I’m about halfway through the third season of Clarkson’s Farm. For those who haven’t seen the show, the premise is straightforward. Jeremy Clarkson, longtime host of Top Gear and an individual who is banned from many countries for having insulted them over the years, moved to his countryside estate in the Cotswolds and began farming full time just before the global pandemic. To paraphrase the man himself, he is the world’s worst farmer. And there is a film crew with him to record the lunacy. And it’s hilarious to watch. This is especially true when he gets lectured by Caleb Cooper, his young farmhand who is in many ways the show’s real protagonist, for his latest ridiculous idea.

This season is framed as a competition of sorts between Jeremy farming all of the non-arable land on the farm and Caleb farming the arable land to see who will have the best balance sheet at the end of the year. Jeremy tries all sorts of things—pig farming, mushroom cultivating, berry harvesting, planting mustard, and selling (well, trying to sell) nettle soup to name a few so far in the season—and Caleb takes a few risks of his own to save on costs. Caleb has a lifetime’s knowledge of how to farm, though, so that is a major advantage over Jeremey who spent much of his life in London.

Beyond the hilarity of it, the show does a very good job documenting how difficult it is to make a living as a farmer and has received a great deal of recognition among the farming community in the UK for that reason. That sets it apart from other shows that lean hard into voyeurism but lack any redeeming value (e.g. reality television). Since it is grounded in reality and peppered with a bit of cowboy bristling at government overreach, the show is worth a watch if you are in need of escapist entertainment this summer.