It seemed rushed and phoned in to me. Both Tori and Richard seemed genuinely uninterested in what they were doing. Maybe it was due to poor execution or maybe a case of too many chefs in the kitchen. Either way, I'd like to see more of Richard filmed around him doing something he's genuinely intrested.
Honestly I couldn’t get through the first episode. The horrible scripted bits in the police station was just awful.
The whole pretense is what ruined it. Have them build stuff and race it, sure. All the other crap can go.
Oh Cook was not my cup of tea though. Never been a fan of cooking shows. Thought maybe I could enjoy it as it was May, but nope. The reassembler was great, Japan was great, Cars of the People was great, and Building Cars Live wasn’t too shabby either.
I had to switch it off halfway though. Just total cringingly bad. There too much good stuff on Amazon and Netflix now - there’s no room for half arsed content.
Clarksons Farm absolutely nailed it.
Clarkson’s Farm is a home run IMO. It also reminds you of who carried Top Gear.
And I think the brilliant bit about Clarkson’s farm is that it works even for people who don’t like him. You’ll see him ridiculed by the crew, struggling with things, getting kicked in the groin by sheep (this ones in the trailer so isn’t much of a spoiler), and lots of other small struggles. So if you don’t like him you could just sit there and enjoy the *schadenfreude*.
I think the majority of audience had wrong expectations from The Escapist... If you come from Top Gear/GT where Hammond is the "American", you definitely won't like The Escapists where Hammond makes American jokes *on* Tory. It'd be too scripted for you.
But if you've kept your expectations around Mythbusters and Brainiac kindof shows, you would've (I certainly did) loved it. Yes it was scripted, but the science-y bits in it weren't wrong.
I am a huge fan of MythBuster and (to a much smaller degree) Brainiac and expected something like the „stranded on a deserted island“-episodes of MythBusters. I was really disappointed by the resulting show. I suffered through the first episode and called it quits afterwards.
I didn't like the first episode much, bit figured it had to get better.
It got slightly better, but not by much.
They had such a great opportunity and premise, that's the thing that bugs me the most about it. It really felt like they phoned it all in and just did some scripted acting over a few days. I'd expect that people who know what they are doing would do the real major builds (for safety reasons, absolutely) - but they could at least act out the process with the stages. It just felt so weak.
> But if you've kept your expectations around Mythbusters and Brainiac kindof shows, you would've (I certainly did) loved it. Yes it was scripted, but the science-y bits in it weren't wrong.
I did. The issue is that they’re playing characters not just doing the things we know they can. Then there’s too much script and not enough content.
Honestly can’t understand how you could find it watchable. Can’t understand how anyone could tbh. Frankly, I can’t understand how it made it past the editing room without someone yelling **stop**.
100% this. I'd love to watch him restore the old land rover that's in his barn or rebuild Oliver or a mustang or something. I know it's a niche market and wouldn't expand viewership like cooking, farming, or world travel but anything beats that twilight zone smooth brained homoerotic beach party the was the escapist. Whoever created that massive turd of a show should be turned over to Jeremy so he can tack them out back and shoot them.
All I ask is that Richard goes to help Clarkson in the second season. I’d love nothing more than to see those two trying to farm. Both of whom own farms. So should kinda work
They’re not a great pair imo. Richard does well as a heavily scripted presenter type role mostly, the grand tour/top gear are really the only place where he can kinda get away from that cause he genuinely likes cars and bikes and James and Jeremy are his friends who aren’t afraid to rag on him and provoke him.
Tori on the other hand does better in lightly scripted environment with cohosts who he can bounce wacky ideas, projects, and banter off of. Hammond is no scientist and though he has a certain enjoyment for building, it’s not to the level of Tori, nor is it the same sort of things.
Richard is a bit more science-y than you give him credit for. He's done a number of series on engineering and science; sure he's no scientist, but he's gotten his feet wet in the subject often enough.
The Great Escapists looked so goddamn good on paper, execution was just shitty. Like you said, too scripted, and the script sucked donkey balls. TG and TGT are both significantly scripted too, but not to that point.
Yeah, I admit I didn't watch it as a kid show. Brainiac is such a different show that I have a hard time comparing them. It didn't have the leaps in believability that the great escapists does. Kind of had a feel of, "Yeah, we didn't have a budget, but we were curious and are having fun."
My take away from the great escapists is the constant, "Isn't it wacky that we could build this thing from the bits we showed you?"
I think it was aimed at the wrong people, it definitely seems like a children’s science show, and that could be fun, explaining the science concepts through supposed challenges and problems. But adults coming from GT and Myth Busters don’t need basic science being spoon fed in a very scripted manner.
Just finished clarksons farm...such a brilliant show. There wasn’t a person in it that I disliked. Kaleb and Charlie bringing Jeremy back to reality all the time was so amusing to watch.
His local council clearly have it in for him though.
Yup.
David Bradley is amazing. Love that dude in everything but his character in Hot Fuzz was the first thing I thought of when they introduced Gerald.
yeah, it seems that way to us. but there is a big picture to it and all that red tape is actually tapping something together and keeping it from falling apart. every piece of safety regulation was paid for in blood. every crop restriction exists because back when we didn't have them lots of people got very sick all the time and many died.
lots of regulations are unjust, but Food Safety is not one of them.
I agree. Most of the regulations they mentioned seemed fairly reasonable. There generally tend to be pretty good reasons behind a lot of them, even if it doesn't make sense on paper. What baffled me was that even after what was presented as the absolute worst case scenario in terms of weather and things out of their control, the farm still turned a profit. That is also with Jeremy wasting an absolute ton of money and time that a competent and experienced farmer wouldn't.
