SpuffyWeb Sadly Over-hyped

Mjeteconer Just perfect...

Console best movie i've ever seen.

FirstWitch A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

jdonalds-5 We didn't know about Ice Road Truckers until we saw an advertisement for it on an episode of Top Shot we were watching. That peaked my interest so I looked it up.It seems like anything done in Alaska (Ice Road Truckers, Alaska State Troopers, Flying Wild Alaska) attracts me. Alaska is quite beautiful, but so cold I would never want to live there.I am binge watching Ice Road Truckers and enjoying it. However I have it running in a 6" x 4" window on my computer while I edit photos. It's the kind of program that doesn't require more than about 20% of my attention. This is one program that benefits from The History Channel's over-the-top dramatization process. But at the end of each episode I do a little review just for laughs.To tell the truth very little of substance occurs across an entire season. Every episode is pumped up with many, "what could happen" commentaries, and scary graphics. However almost nothing ever really happens. The list of "exciting" things might contain things like these:The tires of the tractor slip going up hills. - Truckers have to stop to put chains on their trucks to make it up slippery steep hills when they are towing a heavy load. - Truckers get very tired while driving sometimes. - Trucks aren't always 100% reliable and things sometimes break. - Some truckers have negative things to say about other truckers. - Occasionally a truck goes off the road and gets stuck in the snow, requiring a tow from another truck to get out. - Trucks drive across lakes, the ocean, or down long stretches of rivers while they hear the ice crack. None ever fall through the ice. - Trucks going in opposite directions pass each other closely and honk at each other. - Some drivers are better at their jobs than others. Some are even let go because they are trouble makers or can't really drive well enough in the Alaska or Canada conditions. - As the truckers are paid for each load they deliver they want to deliver as many as they can. - Sometimes trucks hit bumps in the road. - Snow can nearly obscure the road ahead. - Occasionally a tire goes flat. - Sometimes a load becomes loose on the trailer. - Some of the loads the trucks carry are extremely heavy and/or large.So you see it's pretty much run of the mill trucking but in very cold, snowy, slippery, hilly, and scary conditions. But rarely does anything of any real significance happen.In no way am I suggesting driving on those roads is easy or anything less than dangerous. But it just seems to me that hundreds of thousands of miles are driven by truckers there with relative little to have created eight seasons of episodes.Still I will continue to binge watch until I burn through them and move on to something else.Update: I'm watching Season 7 now. I can't wait for this season to end and I can move on from this irritating competition between Polar Industries and VP Express. I can do without all the personal drama.What I wish Discovery would do is expand the format in some areas and cut out all of the grumbling. I'd like to know more about the trucks and loads. I'm binge watching through several seasons and not once have the producers of the show shown us through a truck once. How about each gauge and what they mean? There are obviously gauges we don't have in our cars. How do you shift with so many gears? I presume it has overdrive. Can you use overdrive in any gear? These are things any 18 wheel driver would know but I've never driven anything more complicated or larger than a U-Haul. Show us through the sleeping quarters. Do they have places to hang clothes? Drawers? Come on folks. Who owns the trucks? How much does the insurance cost for these trucks that can get lost breaking through ice or being run off the road and left for a year? How much does a driver make per load? Who pays to fix broken trucks? How much is the fuel and how much is used per trip?You've shown us hundreds of videos showing trucks driving on snowy roads and over ice. Enough already.How about some perspective on the shippers and those who receive the loads? It just seems like there are other things to show than what they've shown for multiple seasons.I can't believe Ice Road Truckers goes on for eight seasons when so many other shows are better and cut short after a season or two.

