Finally! The second season of “The Grand Tour” – which seemed like it took forever to arrive – is here…and ASN has the review of the motoring show’s first episode.
There is a new intro theme song and it is not something as easily recognizable as “Come With Me Now” by the Kongos, more of a easily misplaced tune that melts into the background while the automotive visual images are being paraded by your eyeballs.
The first thing everybody will notice is that James May managed to find someone to give him a haircut. This can be either a bad news or a good news revelation, depending upon your perspective on James’ hair – but it does not seem to affect anything else.
There is no more mobile tent studio, instead being replaced by a permanent tent-like studio based in the UK just a few steps away from Jeremy Clarkson’s temporary house – as pointed out by both May and Richard Hammond.
An opening montage of what to expect in the upcoming season is presented with appropriate musical accompaniment from The Who [“Won’t Get Fooled Again”] and that dovetails into the main segment – the now-infamous supercar challenge between Clarkson in a Lamborghini Aventador, May in a Honda NSX Hybrid and Hammond in a Croatian-made Rimac Concept electric car that he crashed in spectacular fashion during a hillclimb event in Switzerland.
The most notable elements gleaned from the segment are that Clarkson refers to Hammond’s car as the Lady Shaver [due to its electric-ness], the Rimac is fast in a straight line [winning the obligatory drag race handily] – making it “the fastest car – pause – in the world”, Switzerland has banned motor racing in the country since the 1955 crash of Pierre Levegh at Le Mans killed 83 spectators and lithium cells might not be a good idea for a car.
Conversation Street has remained in all its glory and this week’s glory comes in light of May’s identity being stolen over the past year, causing Clarkson and Hammond to rename him Dingleberry Handpump to avoid a similar fate in the future.
There is a new track and the ill-fated Celebrity Braincrash has instead been replaced by a celebrity race [called Celebrity Face-Off or F-off, for short] in a pair of Jaguar F-Types. Thie week pitted young British reality show judge Ricky Wilson against elderly former “Baywatch” and “Knight Rider” star David Hasselhoff.
All in all, a good start for the second season, despite the underlying dread of Hammond’s crash in the Rimac, which was appropriately mined for some humor in the show’s closing moments. ASN awards the first episode a solid 91 out of 100 out of the gate.