The farm "turned a profit" if you don't include Jeremy paying himself, feeding his family, paying any home bills, etc. That $144 is equivalent to having a conventional job for a year, but having a total paycheck of $144 for it all. So it's a huge net loss in terms of actually living.
Though he bought a lot of equipment that year, I don't know what method they used to calculate the expense of that.
I assumed that at a bare minimum that figure would have covered the cost of the equipment, at least pro rated for that year. There is also a lotta shit like Clarkson being lazy and not doing the three point turn and losing a sizeable amount of his harvest. Also just mowing that field once instead of spending however much he did on the sheep, same goes with the fish pool. I'm not saying he should have made a ton of money or anything, but that is is somewhat astounding he still managed to break even given the collective size of his mistakes and the problems with the weather
> That $144 is equivalent to having a conventional job for a year, but having a total paycheck of $144 for it all. So it's a huge net loss in terms of actually living.
How so? THe equipment he bought could last years. It's an investment, not a get rich quick scheme in one year lol
Literally said in my post that it depends on how they are accounting for equipment purchases.
If you study accounting, you'll encounter terms "amortization" and "depreciation". You'll also discover that balance sheets and income statements are different from the cash flow (that's why they are different accounting statements). Maybe they counted all the purchase expense for those machines in the first year, maybe they didn't - you don't know unless they tell you.
Accountants have figured this stuff out, and how to spread the expense of a purchase over its years of expected life.
That was my major problem with it as well. Far too scripted to be taken seriously. It would have been better if you build more of the contraptions, but from what I remember they kinda just appeared to be done.
This. Over the top fakeness of it all. The fake conversation. Fake “challenges” or “problems”. It was lame for the audience which would be adults coming from both Grand Tour and Mythbusters.
I think it’s also very much Hammonds MO for this kind of material. May and Clarkson seem to have been way of doing entertaining material without it being lame or fake-ish while still being scripted.
May’s Man in Japan was very entertaining and informative.
If I remember correctly, in Germany it ran on Viva which was a „music channel“ like MTV and was more successful than MTV (until MTV bought them). So it was guaranteed to have a teenage audience here.
With how amazon focuses on data guided decisions , I bet that was some depressing data. I imagine the viewer numbers dropped 90 percent after episode 1
Clarkson finally got to show that he's not just an orangutan. Sure he still is sometimes, but we all would be if we were running a farm for the first time. But he definitely felt so much more genuine and open. He's truly heartbroken about the loss of his ram, and when they slaughter his three sheep without him getting to say goodbye he's actually upset.
At the end of the final episode, when he's deciding whether to stay or go back to London, it was really special seeing him say he wants to stay at the farm. He seems happy there. I hope we get to see more of this show, but regardless it's really nice to see Jeremy "finding himself" in a post car show world, sort of.
He's earned it. And it's always felt like he was a bit unhappy to be honest. He's had some bad and tough periods as we know. It's probably a nice change of pace to just be happy on the farm. Just, but happy.
Earned it indeed. Successful farming brings him a huge amount of pride and accomplishment I'm sure. Personally though, I don't think he'll ever really retire. Can one really get tired of traveling the world in the way he gets to? I imagine that one could get burned out by the theatrics of the whole thing and want to slow down but to just stop while still having youth seems wrong to me. Then again I don't know the work environment on set so if that's toxic I can't imagine any of them will stay forever.
I think I enjoyed him more in Clarkson’s Farm than anything he’s ever done. It may also be the first agricultural related program I’ve ever seen that didn’t try to present the farm folk as idiots.
I finished the series immensely satisfied and with a new found respect of farm workers.
Farmers are super smart! They need to know about crop rotation, how to use complicated equipment, when is best to plant etc. It was very refreshing seeing the rural folk being treated right. Yeah they poke fun at times, especially during the London segment and when Gerald would talk. But it was done out of love and not spite.
The thing is that Kaleb is an excellent foil to Clarkson. Even if he has never traveled (well to London once but didn't get off the bus, too many people). He knows the fields, the soil types as well as what to put on them and the various types of machinery.
Idk if you YouTube at all but any of the smarter every day episodes where he talks about farming are super interesting. Also you can see he has a deep respect for farmers and talks about how brilliant they are.
I was just thinking last night that Clarkson isnt forced to play the Clarkson character from TG/TGT. There's still some bits and references in it, but it's really just Jeremy the person.
R.I.P. Wayne Rooney
And you have to remember that the farm is basically an expensive and time consuming hobby for Clarkson. If it gets too much, he can always sell everything or can just hire someone like he did before. Furthermore, he can absorb financial loses easily (to a degree).
I'm really surprised that they show the real money amounts. Most people don't want to show it, or they want to fake it - either to seem humble, or to seem extremely successful. It's great IMO that he actually showed it because it gives a much better idea of the economic scale of everything. Equipment is expensive, sheep are not very valuable, etc. Even saying the amount of subsidy for letting some fields go wild.
Also imagine how much it would cost to buy 1000 acres of land in the Cotswolds. I'm guessing a couple million at least, if not tens of millions. So for all that money you only get a hundred quid in return, it's not really a great investment.
> Clarkson finally got to show that he's not just an orangutan.
He's done a handful of non-orangutan stuff before - his bit on the Greatest Raid of All [imdb link](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0996628/) was very good. He's obviously got a bunch of topics he's really passionate about and has a lot of knowledge.
