On reflection...
I've watched the new series twice over now and have really enjoyed the new presenters.
The main thing that Amazon (presumably powered by Wilman and Clarkson's experience) realised that the BBC has utterly failed to take on board, is that you need real, dedicated, petrol-head nerds. You need car journalists, not just shouty 'tv presenters' who quite like Ferraris.
The Throttle House guys are exactly that. They know cars inside out, just like the three previous car journalists, Clarkson, Hammond, and May knew cars.
And, of course, Francis is a revelation! He's an absolute petrol-head. And he's also a diesel-head (if the diesel is a 2,000 HP Class 40 locomotive). And he can out-nerd James May six days a week.
My only reservation is how safe they played it: every episode felt like it could have been from the CHM era. I hope they did this deliberately for the first series, to ease the old fans in, and will innovate more as time goes by. I hope they will, I hope that it will become far more their show.
And I certainly have far more confidence that this will run for a few more series than whatever they're doing over at the BBC. We've all read the rumours that Jimmy Carr is in the running for the main host. Don't get me wrong, he's fine presenting '8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown' or 'The Big Fat Quiz', but does he really know very much about cars? There's a reason that Chris Harris was the best post-CHM Top Gear presenter, and it's nothing to do with what other TV shows he's presented.
