There’s Ice Truckers and American Loggers, and now we have the inevitable bastard child of the two. Extreme Logging: Ice Loggers (DISH 182, various times) is the latest offering of extremity, logging, and ice from the Discovery Channel.
How is it different from its parents? There are still trucks, but for the most part they’re not driving on an ice road. And there’s logging, but the logs are largely frozen. That’s… about it.
It’s an interesting look, however, at the industry. We tend to print our TPS reports, accept our cardboard coffee cups, and take our grocery receipts without thinking much about how that paper comes about. Although “save paper” and “recycle!” are popular mantras, it’s not the usual procedure to really wonder about the process which creates paper products.
And why not? I refuse to watch this show with a dawning sense of horror at the falling trees; one of the miracles of living in an industrialized society is not having to think about where the water, meat, Slurpees, and, yes, paper are coming from. Like Mike Rowe’s brilliant Dirty Jobs, which highlights those who make life comfortable for the rest of us, Ice Loggers reminds us that those wedding invitations and glossy magazines gotta come from somewhere.
But unlike Dirty Jobs, Ice Loggers has plenty of drama to go around. The employees share living quarters during the logging season, and the stress of the job does manifest itself. Viewers are encouraged to befriend the loggers as characters, just as in any other candid reality program. The show is also careful to show the employees adhering to environmental regulations and, well, wearing parkas and gloves. While this past set of episodes was too short to create much of an emotional attachment, future seasons might tell the story in better detail.
And if nothing else… a frozen tree in a chipper does make a pretty cool noise.