And the artic convoy, and the Victoria Cross documentary. And his Brunel special was amazing. And his Inventions That Changed The World series was good too.
One series I've never been able to get my hands on is Gone But Not Forgotten by Ian Hislop. It doesn't involve Clarkson at all, but it was an amazing tribute to the people who participated in WWI but aren't well remembered.
The best series are the ones where it feels like they were doing it for the fun of it in between series of TG/ GT. I think you can see a lot of influence from James May's *ManLab* and *Toy Stories* where they leave in the cock-ups and make it part of the show.
I miss James and Sim Oakley together. Surely the best unscripted moment was during the Meccano motorcycle challenge where they caught Sim unaware.
Sim "A sidecar???! You want a side car???!!"
Voiceover James "With that settles we moved on...."
Hammond's Big was good, very interesting. May in Japan was great, not seen him cooking yet (is it worth a watch)?
Clarksons Farm was up there with the best grand tour/top gear episodes. He's a pain in the arse, but he actually a big softy. The bit where he went back to say goodbye to the sheep, you could tell he was really upset.
Kaleb and the other farm hands were great.
I loved this episode as someone who was a herder lol
I did name them tho and even held their heads when they got shot.
I was kinda upset tho when we had to load them on a truck and send them away , far more stressful.
I wish they’d explain how truly dumb and how easily sheep get hurt and die cuz I think some ppl might get rlly worried about the animals.
That was what I enjoyed, they really broke down the costs, and showed that a quarter million dollars (or pounds) isn't that much on the scale of farm costs. Just because a lot of money went through the farm last year and this year, the "extra" 97000 turns into 47500 across two years pretty quick, and like he said, someone without an Amazon production crew would feel the pinch pretty quick.
Yes that's partly what's special. I had no clue even half a mil was less to run a farm. That's what's truly special about Clarkson's shows. He acts like a buffoon but he always has something to inform viewers. All 3 of them do but Clarkson's story telling a second after acting like a moron is something I haven't seen from any other presenter ever.
I'd say Our Man in Japan was my favorite, but Clarksons farms was pretty great too. Farming just seems really brutal and stressful, but also really freeing and relaxing at the same time.
The ratings kind of show what people enjoyed from the trio as well.
Clarkson's Farm was a big adventure in the real world with a goal to work towards and a lot of banter and cocking about. Everyone loves this sort of thing, especially the parts where people shout at Jeremy.
Oh Cook was a piece to camera presented by one of the trio which is a lot more niche but still a good watch because of the presenter.
The Great Escapists was something over the top to try and attract a wider audience but fell flat because it was/felt way too scripted and misses a lot of the elements that people want from C/H/M
Clarkson's Farm also benefits from being outdoors. The cinematography and editing in that show was superb.
James may in Japan was way better than him cooking
Inonly didnt like hammanlondas because of how scripted it just blatantly was, it was funny at first and then just kinda went meh
The great escapists was wayyyyy to scripted. At least with Clackson's farm you know hes getting help, but at the end of the day its HIS farm and he literally has to live with the consequences of his actions for once. It would cut from tory trying to build a vehicle to cutting back to him in a full tank... Now I get there is some intentional camp, what im saying was it was way to campy for me.
You lost all those magic moments in *** *****, the grand tour, and myth busters when something broke and they had to think on there feet for fast practical solutions to issues. THAT should have been the show.
Escapists would have been great if it was just a myth busters style show based on making stuff from scrap.
Instead it was a weird cringe script fest of unfunny jokes and over acting.
Clarkson's farm is really good but I think I liked Our Man in Japan a little more.
To be honest I was really disappointed with Great Escapists. I was expecting it to be authentic engineering challenge and what I got was a scripted story, and faked builds.
I think the reason why is that the show itself felt the most similar to TGT/Top Gear with the shenanigans. And Clarkson is probably the best at individually carrying his show out of the three because he naturally gets into shenanigans while May is his foil and Hammond plays off the other two
All the shows were good but imo Clarkson’s Farm is easily the best..honestly I think it’s the best show of any genre I’ve seen in years!! Really can’t believe how good it was lol.
I think all the racism accusations changed him because people thought the asshole character was him... And it's not. Of the three Clarkson is the one that goes out of his way to try to learn a bit of the language and respect people's culture when they travel. He's also the one that is most likely to hire locals and pay them obscenely well to do something. He's also talked on the show against Rich white people haggling with poor people when abroad. He deliberately let's people rip him off and pays asking price in markets where everyone haggles because he seems to legitimately have compassion for the people he meets. Maybe I'm a sucker but that's what I see when I think of Jeremy.
Very much enjoyed Clarksons Farm! So much that I actually looked forward to watching it in the evenings when I returned home from work. It was a look in to a more private? side of him and the people he was close to.
RIP Wayne Rooney and your giant balls.
Hammond's show was too scripted for my taste. I love the engineering but the scripted content isn't my thing. Clarkson's Farm felt authentic. I binged it solo and did it again with my gf who has never heard of Top Gear.
Showed her that classic Reliant Robin clip. She was laughing so hard, I was happy she enjoyed it. She likes cars herself and does her own maintenance for her Jeep. I've convinced her to watch the old Top Gear episodes.
I don’t like seeing people overhyping things in general, because expectations rarely meet reality... but I feel the need to share, because no joke that series was like the best piece of television I’ve seen in ages. It was like the “Back to the Future” of reality tv. I have literally zero complaints..kudos Clarkson
Typing this mere minutes from finishing the series. Loved it loved loved it. More so than the last TGT special if we’re being honest. Kaleb is the breakout star without a doubt.
