would not kill them to do the odd genuine car review.

I agree. I just finished watching the Namibia special and it's just, I guess you could say on a completely different level than Top Gear's. The script and delivery were much better under BBC and I think a huge budget guided everything in a wrong direction. I remember the Top Gear season when in the last episode they claimed they had used up all the money, so it had to be an episode without. I liked that attitude much better.

I remember Jeremy's "world cheapest car review" of a Ford Fiesta.
"Is it green?"
"Yes. Very."

It was so simple. I still claim the Vietnam Special to be best they've made with redneck america and Bolivia close behind. I'll rather watch them over again, than GT :/

To me it seems like Grand Tour "plays it safe". And it worked, with 9+ on IMDB. Either that, or they are targeting a bigger but different audience.