Reading this story in the Oregonian this morning about the Discovery Channel’s Gold Rush: Alaska, made me realize that I finally have to write something about this oddly engaging reality show.
For those who haven’t seen this series yet, it’s essentially about a group of out-of-work Oregonians from outside of Portland who head up to Alaska to mine for gold. But here’s the thing: few, if any, of them have any idea what they’re doing and the whole affair is essentially a train wreck — which makes for great watching. Oh, and they carry around a ton of guns, ostensibly for protection from bears (one of which they kill during the series) and for some reason brought their kids out to the site.
OH! And there’s a kind bearded man named Jimmy that the lead guy is constantly berating.
And ANOTHER thing! They never seem to do any mining, at least not in the first three episodes, and are hilariously incompetent and/or lazy and enjoy saying vague Tea Party slogans. Except for Jimmy, of course.
But as the Oregonian story points out, the show has Alaska officials worried that more Americans from the lower 48 will catch gold fever and head up to the wild to begin mining — something that requires proper permitting and knowledge to minimize environmental damage.
Regardless, this show is totally worth watching, especially if you enjoy watching people yell at each other and hit trucks with tractors and not find gold.
This article appears in Dec 30, 2010 – Jan 5, 2011.
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Maybe someone should start a new series about Low-life-nobody, quasi-journalists, who sit around making fun of every other aspect of life other than their own elitist clic. oh, they say “Vague Tea Party quotes” WTF is that? Like “don’t tread on me”. Save your lame little attacks on Tea Partiers and any one who has the audacity not conform to your progressive idiocy. How is it that you “power to the people” liberals have such a problem with a vocal minority espousing their displeasure with thier government? Is’nt that what you were doing 4 years ago? You sir are a pinhead.
One thing that all of these bloggers that write for “The Source” seem to have in common, is that the TEA party really intimidates them.
Yes, nothing more scary than a marginal and short-lived political movement. Beware the Whigs!
Maybe you journalists should do some god damn research before making yourselves look even more stupid!
Those men applied for all the appropriate permits for mining, and permits and tags for hunting. They are working closely with resource management in alaska; to make sure they’re not destroying sensitive resources.
Oh, and by the way. The producers of this show can make those hard working men, look any way they want. Its all in the editing.
Please get your granola sniffing panties out of a bunch!
No, Jeff, this show is completely ridiculous.
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