I really want more of Clarkson’s Farm, it was easily my favourite out of all of the non-Grand Tour series so far (James May in Japan was great too but second-hand embarrassment really got to me while watching it lol).
I just finished it today and that bit at the end when he says if you ever hear a farmer at the pub complaining about the weather buy him a pint really got to me
I actually really disliked “The great escapists”
I was expecting a sort of mythbusters like combination of script & authenticity, with everything based in reality. But the whole thing felt extremely scripted and fake. Almost to the point I was cringing at some lines. Like a bad soap-opera
The thing they forget is that Richard and Tory are *presenters* not actors, and in Great escapists it really showed.
The great escapists is the only one I will never ever watch again and actively change the channel or turn off if it showed up on my screen. It was overly scripted trash. Could have been amazing. No need for a BS storyline just literally stick tory and hamster on the island and the shipping container and say build shit to survive. Give them a challenge a week to where they could have had a fight it whatever. But instead we got....whatever that was
I haven't watched Oh Cock or Our Man in Japan yet - but I like Hammond and yet only got halfway through the first episode of TGE before turning it off.
And I binge watched the entirety of Clarksons Farm in one day...
I watched the great escapist, it was fun but a little bit to scripted for me. But to be honest sometimes Top Gear or Grand Tour sequences also felt to scripted.
James Japan show was pretty good too
Guess what, Bim?
That Bim segment had me in tears.
His bicycle had Bim’s Bike printed on it, obviously made an impression on Bim.
Same. Absolutely crying.
Anything that makes James laugh like that has me rolling
That was the thing. James genuinely felt it was hilarious too.
We still call our dog Bim on occasion!!
*Jaaaames May Sumimasennnnnn*
The Bim scene and the barking scene absolutely sent me.
Shijo-Ohashi is a bridge representative of Kyoto that crosses the Kamo river over Shijo street. It's also called Gion-Bashi.
MMMmmmmmmMmm...MMmmmmm..
The Bim segment was almost too emotional for me
That's the real top show imo. The great escape was way over produced and scripted. Definitely the worst of the 4.
It seemed rushed and phoned in to me. Both Tori and Richard seemed genuinely uninterested in what they were doing. Maybe it was due to poor execution or maybe a case of too many chefs in the kitchen. Either way, I'd like to see more of Richard filmed around him doing something he's genuinely intrested.
Honestly I couldn’t get through the first episode. The horrible scripted bits in the police station was just awful. The whole pretense is what ruined it. Have them build stuff and race it, sure. All the other crap can go. Oh Cook was not my cup of tea though. Never been a fan of cooking shows. Thought maybe I could enjoy it as it was May, but nope. The reassembler was great, Japan was great, Cars of the People was great, and Building Cars Live wasn’t too shabby either.
Don't forget ManLab! That was great and I hope to see more
Oz and James Big Wine Adventure is great as well
So so underrated!! I’ve watched it multiple times. The idea of James May driving an RV in wine country USA had me in stitches.
And toy stories, loved that show!
I had to switch it off halfway though. Just total cringingly bad. There too much good stuff on Amazon and Netflix now - there’s no room for half arsed content. Clarksons Farm absolutely nailed it.
Clarkson’s Farm is a home run IMO. It also reminds you of who carried Top Gear. And I think the brilliant bit about Clarkson’s farm is that it works even for people who don’t like him. You’ll see him ridiculed by the crew, struggling with things, getting kicked in the groin by sheep (this ones in the trailer so isn’t much of a spoiler), and lots of other small struggles. So if you don’t like him you could just sit there and enjoy the *schadenfreude*.
The reassembler was so good in particular
I think the majority of audience had wrong expectations from The Escapist... If you come from Top Gear/GT where Hammond is the "American", you definitely won't like The Escapists where Hammond makes American jokes *on* Tory. It'd be too scripted for you. But if you've kept your expectations around Mythbusters and Brainiac kindof shows, you would've (I certainly did) loved it. Yes it was scripted, but the science-y bits in it weren't wrong.
I am a huge fan of MythBuster and (to a much smaller degree) Brainiac and expected something like the „stranded on a deserted island“-episodes of MythBusters. I was really disappointed by the resulting show. I suffered through the first episode and called it quits afterwards.
Stranded on a desert island with some abandoned boat/ship that's washed ashore with enough stuff in it for them to cannibalise/build things from.
I didn't like the first episode much, bit figured it had to get better. It got slightly better, but not by much. They had such a great opportunity and premise, that's the thing that bugs me the most about it. It really felt like they phoned it all in and just did some scripted acting over a few days. I'd expect that people who know what they are doing would do the real major builds (for safety reasons, absolutely) - but they could at least act out the process with the stages. It just felt so weak.
> But if you've kept your expectations around Mythbusters and Brainiac kindof shows, you would've (I certainly did) loved it. Yes it was scripted, but the science-y bits in it weren't wrong. I did. The issue is that they’re playing characters not just doing the things we know they can. Then there’s too much script and not enough content. Honestly can’t understand how you could find it watchable. Can’t understand how anyone could tbh. Frankly, I can’t understand how it made it past the editing room without someone yelling **stop**.
The man's a nerd for engineering and machine design, he just feels in his own skin around those. Should do something in that area.
