I’m not really a fan of reality TV. Oh, sure, I can get sucked into it easily enough, but if I take so much as a moment to reflect on what I’m watching, I usually start to feel guilty…and it really kicks in when the show I’m watching involves a camera crew setting up camp at someone’s job. Generally, you feel as though the producers are strutting around behind the scenes, saying, “Well, here’s proof that any job can look interesting if the footage is cut and edited right.” Yeah, but how about we focus more on jobs that are legitimately interesting?
“Ice Road Truckers” fits that bit handily, providing a look at a job that only lasts for two months out of the year…but, damn, what a job it is. The series focuses on six men who haul supplies across frozen lakes in Canada, not so terribly far from the Arctic Circle. If you’re putting two and two together, your eyebrows are probably rising right about now. Yes, they’re truckers, and they’re driving across frozen lakes…and if the temperature is low enough to freeze lakes to the point where sixteen-wheelers can drive across them, you can imagine that the weather outside is decidedly frightful. In a situation like that, however, it’s actually a good thing; I mean, would you want to be on the “road” and suddenly find that it’s starting to warm up…?
Ice road trucking is a lucrative business…so lucrative that, as is mentioned at one point in the first episode, a trucker who can move 50 loads over the course of two months is looking at a $70,000 payday. You quickly learn, however, that you earn your money. If your truck breaks down, you’re looking at a major delay because you can’t be outside for more than a few minutes without finding yourself on the verge of frostbite…and God forbid you should wreck your rig, because if you do so in a manner that blocks the road, you’re also looking at getting your ass beat by the other truckers. Time is money for these people, and they don’t have much of a sense of humor about losing either.
Actually, one of them has a sense of humor: Alex Deboborski is the guy you find yourself rooting for. He’s always ready with a witty comment. Of the other five, Hugh Rowland is the so-called “Polar Bear,” and as a guy who’s become a self-made millionaire from his work in the business, he’s the one to beat; it’s a little strange, though, that when his truck breaks down before he can get even get started, you feel bad for him…and you feel even worse when you hear the smart-ass young buck, Rick Yemm, mouthing off about how he’s kicking Hugh’s ass on the road. Really, the only person of the bunch you don’t have less sympathy for than Rick is T.J. Tilcox, who’s on his first-ever ice road trucking stint and can’t seem to have the camera turned on him without whining about how much he hates the cold and ice. Dude, it’s calling ice road trucking; what did you think you were gonna be in for…?
“Ice Road Truckers” starts a little slow, but after the back story of the industry is laid out for the viewer, the show settles into following the personalities of the individual truckers, the competition of who’s gotten the most loads delivered, and the trials and tribulations they’re all facing on the ice roads. Check the show out on The History Channel starting tonight; it’ll make for nice, cold viewing on those hot summer nights.
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