Lisa Kelly, Readers longtime Eclipse knows that I hate reality TV for the simple reason that the vast majority of it is far from reality – it is published in stories that takes reality and turn it into fiction. Well, and the fact that most of it is abusive in nature and reminds me that lions vs. Christians of all things ancient Rome.
Now that I reiterated that I am trying to talk-IRT History: Deadliest Roads [Sundays, 10/9C]. This series takes the first three Ice Road Truckers – Alex Debogorski, Lisa Kelly and Rick Yemm – and transplants roads treacherous Alaska incredible chaos that are the roads of India. No amount of editing could create the things we see here, and they are really scary.
The basic idea of IRT: Deadliest Roads is to take the best Ice Road Truckers and drop them in assignments trucking on roads the deadliest in the world. Truth in advertising and truth in the episodes. Simple, direct and effective.
Alex, Lisa and Rick [still sporting his mohawk blue] were given the mission to deliver several tons of cement to an Indian project to build dams on the streets of Delhi. The route to be followed is part of the Silk Road trade route that linked Central Asia to South Asia. The part they have to cross runs across the Himalayas and features sections such as “Freeway freefall, where trucks line the mountain with a cliff 700 feet just a few centimeters across. Then there are “cuts” – a section of road that has been authorized by the blast just far enough from the mountain to allow one vehicle to pass through time, with a set of just inches. Finally, there is a series of switchbacks – and “Breakaway Bend, where potholes are the least of truckers worries – the road is in ruins and in fact may actually be concealed under their wheels at all times. But first, the truckers have to go out of Delhi, a city of 19 million – none of whom seem to know anything about the rules of the road.
Each driver is assigned a spotter – regarded as Sherpa – to help them navigate the road. Observers speak little or no English, but know the roads of India as well as those truckers know their own country. They can make the difference between being lynched out of India, or guiding tips on a bridge that is collapsing.
IRT: First Deadliest roads did not need to resort to gimmicks or mounting intrigue built to attract the attention of an audience. The fear in the eyes of Lisa, Alex takes the frustration just trying to get out of Delhi; creative Rick swearing as he faces the perils of both roads and the madness of [Indian drivers who do not falter once they are on the treacherous mountain] roads will be more than enough to do the trick.
The episode is taken almost straightforward, with CG to see the differences between vehicles and the drivers usually wood-frame versions of Indian and some worst-case scenarios. Between landscape [grand on some points], the danger and the pilot, the first is a fascinating thing.
Unfortunately, the show falls into the same trap that we’ve seen before, where special moments are executed over and over again in an attempt to generate suspense that has already been enough already built. The results of repetition in more than a distraction, and interrupts the flow – which is something that leads away from the overall effectiveness of the episode. This kind of thing might be essential to a show like Big Brother and the like, but here it’s totally unnecessary – and the show continues to be something that could hold a fan of non-reality television, like me, to return.
Sakshi Pradhan were accused of “pleasing” the directors and production team to get into the final. I like style in guy, good shoes, body language and good sense of humour, awesome looks and intellegence.