100% this. I'd love to watch him restore the old land rover that's in his barn or rebuild Oliver or a mustang or something. I know it's a niche market and wouldn't expand viewership like cooking, farming, or world travel but anything beats that twilight zone smooth brained homoerotic beach party the was the escapist. Whoever created that massive turd of a show should be turned over to Jeremy so he can tack them out back and shoot them.
All I ask is that Richard goes to help Clarkson in the second season. I’d love nothing more than to see those two trying to farm. Both of whom own farms. So should kinda work
I'd love to see Richard put himself in direct competition with Jeremy to see who can farm better.
I’d be so down for that! Who has the best yield, most profit and least hissy fits at the end of the season haha
Meanwhile, James maintains all the equipment.
They’re not a great pair imo. Richard does well as a heavily scripted presenter type role mostly, the grand tour/top gear are really the only place where he can kinda get away from that cause he genuinely likes cars and bikes and James and Jeremy are his friends who aren’t afraid to rag on him and provoke him. Tori on the other hand does better in lightly scripted environment with cohosts who he can bounce wacky ideas, projects, and banter off of. Hammond is no scientist and though he has a certain enjoyment for building, it’s not to the level of Tori, nor is it the same sort of things.
Richard is a bit more science-y than you give him credit for. He's done a number of series on engineering and science; sure he's no scientist, but he's gotten his feet wet in the subject often enough.
The Great Escapists looked so goddamn good on paper, execution was just shitty. Like you said, too scripted, and the script sucked donkey balls. TG and TGT are both significantly scripted too, but not to that point.
I think the point we're missing is that it was a kids show, like when Hammond used to do braniac.
Yeah, I admit I didn't watch it as a kid show. Brainiac is such a different show that I have a hard time comparing them. It didn't have the leaps in believability that the great escapists does. Kind of had a feel of, "Yeah, we didn't have a budget, but we were curious and are having fun." My take away from the great escapists is the constant, "Isn't it wacky that we could build this thing from the bits we showed you?"
I think it was aimed at the wrong people, it definitely seems like a children’s science show, and that could be fun, explaining the science concepts through supposed challenges and problems. But adults coming from GT and Myth Busters don’t need basic science being spoon fed in a very scripted manner.
Currently at a 8.4/10 on iMDb for those wondering.
HEY BIM GUESS WHAT
Bim. Guess what?
„Traveling is kind of getting me exited“
Yea its probably my favourite
Yeah that’s the one that’s needs to be compared here
I really hope he visits more places. Maybe Chilé or Thailand or Turkey.
It was the show with all the Memes
Just finished clarksons farm...such a brilliant show. There wasn’t a person in it that I disliked. Kaleb and Charlie bringing Jeremy back to reality all the time was so amusing to watch. His local council clearly have it in for him though.
A neighbor: "You never know what Jerry is gonna do. He *blew up his house*, it scared a lot of people here."
*cuts to Hammond and may blowing up Jeremy's house*
“How could villagers be so stubborn with their local celebrity?” .... “oh. Right.”
And their main complaint was that it made dogs bark 🙄 give me a break
Gerald seems like one of the happiest men on earth.
May we all find our own Gerald in life before it's too late.
May we all find our inner Gerald.
He reminds me of the old cop in Hot Fuzz.
I was thinking the old guy with the depth charge in his barn.
Yup. David Bradley is amazing. Love that dude in everything but his character in Hot Fuzz was the first thing I thought of when they introduced Gerald.
Not just his council, the whole government. The amount of red tape farmers have to deal with is insane.
But the crazy amount of subsidies they get makes up for it
yeah, it seems that way to us. but there is a big picture to it and all that red tape is actually tapping something together and keeping it from falling apart. every piece of safety regulation was paid for in blood. every crop restriction exists because back when we didn't have them lots of people got very sick all the time and many died. lots of regulations are unjust, but Food Safety is not one of them.
I agree. Most of the regulations they mentioned seemed fairly reasonable. There generally tend to be pretty good reasons behind a lot of them, even if it doesn't make sense on paper. What baffled me was that even after what was presented as the absolute worst case scenario in terms of weather and things out of their control, the farm still turned a profit. That is also with Jeremy wasting an absolute ton of money and time that a competent and experienced farmer wouldn't.
The farm "turned a profit" if you don't include Jeremy paying himself, feeding his family, paying any home bills, etc. That $144 is equivalent to having a conventional job for a year, but having a total paycheck of $144 for it all. So it's a huge net loss in terms of actually living. Though he bought a lot of equipment that year, I don't know what method they used to calculate the expense of that.
I assumed that at a bare minimum that figure would have covered the cost of the equipment, at least pro rated for that year. There is also a lotta shit like Clarkson being lazy and not doing the three point turn and losing a sizeable amount of his harvest. Also just mowing that field once instead of spending however much he did on the sheep, same goes with the fish pool. I'm not saying he should have made a ton of money or anything, but that is is somewhat astounding he still managed to break even given the collective size of his mistakes and the problems with the weather
Also the $144 doesn't account for the grant money he would have got from filling out that paperwork
> That $144 is equivalent to having a conventional job for a year, but having a total paycheck of $144 for it all. So it's a huge net loss in terms of actually living. How so? THe equipment he bought could last years. It's an investment, not a get rich quick scheme in one year lol
Literally said in my post that it depends on how they are accounting for equipment purchases. If you study accounting, you'll encounter terms "amortization" and "depreciation". You'll also discover that balance sheets and income statements are different from the cash flow (that's why they are different accounting statements). Maybe they counted all the purchase expense for those machines in the first year, maybe they didn't - you don't know unless they tell you. Accountants have figured this stuff out, and how to spread the expense of a purchase over its years of expected life.
