|
||||||||
| Written By Rick
Ellis, Saturday, March 8th, 2008 CONTEST: Win An 'Ax Men' Lumber Pack If there's one trend in television that never changes, it's that a successful show spawns a lot of similar ideas. That's especially the case on basic cable channels, where ideas (and the producers behind them) are the real drivers behind the creation of new programming. So it's not surprising that last season's surprise History Channel hit series "Ice Road Truckers" has spawned another entry in the "wow is my job dangerous and tough" category of reality TV. Unfortunately for viewers, "Ax Men" isn't quite the captivating series that you might expect from the production behind not only "Ice Road Truckers," but the Discovery Channel series "Deadliest Catch." "Ax Men" focuses on the stories of four teams of men working the tough and often dangerous timberlands of the Pacific Northwest. Each team faces its own financial and safety challenges, as they try and pull trees from land that isn't easily accessed. As a standalone special, "Ax Men" is pretty darn entertaining. It is interesting to see how trees are collected and transported and the personal lives of the timbermen are worth watching. But my problem with the show is that I don't think it will hang together as a series. While I've only seen the first hour of the show, even at that point I felt as if I had seen all I needed to see. It's not that these men don't do important work, or that I don't appreciate the danger they're in. But I just didn't see enough in their story to keep me coming back for another five or six hours. It's also a problem that none of the teams highlighted are all that interesting. For all of its flaws, "Ice Road Truckers" had some strong personalities and back stories. And I just don't see that in "Ax Men." I highly recommend that you watch the first hour, since it does show a story that viewers usually don't get the chance to see. But I can't say the same for the entire run of the show. "Ax Men" is a series that really should have been a special. And expanding it past that was a disservice to viewers and to the men involved in the production. "Ax Men" premieres on The History Channel on Sunday, March 9th, 2008. |
||||||||
| MORE INFO: You may have a FORTUNE stored in your ATTIC! Collectors pay BIG MONEY for comic books… and with our FREE software you can find out what they’re worth! With Comic Collector Live you can Organize, Appraise, Buy and Sell, with our FREE SoftWare!!! Click Here | ||||||||
