Here’s the three things you
need to know about Discovery Channel’s new
wilderness show Siberian Cut: cold, logs,
testosterone. After that, it’s pretty much every
other show your husband or boyfriend makes you
watch, when you really wish you were watching
folks get handed a rose. Don’t get me wrong,
there is nothing awful about this show, nor is
this show offensive or bad in any way; its just
more of the same.
The premise is familiar: a
group of hard-scrabble folks venture into an
unforgiving and primitive terrain to make a
living for themselves and better their families’
lives. In this case, it is a team of young,
Midwestern men who take a job with a small
logging outfit that will relocate them to
Siberia. That’s right, Russia. And not the
fun-let’s-drink-vodka-and-flirt-with-skinny-models-Russia.
Not, it’s the brutal-26-degrees-below-zero
Russia in which you could be eaten by wolves if
you don’t freeze to death in your first night
there. The twist here, however, is that half the
team is made up of native Siberians, and the
American loggers don’t know it until they
arrive. The conflict of this show (aside from
the obvious peril the natural elements provide)
is the culture-based drama that erupts between
the two factions of workers – especially since
neither group speaks the other’s language.
While the show is basically
the same show we’ve seen a hundred times, it
does have its tense moments, and offers a few
poignant scenes that remind you of the frailty
of humans in the face of a brutal and savage
landscape. The Americans have to say goodbye to
family and friends, and there is a scene between
one of the boys and his dying father that felt
pretty genuine, and (I’ll admit) tugged at my
heart strings a little. Also, the aforementioned
wolves are nothing to scoff at, and there is a
moment when I thought they might just get run
over by a train.
This show is not really my
cup of tea. I didn’t find the all-male drama
interesting enough to make me want to watch the
season, and frankly, I don’t like the cold. It
put me on edge to see the constant shivering,
and I couldn’t stop wondering if they were
wearing enough layers.
Think of it like this: if
Ice Road Truckers, Swamp People and Ax Men all
fell into a big pot and melded together, this is
the show you’d get. If that sounds awesome to
you, then you need to tune it on June 3rd
to watch. If not, you can DVR The Bachelorette
and watch it in the bedroom while your husband
or boyfriend watches this.
What do you make of
Siberian Cut? Tweet me
@sroseholt and let me know if I got it wrong
or not.