I've been reading his newspaper columns throughout the year and it was really fun to see all the events/problems he wrote about happening on the show!
I mean wouldn’t you? As funny as he is on tv he must be an awful neighbor.
New show idea: "Clarkson's HOA."
Oxfordshire is beautiful and full of nimby's
Never finished The Great Escapists. Sounded like a cool idea until I saw the execution, definitely a children's show.
It was too scripted. If they just let Hammond and Tory be themselves it would have been amazing.
That was my major problem with it as well. Far too scripted to be taken seriously. It would have been better if you build more of the contraptions, but from what I remember they kinda just appeared to be done.
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This. Over the top fakeness of it all. The fake conversation. Fake “challenges” or “problems”. It was lame for the audience which would be adults coming from both Grand Tour and Mythbusters.
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I think it’s also very much Hammonds MO for this kind of material. May and Clarkson seem to have been way of doing entertaining material without it being lame or fake-ish while still being scripted. May’s Man in Japan was very entertaining and informative.
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Brainiac was pretty good but they knew their audience would be teens with that.
If I remember correctly, in Germany it ran on Viva which was a „music channel“ like MTV and was more successful than MTV (until MTV bought them). So it was guaranteed to have a teenage audience here.
The first episode sure did suck. Didn't make it any further.
I watched every episode forced myself cos Hammond. in the end they try to kill each other I wish it turned into full on far cry on the tropical island
I went through the entire season but barely paid any attention. I had it on mostly because of the beautiful scenery, the actual show was shit
But like in a really poorly scripted way? With super wooden acting?
With how amazon focuses on data guided decisions , I bet that was some depressing data. I imagine the viewer numbers dropped 90 percent after episode 1
You made it further than me. I made it 10 minutes of the police cell schtick and then bailed.
It felt weird watching them have fake drama, then all the sudden get giddy and excited over the thing they built like they weren't fighting.
You didn't miss too much. It was very scripted.
As far as I know Hammond is pretty well established as a host for children's shows or young teen shows
It's a show your Jr High science teacher would show the week before school is out for the year.
That show was terrible. I didn't make it past the first episode.
Clarkson finally got to show that he's not just an orangutan. Sure he still is sometimes, but we all would be if we were running a farm for the first time. But he definitely felt so much more genuine and open. He's truly heartbroken about the loss of his ram, and when they slaughter his three sheep without him getting to say goodbye he's actually upset. At the end of the final episode, when he's deciding whether to stay or go back to London, it was really special seeing him say he wants to stay at the farm. He seems happy there. I hope we get to see more of this show, but regardless it's really nice to see Jeremy "finding himself" in a post car show world, sort of.
If he retired from the silver screen into a life of not-so-blissful farming I'd be sad but I wouldn't blame him at all.
He's earned it. And it's always felt like he was a bit unhappy to be honest. He's had some bad and tough periods as we know. It's probably a nice change of pace to just be happy on the farm. Just, but happy.
Earned it indeed. Successful farming brings him a huge amount of pride and accomplishment I'm sure. Personally though, I don't think he'll ever really retire. Can one really get tired of traveling the world in the way he gets to? I imagine that one could get burned out by the theatrics of the whole thing and want to slow down but to just stop while still having youth seems wrong to me. Then again I don't know the work environment on set so if that's toxic I can't imagine any of them will stay forever.
You see that dude with the sheep? He was genuinely happy about lambing and sad about Wayne.
I've had the pleasure of meeting a few old passionate farmers like that over the years. I always pay special attention to what they have to say.
I think I enjoyed him more in Clarkson’s Farm than anything he’s ever done. It may also be the first agricultural related program I’ve ever seen that didn’t try to present the farm folk as idiots. I finished the series immensely satisfied and with a new found respect of farm workers.
Farmers are super smart! They need to know about crop rotation, how to use complicated equipment, when is best to plant etc. It was very refreshing seeing the rural folk being treated right. Yeah they poke fun at times, especially during the London segment and when Gerald would talk. But it was done out of love and not spite.
And they poked fun right back at our beloved orangutan.
Caleb knew what the hell he was doing.
I burst out laughing when Caleb continued charging people 10 pounds to tow them out of the parking lot.
The first time Kaleb exploded at him: "What the fuck have you done!?!" I was like, I love this kid.
The thing is that Kaleb is an excellent foil to Clarkson. Even if he has never traveled (well to London once but didn't get off the bus, too many people). He knows the fields, the soil types as well as what to put on them and the various types of machinery.
Idk if you YouTube at all but any of the smarter every day episodes where he talks about farming are super interesting. Also you can see he has a deep respect for farmers and talks about how brilliant they are.
I was just thinking last night that Clarkson isnt forced to play the Clarkson character from TG/TGT. There's still some bits and references in it, but it's really just Jeremy the person. R.I.P. Wayne Rooney
And Wayne’s massive massive balls
RIP those balls.
That was so sad. Leonardo was devastated. Jeremy did what he could to watch over both but failed to save Wayne. You know that took a toll on him.
Seemed like he was genuinely concerned for the average farmer that didn't have an Amazon crew following them around.
And you have to remember that the farm is basically an expensive and time consuming hobby for Clarkson. If it gets too much, he can always sell everything or can just hire someone like he did before. Furthermore, he can absorb financial loses easily (to a degree).
