When Discovery Channel introduced The Deadliest Catch they may have irreparably altered the path of reality television. For one, it was actually depicting reality—albeit one very few ever encounter—and in a way that compelled viewership. How did it do this? It introduced a tension that no other reality series had been able to create: an actual sense of danger. Fear Factor featured a series of gross-out stunts that were highly supervised, relying more on its contestants’ own irrational cowardice than any real danger. Survivor’s title seemed to hint at competitors dying off one by one, but really, in the worst case scenario someone might faint from heat exhaustion and be flown home. Everything was just a bunch of immature people collected in a house complaining about one another. There was never any sense of danger or importance. At the very least, The Deadliest Catch had crab fisherman whose livelihood’s were at stake (though when they succeeded they made lots of money). This sense of danger actually increases the quality of a show because what the people on the screen are doing finally matters. However, Ice Road Truckers shows us that it’s not enough to have danger; the visuals need to be interesting as well.
Ice Road Truckers may have a perilous factor built in, but in terms of overall content, the show is little more than stock car racing with oversized vehicles, an icy track, and a viewership watching anxiously for someone to crash and die. Yeah, that’s genuinely the appeal.
Imagine if NASCAR, in a bid to better humanize its racers, imposed a 30mph speed limit and had cameras interviewing the racers as they drove. Sure, there might be a few choice tidbits where the driver has something interesting to say about their time spent in the profession, but really all you’re doing is detracting from what people really want to see: ruin, wreckage, and mayhem. Perhaps if the show wasn’t so aware of the fact that its audience was maintained through its vague promises of potential snowy carnage there might be more effort made in actually finding something interesting to say; however, as is, this is little more than a few camera testimonials with the drivers as they talk about how long they’ve been a commercial trucker and the treacherous routes they’ve traced previously cut in between narration hinting at danger they’ll encounter after the next commercial break.
Let me just save you the suspense: no one dies. Bummer(?)(.)
The season takes place on Alaska’s forbidding Dalton Highway which connects Fairbanks, Coldfoot, and Deadhorse with a twisting road covered in ice (if you hadn’t guessed) subject to avalanches, whiteouts, and other hideous weather-borne ailments. Competing for the most loads are truckers Ice Road Truckers veterans Hugh Rowland and Alex Debogorski and newcomers Jack Jessee, George Spears, Lisa Kelly, Tim Freeman, Jr., and Carey Hall. The drivers aren’t the most interesting people in the world, but they have a love for what they do and to their credit they’re among the best.
The Blu-ray release of the series’ third season doesn’t offer much improvement over the DVD release because it’s mostly just talking heads. Occasionally there’s a sweeping glance at the arctic terrain through which they travel, but otherwise you’re just looking at chubby bearded faces in hi-def. The set has 13 episodes in which the show’s protagonists race against the clock to complete as money runs while the ice which makes up a major part of the course’s route is thick enough to support their trucks.
Ice Road Truckers doesn’t have much to recommend it as a series, but for those content reveling in the human condition as it rides across the frozen tundra…well, enjoy.
Blu-ray Bonus Features
The only bonus features in the set are deleted scenes which look a whole lot like the ones that didn’t get cut, so you’re not missing much if you skip them.
"Ice Road Truckers: The Complete Season Three" is on sale June 8, 2010 and is not rated. Documentary, Reality. Starring Alex Debogorski, Carey Hall, George Spears, Hugh Rowland, Jack Jessee, Lisa Kelly, Tim Freeman Jr.
