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The original was posted on /r/thegrandtour by /u/Oddone22 on 2024-10-01 10:24:57+00:00.

Okay, weird title, but hear me out (you can downvote/ban me later).

I got rescued from a really abusive household in the mid-2010s as a teenager, and had little to no concept of normal family interaction/relationships. My new father always watched Top Gear (and then the Grand Tour when that started), and was/is a big fan of Clarkson/Hammond/May. Eventually I’d start watching “through the door frame” when he did (because I didn’t know if I could just plop down on the couch next to him), then gradually “got closer” and eventually sat down to watch it with him, and at some point he’d start talking to me, we’d talk about the show, laugh about the jokes. I basically learned a large part of how father and daughter are meant to function/interact, learned “smalltalk”, through watching the show(s) with him.

I got a lot better at “being normal” by now, but the show really helped initially and it makes me especially sad that the Trio is retiring. I know the show is continuing but I think it’ll be quite different, just like Top Gear wasn’t quite the same with the new hosts (neither was the failed German copy).

(I also rewatched older Top Gear and Grand Tour episodes a lot when I needed my brain to calm down, but that’s a different topic)