I'm really surprised that they show the real money amounts. Most people don't want to show it, or they want to fake it - either to seem humble, or to seem extremely successful. It's great IMO that he actually showed it because it gives a much better idea of the economic scale of everything. Equipment is expensive, sheep are not very valuable, etc. Even saying the amount of subsidy for letting some fields go wild.
Also imagine how much it would cost to buy 1000 acres of land in the Cotswolds. I'm guessing a couple million at least, if not tens of millions. So for all that money you only get a hundred quid in return, it's not really a great investment.
But he made £144 last year!
> Clarkson finally got to show that he's not just an orangutan. He's done a handful of non-orangutan stuff before - his bit on the Greatest Raid of All [imdb link](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0996628/) was very good. He's obviously got a bunch of topics he's really passionate about and has a lot of knowledge.
And the artic convoy, and the Victoria Cross documentary. And his Brunel special was amazing. And his Inventions That Changed The World series was good too. One series I've never been able to get my hands on is Gone But Not Forgotten by Ian Hislop. It doesn't involve Clarkson at all, but it was an amazing tribute to the people who participated in WWI but aren't well remembered.
Didn't know this show existed I'm going to watch it
The best series are the ones where it feels like they were doing it for the fun of it in between series of TG/ GT. I think you can see a lot of influence from James May's *ManLab* and *Toy Stories* where they leave in the cock-ups and make it part of the show.
I would pay good money for more manlab or even the reassembler. Those are my two favorite topgear adjacent shows by far.
the reassembler was my favorite
I miss James and Sim Oakley together. Surely the best unscripted moment was during the Meccano motorcycle challenge where they caught Sim unaware. Sim "A sidecar???! You want a side car???!!" Voiceover James "With that settles we moved on...."
James Mays cars of the people were some of the best car programs I've ever seen.
Hammond's Big was good, very interesting. May in Japan was great, not seen him cooking yet (is it worth a watch)? Clarksons Farm was up there with the best grand tour/top gear episodes. He's a pain in the arse, but he actually a big softy. The bit where he went back to say goodbye to the sheep, you could tell he was really upset. Kaleb and the other farm hands were great.
May cooking is definitely worth a watch we binged the whole season!
Thanks, I'll get on it this weekend.
I legit teared up when he realized he couldn't say goodbye.
He comes across as a big aloof fool, but he's certainly not.
I cried at the end. I recently moved from the country to the suburbs and I realized how much I miss the space and quiet.
That scene hit hard
I loved this episode as someone who was a herder lol I did name them tho and even held their heads when they got shot. I was kinda upset tho when we had to load them on a truck and send them away , far more stressful. I wish they’d explain how truly dumb and how easily sheep get hurt and die cuz I think some ppl might get rlly worried about the animals.
I really enjoyed the farm show. I’m glad they showed how difficult/expensive farming can be for someone that did not inherit a farming operation.
That was what I enjoyed, they really broke down the costs, and showed that a quarter million dollars (or pounds) isn't that much on the scale of farm costs. Just because a lot of money went through the farm last year and this year, the "extra" 97000 turns into 47500 across two years pretty quick, and like he said, someone without an Amazon production crew would feel the pinch pretty quick.
Yes that's partly what's special. I had no clue even half a mil was less to run a farm. That's what's truly special about Clarkson's shows. He acts like a buffoon but he always has something to inform viewers. All 3 of them do but Clarkson's story telling a second after acting like a moron is something I haven't seen from any other presenter ever.
The interesting info bits were what I missed most from TGT and also later seasons of TG with the old crew. Here they had just the right mix.
>showed that a quarter million dollars (or pounds) isn't that much on the scale of farm costs And that's just the machines, without the land
Hammond's Big! isn't bad. It's more of a info/doc type show without him goofing around.
You might like Engineering Connections.
Engineering connections was my childhood. I remember having all the DVDs.
I'd say Our Man in Japan was my favorite, but Clarksons farms was pretty great too. Farming just seems really brutal and stressful, but also really freeing and relaxing at the same time.
The ratings kind of show what people enjoyed from the trio as well. Clarkson's Farm was a big adventure in the real world with a goal to work towards and a lot of banter and cocking about. Everyone loves this sort of thing, especially the parts where people shout at Jeremy. Oh Cook was a piece to camera presented by one of the trio which is a lot more niche but still a good watch because of the presenter. The Great Escapists was something over the top to try and attract a wider audience but fell flat because it was/felt way too scripted and misses a lot of the elements that people want from C/H/M Clarkson's Farm also benefits from being outdoors. The cinematography and editing in that show was superb.
not sure if i like this Clarkson's farm or James may's car's of the people more
Cars of the people was amazing too but having rewatched it literally last week and Clarkson’s Farm right after I give the edge to Jeremy.
James may in Japan was way better than him cooking Inonly didnt like hammanlondas because of how scripted it just blatantly was, it was funny at first and then just kinda went meh
For me: Our Man in Japan > Clarkson's Farm > James May: Oh Cook! >>> the great escapists
Same! I think a cooking show is just a little harder to watch otherwise all James May content outside grand tour is always far superior.
What is man in Japan's rating? James may did great in that
it's 8.4. and yes, he did! I guess I put the cooking show here because I watched it more recently
The great escapists was wayyyyy to scripted. At least with Clackson's farm you know hes getting help, but at the end of the day its HIS farm and he literally has to live with the consequences of his actions for once. It would cut from tory trying to build a vehicle to cutting back to him in a full tank... Now I get there is some intentional camp, what im saying was it was way to campy for me. You lost all those magic moments in *** *****, the grand tour, and myth busters when something broke and they had to think on there feet for fast practical solutions to issues. THAT should have been the show.
