Monday, November 13, 2017

Mike Skinner, The Grand Tour's pro race car driver and lap time test driver, announced he will not be back for Season Two.


He said his reason was that his character wasn't developed as he'd been informed it would be.


5 months ago, the following was written about the role Mike Skinner had on The Grand Tour

In the Grand Tour, Mike Skinner’s role as “The American” play’s the part of the boasting, self-deceived race car driver telling bad jokes. The problem is, the Grand Tour forgot the most important element of developing a character; background.

The Grand Tour dropped the ball when it came to “The American” by failing to introduce us to Mike Skinner via a skit of some sort or another. If they had made a film where the boys had to compete in one of their famous silly races and were only able to finish it due to the heroic assistance of “The American”; we the audience, would have had the background we needed in order to relate to the role that their new staff race car driver has been asked to play.

https://drivetribe.com/p/can-the-americans-role-in-the-grand-UH6N8cj5RZC53Dg7q4SqiQ?iid=JVwNYJxtT1q4NX0bkbQ8Uw
http://www.roadandtrack.com/car-culture/a13450770/grand-tour-season-2-american-driver-axed/

and also, 5 months ago, it was pointed out that his role on the Grand Tour needed to be dropped to make the show better:

In place of The Stig in The Grand Tour is guest driver Mike Skinner as 'The American'. His job is to drive cars around their track and set a fastest time. Fine.

But sadly, Skinner is simply not entertaining. Whatsoever. As a bit of a NASCAR favourite in the States, he was clearly appointed to please American viewers, but at no point have we found ourselves even raising a smile during his appearances.

All that happens with each segment is Jeremy making some kind of gag relating to Skinner not liking communists and then cut to the driver moaning about how crap the car is. He genuinely looks pissed off that he's come to the UK.

They would be much better placed to employ the services of a charismatic and funny racer known the world over.

http://www.digitalspy.com/tv/the-grand-tour/feature/a819735/the-grand-tour-season-2-things-to-change/

5 comments:

  1. I found the segment with Mike to be more irritating than entertaining. I have no problem laughing at myself, but this was over the top stupid and insulting to me as an American. And boring.

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    1. agreed. It was completely off from the rest of the shows vibe

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  2. Thank goodness for that! I was hoping they were going to re-tool a bit for season 2, and dropping the American was at the top of the list. When you have someone who is less entertaining than a similar TV personality who never spoke, and whose face we never saw, you have quite a problem.

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    1. well, dang. You hit the heart of the problem right there. Very astute....

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  3. Great lil review! "The American" was the most grating part of the show, so bad I kinda assumed, "I think Jeremy Clarkson is the only one who finds this kind of humor funny." I wasn't even offended, just didn't find it funny in the slightest. I don't think anybody did. There probably was a way to do a character like him correctly, I like how you pointed out the possibility of a backstory. But also hit the nail on the head at how lame the jokes were: him basically saying "this car is crap", and Jeremy saying, "he thinks anything without bacon and cheese is communist." The worst part is there could be more depth to these jokes, if they ever got fleshed out, but that's literally all we get. Surface level, puddle-deep, "crap car/everything is communist" jokes.

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