Is Clarkson's Farm Worth Watching?

A surprisingly useful farming show, even when it leans hard into entertainment.

• Farming
• Food Systems
• Media

If you have Amazon Prime Video, you have access to all 5 seasons that have so far been released of “Clarkson’s Farm”, a documentary TV show that follows Jeremy Clarkson (of “Top Gear” fame) as he attempts to farm (the activity) his farm (the property) in the UK. It’s certainly entertaining, but should you watch it if you have a genuine interest in farming?

My opinion? Yes, it’s worth watching. In fact, it’s become more worth watching with each season.

I’ll be honest, I was skeptical when I started watching the first season. Jeremy had just made the decision to farm his land (in various ways) despite having absolutely no previous experience in farming and a strong affinity for flashy cars, so the first year went… about as good as you might expect. Thankfully he was surrounded by enough people who actually knew what they were doing or it might have been a complete disaster.

By the second season, you can tell that he’s come to terms with what he’s good at (not much on the farm) and what he seriously needs help with. As the series progesses, he surrounds himself with more and more actual experts in various aspects of farming, herding, cooking, environmental impacts, and even politics that allows him to have just enough crazy ideas to keep the show interesting while still showing the practical limitations of most farmers’ experiences.

The more he farms, the more he realizes just how hard farming really is, especially if the goal is to turn a profit; on many occasions he reminds the audience that he is in the fortunate position of not having to rely on the farm for his source of income, which allows him to take risks to show (legitimately) the impact that various experiments might have on the bottom line. Not only that, but his financial position and fame also allow him to bring awareness to the struggle of the UK farming community — struggles that are shared here in the US as well, even if the specific climate and regulations might not be exactly the same.

As with any TV show, it is entertainment, and there are some aspects that absolutely have you shaking your head. It’s also filled with Jeremy Clarkson’s typical unfiltered monologues, which are far from suitable for children and may make even some adults blush. There are also some fairly unedited (maybe not quite graphic, but certainly unedited) scenes of, shall we say, “nature” — scenes that, if you’ve been farming for some time, you’ve definitely seen, but may come as a bit of a shock if you haven’t been exposed to farming.

On the whole, I’ve really enjoyed the show and I hope that it has an impact on the awareness people have about farming and even causes some changes in policy.