NyxNax So maybe I was a little harsh in the summary, It does have some entertaining aspects. But after so many seasons the only thing really keeping it going is the drama and adding new characters. Which i'm not saying is a bad thing, the show is about the people driving these trucks through lovely weather and of course, ice crossings. If your looking for documentary type show just about ice road trucking though, this really isn't it. That could be made into a 2 hour documentary. Or just watch the 1st season and ya get the picture. If your into the people and the drama though, then keep on watching. There was a separate season where a few of the characters from the show like Lisa Kelly and Darrel Ward, went to South America driving truck on some of the worst roads in the world. I found that to be much more entertaining, and I believe far more dangerous as well. Driving a old piece of a crap truck on a 1 lane road with a mountain on one side and a vertical cliff on the other is somethin else entirely. What bothers me is EVERY single time a truck goes across the ice they play "life threatening" ice cracking/popping sounds and then as the truck nears the other side they play this climactic siren music as if to scare you into not knowing if the truck is going to fall through or make it across. It becomes SOOO annoying!! In the dead of winter the chance of a truck falling through is very very slim. What they don't show is the tons of other trucks that are going across the ice. At the end of the season is when it becomes much more dangerous. If they were to save the climactic music and cracking sounds till the actual more dangerous times they're crossing the ice, it would make it so much more impactful! Not to mention the narrator over-hyping things as well. When it gets slick, the trucks drifting their trailers/cargo around corners is pretty cool i must say. So all-in-all if ya like the drama of the show and the characters, keep on watchin, otherwise just watch the documentary or the 1st season. I do really recommend the season that was in South America to anyone. The environment, the native people, the culture, the danger, the language barrier played such a huge roll. I wont spoil anything, but I can see why there was only 1 season of that.

silvergrandam01 I could see this show on TLC or even Nat. Geo. But it's blasphemy to be on the History Channel in the first place. There is little to no historical value to this show. I actually watch the HC for historical relevance. This show simply has none.Big deal, they are driving on the ice, doing a job, and getting paid for it. It'd make for a good one or two hour special. But a whole season? This isn't nearly as exciting as the Deadliest Catch, but it sure pretends to be. At least with Deadliest Catch you have a REAL enemy, the Bering Sea. Always unpredictable, always dangerous, and always obvious about both. And it has relevance to many who eat and enjoy seafood, seeing how that food gets to them and what lengths men go to bring that food to us. Ice Road Truckers doesn't seem to impact anyone on an emotional level at all.Another issue is the editing to make everything seem more foreboding and cataclysmic then reality. The first season shows an animation of a truck falling thru the ice during a 'dramatic' event, then they cut to commercial. So of course you tune back in to see something go thru the ice. Only it was clever editing to bring you back because they knew the reality wasn't nearly as interesting. The reality was a minor fenderbender and some vulgar commenting. Sadly examples of this happen over and over. In reality, they have managed to record hours upon hours of driving over featureless terrain with little character interaction and somehow have managed to make it even more boring.And then there is the issue of the characters themselves. I applaud that there are people willing to do this job, as with any job (like Discovery Channels' Dirty Jobs). It's even nice they got some recognition out of this. It's a working man's job, doing things others might not want to do. But the personalities are just flat, shallow, and lifeless. Put aside the vulgarity and there really isn't much being presented. Most the characters can safely be called quitters and losers, and few stand out as anyone you care about.I thought this show to be a serious failure on the part of History Channel during and after the first season. I felt for sure they would not repeat this mistake with a second season. I'm astounded they have, and even slightly offended as a long time History Channel viewer. This show simply does not belong on this station.

Flynn2 Channel 5's new television series, "Ice road truckers" was suitably intriguing at first sight. Further into the series we are introduced to more and more characters and we see their personalities unravel before our eyes.We learn about aspects of their job such as the huge machines they use to carry out their bidding, and what kind of a life they lead while trawling the Ice Road. All the truckers we see are working for the head honcho "Hugh Roland" a big, hairy, macho man nick named "the polar bear" by his employees.Soon enough, the true personality of the drivers is revealed; from the very likable southern Californian "T.J." to the rather arrogant Rick Yemm. That brings me to another point, the swearing. Unfortunately the drivers tend to swear every other sentence which leads to a series of very annoying beeps.The introduction for every episode has so far been repeated from the pilot episode, which has lots of cheesy introductions like Alex's line where he says "It's called the dash for the cash" which makes for some cringe worthy viewing. Apart from these small hang ups (and all the other stuff I have no doubt forgotten) Ice road truckers makes for a likable documentary and some easy Friday night viewing.