Getting from Point A to Point B is a truck-driver’s life. As far as most people know, a typical truck-driver in the U.S. doesn’t have too much difficulty getting to his or her destination. To my knowledge, the most peril the average truck-driver experiences on a daily basis is getting sleepy, because the route they’re on is too boring. The History Channel challenged that notion by bringing its audience the original series Ice Road Truckers, which documents the environmentally dangerous routes that truckers in the snowy north experience on a daily basis.
The History Channel takes it a step further with IRT: Deadliest Roads, and in its first season, it's a ten-episode series that documents three truckers’ navigating the perilous roads in India, stretching across the Himalayas. Over a period of two months, the audience gets to watch the truckers curse, throw stuff and sweat bullets as they deliver ten different pieces of cargo from Point A to Point B, thousands of feet above the ground, with their trucks inches from the edge of the cliff.
Before I started to watch, I was not expecting a whole lot. I know several people who share my opinion on the Ice Road Truckers series, which I couldn’t help extending to IRT: Deadliest Roads: this is a mainstream, family-friendly TV show --- even if they experience a few hardships on the way to their destinations, by my calculations, it’ll just be some truckers truckin’. Good for the lives and safety of the truckers, but not necessarily an entertaining TV show.
But surprisingly, it’s pretty riveting, especially the first couple episodes.The show has the deck stacked in its favor, what with the circumstances they put these drivers in: for one, all three drivers are from North America. And not necessarily the “worldliest” parts of North America, either. Both drivers Lisa Kelly and Rick Yemm are a part of the Ice Road Truckers series, filmed up in the Northwest Territories in Canada, and also in Alaska. The third driver, Dave Redmon, is from good ol’ Alabama. Dave Redmon actually ends up replacing another driver, Alex Debogorski, who is another Ice Road Truckers cast member. Alex ends up quitting in the first episode, not feeling safe among the cutthroat and seemingly lawless roads of India.I don’t blame him; he gets in two accidents before reaching his main route.
The show puts these three North American-bred truckers smack-dab in the middle of India, and gives them trucks so shabbily built it looks like they might cave in on themselves once the engine turns. Once in their trucks, the show sends the drivers with a load of some random cargo out on the open road, which is less of a road, and more of a wide pathway carved into the side of a cliff. Traffic is intense: even if it weren’t for their load-bearing, several-ton vehicles slowing traffic down, the amount of reckless driving by the other drivers is enough to make any experienced driver lose his or her cool, which happens often. The guy in charge of “bleeping” the drivers’ cursing probably put in a lot of over-time hours.
As exciting as the series starts out, the major downside to this is that it gets old. There are ten episodes, and after the amazing first episode, where you were dazzled by the heights, and on the edge of your seat watching the truckers avoid a certain collision by a hairsbreadth, excitement starts to fizzle fast. The camera work is great; plenty of seemingly impossible shots that show the gigantic abysses that await the truckers should they make a minor slip-up. But after an episode or two’s worth of the panoramic mountain shots, it loses its effect.In a couple of episodes the drivers actually drive the same stretch of road they did in the previous episode, granting the audience with zero new material, except for how they react, which is often the exact same, (see: “bleep” button).
Another key part that could have been strengthened is the relationship between the drivers and their spotters. Every truck driver in India who travels the treacherous mountain roads gets a spotter: basically, a guy who sits in the passenger seat, helps the driver out by watching his side of the truck for spacing, and also gets out of the car and waves the truck into tight spots if necessary. The three North American drivers are certainly no exception to having spotters. After spending two months with each spotter, you’d think some bonds might form, which may have off-camera. But on-camera, there isn’t a whole lot of material on the three spotters. If I were watching a documentary on mountain climbers on Mount Everest, I’d want to know about the sherpas, too. Not to say that there aren’t relationships born on the road, they’re just mostly negative, and in one case rises mostly out of a language barrier issue, as one of the spotters didn’t speak much English.
But the most important relationship, the one the audience forms with the three drivers, does grow over the ten-episode span, and makes up for whatever diminishing suspense the show bears. All three drivers have drastically different personalities, and they all seem to live by their own rules, which makes it so very entertaining watching them navigate roads that appear to be absent of any rules.
If you like Ice Road Truckers and are in to reality shows like Deadliest Catch and Dirty Jobs based on unusual occupations, this is for you. The Blu-ray quality certainly won’t disappoint anyone who has a hi-def TV.The cameras really do capture some awesome images of the Himalayas. And even if some of the episodes lack a good amount of solid thrills and can get repetitive, the situations the drivers get in are real enough to hold your interest if you allow it.
Blu-ray Bonus Features
Just lots of extended and deleted scenes. Nothing particularly amazing, but they included a lot of them.
"IRT: Deadliest Roads: Season One" is on sale May 24, 2011 and is rated PG. Documentary. Directed by Patrick Costello. Written by Patrick Costello, Thom Beers, Jeff Conroy. Starring Alex Debogorski, Dave Redmon, Lisa Kelly, Rick Yemm, Thom Beers.
