I caught it last night by sheer accident.
It caught me by surprise because they were slated to start today, November 18, 2016. But I saw this just now in their Facebook page:
And then it struck me: INTERWEBS! STREAMING! We don’t need no stinking prime time (well, you do need Amazon’s Prime Time, but that is a different subject), you can watch it at any time. Note for millennials: GMT means Greenwich Mean Time (That is in England, just in case.)
As for the show itself ? The production quality is ages ahead of what the BBC was putting out. Picture quality was so good, I was filled with the urge to go rob banks in order to buy a Ferrari LaFerrari. And while they managed to keep the same banter among the Unholy Three, the general idea of the old show was used to make fun of and distance the new show from it.
Was it perfect? Nope. there were a couple of glitches here and there, but a new show trying to shed the old chains and become its own is bound to have a few imperfections in one hour and eleven minutes of product. I give it 4.75 stars out of five just because they did not explain how James May go the speeding ticket.
The internet has replaced television for me for exactly this reason. Live broadcasts are a thing thanks to Twitch and YT Streaming, but every streaming service now TiVos everything automatically, so if you didn’t get there for the beginning, you can watch it on delay or just wait and watch it at your leisure.
Any sci-fi story set after 2020 where they still have live news broadcasts now breaks my immersion like a CRT TV with VHS tapes next to it.