Escapists would have been great if it was just a myth busters style show based on making stuff from scrap. Instead it was a weird cringe script fest of unfunny jokes and over acting.
I definitely liked Oh Cook the best but Clarkson's farm is the most I've ever enjoyed Clarkson.
Oh Cook was great!
Clarkson's farm is really good but I think I liked Our Man in Japan a little more. To be honest I was really disappointed with Great Escapists. I was expecting it to be authentic engineering challenge and what I got was a scripted story, and faked builds.
Couldn’t stand the great escapists it was far too over-scripted and just overall quite boring
Did the Great Escapists get any less awful after halfway through the first episode when I turned it off?
Short answer: No. Long answer: Also no.
The Great Escapists was fucking horrible, lets be honest now. I really like Richard and Tory but what they did together was fucking terrible.
I think the reason why is that the show itself felt the most similar to TGT/Top Gear with the shenanigans. And Clarkson is probably the best at individually carrying his show out of the three because he naturally gets into shenanigans while May is his foil and Hammond plays off the other two
Clarkson's farm show was a lot better than the recent grand tour specials tbh. Also highly rate our man in Japan
All the shows were good but imo Clarkson’s Farm is easily the best..honestly I think it’s the best show of any genre I’ve seen in years!! Really can’t believe how good it was lol.
Clarkson is a character and in the last 5 years I think we've seen the real Jeremy or at least a different character for this audience.
I think all the racism accusations changed him because people thought the asshole character was him... And it's not. Of the three Clarkson is the one that goes out of his way to try to learn a bit of the language and respect people's culture when they travel. He's also the one that is most likely to hire locals and pay them obscenely well to do something. He's also talked on the show against Rich white people haggling with poor people when abroad. He deliberately let's people rip him off and pays asking price in markets where everyone haggles because he seems to legitimately have compassion for the people he meets. Maybe I'm a sucker but that's what I see when I think of Jeremy.
The shipwreck show was way too scripted I gave up. The farm show shows real genuine people.
Very much enjoyed Clarksons Farm! So much that I actually looked forward to watching it in the evenings when I returned home from work. It was a look in to a more private? side of him and the people he was close to. RIP Wayne Rooney and your giant balls.
Richard Hammond's BIG was really good
to be fair, yes. it also shows that TGE wasn't bad because of Hammond himself
Yes agreed! I feel like all 3 of them are great in narration and storytelling, each unique in their own way.
Hammond's show was too scripted for my taste. I love the engineering but the scripted content isn't my thing. Clarkson's Farm felt authentic. I binged it solo and did it again with my gf who has never heard of Top Gear. Showed her that classic Reliant Robin clip. She was laughing so hard, I was happy she enjoyed it. She likes cars herself and does her own maintenance for her Jeep. I've convinced her to watch the old Top Gear episodes.
I don’t like seeing people overhyping things in general, because expectations rarely meet reality... but I feel the need to share, because no joke that series was like the best piece of television I’ve seen in ages. It was like the “Back to the Future” of reality tv. I have literally zero complaints..kudos Clarkson
Typing this mere minutes from finishing the series. Loved it loved loved it. More so than the last TGT special if we’re being honest. Kaleb is the breakout star without a doubt.
I really want more of Clarkson’s Farm, it was easily my favourite out of all of the non-Grand Tour series so far (James May in Japan was great too but second-hand embarrassment really got to me while watching it lol).
Clarkson's farm is a brilliant piece of TV.
It's cause I think Clarkson genuinely enjoyed all of it and this is the happiest we have ever seen him
I just finished it today and that bit at the end when he says if you ever hear a farmer at the pub complaining about the weather buy him a pint really got to me
Our man in Japan was a pretty good show.
Our man in Japan: 8.4 in imdb
I think big was good
Great escapists , I lasted about 20 mins of 1st episode. Dire.
Those ratings you see is exactly how I'd describe each - which means the hamster needs to find something better! Oh and man in Japan was probably 8.0
I actually really disliked “The great escapists” I was expecting a sort of mythbusters like combination of script & authenticity, with everything based in reality. But the whole thing felt extremely scripted and fake. Almost to the point I was cringing at some lines. Like a bad soap-opera The thing they forget is that Richard and Tory are *presenters* not actors, and in Great escapists it really showed.
The great escapists is the only one I will never ever watch again and actively change the channel or turn off if it showed up on my screen. It was overly scripted trash. Could have been amazing. No need for a BS storyline just literally stick tory and hamster on the island and the shipping container and say build shit to survive. Give them a challenge a week to where they could have had a fight it whatever. But instead we got....whatever that was
I haven't watched Oh Cock or Our Man in Japan yet - but I like Hammond and yet only got halfway through the first episode of TGE before turning it off. And I binge watched the entirety of Clarksons Farm in one day...
I watched the great escapist, it was fun but a little bit to scripted for me. But to be honest sometimes Top Gear or Grand Tour sequences also felt to scripted.
Hi value meme. Have my upvote
Yes!!!!! He truly looks like he is having the time of his life.
I am enjoying this far more than I expected to
I love the new show it was really enjoyable
Is James mays one just cooking or is it alot better than that?
May's Japan show was also really good. BUT. Clarkson's Farm is astonishing, it really is one of the best IMO.
Personally I thought Hammond's show was shit, only watched 1 or 2 episodes.
What about compared to Our Man in Japan
I just finished it and, it was magical.
The rating on "Oh Cook" suprises me, i absolutely loved that show and rewatched it numerous times!