{"id":12639,"date":"2024-03-05T21:51:57","date_gmt":"2024-03-05T21:51:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/?p=12639"},"modified":"2024-03-06T06:34:48","modified_gmt":"2024-03-06T06:34:48","slug":"media-sand-job-grand-tour-24","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/?p=12639","title":{"rendered":"MEDiA: Sand Job, Grand Tour, \u201824"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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There are a few good visual sequences in this episode. The iron ore train at the beginning is pretty impressive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Mauretrainia. Geddit!?<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Very long iron ore train\u2026<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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\u2026 very, very long train.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Titled, with their usual schoolboy humour, Sand Job<\/em> (Seamen<\/em>, Massive Hunt<\/em>, etc.), this is rumoured to be, poss\u2019, the last Grand Tour ever.<\/em> Sad. So here\u2019s to enjoying it, while it lasts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jeremy Clarkson has said on this show, in a previous Special (?), that he\u2019s \u2018never as happy as I am in a desert\u2019. This episode takes place in Mauretania.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Three goons\u2026<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The trio drive their stoopid cars through a segment of The Sahara. In a kind of low budget partial Paris Dakar rally. As usual, I don\u2019t really care about the vehicles. The fun is watching these clowns goofing around in exotic locations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These \u2018special\u2019 style episodes are the best aspect of The Grand Tour. Mostly \u2018cause they\u2019re mildly interesting and mildly exciting travelogues. A welcome dose of no expenses spared globetrotting fun, quite attractive for the penniless sofa-bound traveller by proxy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Stoopid cars. This \u2018uns a Maserati, I think.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

This episode has Jezzer fretting over Ebola (remember the Ebola-drome test track?), land mines, African war-zones, and the lack of alcohol in Muslim countries, such as Mauretania.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hammond is his usual chirpy self, May his normal slightly clever slightly curmudgeonly persona, and Jezzer\u2019s the big n\u2019 beefy naughty public schoolboy, who simply refuses to grow up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Failing at dumb challenges.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Frankly, they face better challenges in other episodes, frankly. This isn\u2019t the best of The Specials. But it\u2019s ok. And for me, with this show, that\u2019s alright. So, kind of business as usual?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As well as beaucoup (or encore?) le desert, they visit towns and cities: starting in Choum, they visit Chinguetti (famous for its ancient libraries, and busily being gobbled up by The Sahara), Nouakchott, and very nearly get to Dakar\u2026 \u2018and on that bombshell\u2019, almost too literally, it all ends.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Sun, sea and sand (lots of the latter).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

As a wee footnote, here\u2019s a piece in The Independent about Jezza<\/a>. It came up when I was trying to find which Special it was in which he said words to the effect of \u2018I\u2019m never so happy as I am when I\u2019m in a desert\u2019. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Clarkson would almost certainly be utterly contemptuous of the \u2018tofu eating knit your own muesli\u2019 vibe in the linked piece. And it is pretty awful and pathetic in some respects. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But it also touches upon genuine problems, re his loutish bully-boy ignorance, and problematic position as public figure, and therefore, to use the current parlance, influencer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There are a few good visual sequences in this episode. The iron ore train at the beginning is pretty impressive. Titled, with their usual schoolboy humour, Sand Job (Seamen, Massive Hunt, etc.), this is rumoured to be, poss\u2019, the last Grand Tour ever. Sad. So here\u2019s to enjoying it, while it lasts. Jeremy Clarkson has … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “MEDiA: Sand Job, Grand Tour, \u201824”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paGwUa-3hR","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12639"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12639"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12639\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12666,"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12639\/revisions\/12666"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12639"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12639"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12639"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}