Ice Road Truckers: Deadliest Roads Season 1 Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		1.5
Overall		4.0

Ice Road Truckers: Deadliest Roads Season 1 Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman May 20, 2011

Many television series have tried to recreate themselves in different locations, sometimes permanently or just as often (if not more so) for “very special episodes” that thrust familiar characters into unfamiliar settings. The list is too numerous to mention, but everything from Lucy and Deci moving to Hollywood to Bewitched visiting the site of the Salem Witch Trials spring instantly to mind. And of course the infamous phrase “jumping the shark” was coined to “celebrate” (if that’s the right word) Happy Days supposedly venturing out to Los Angeles (where of course it had always been taped) where Fonzie did indeed jump a shark. And even reality television, specifically such stalwarts as Survivor and The Amazing Race, span the globe looking for ever more exotic locations to visit. That same proclivity is on hand once again in the Ice Road Truckers spin-off, IRT Deadliest Roads, and surprise of surprises, this initial season actually kind of works in its own goofy way, courtesy of the extremely precarious roads in India that several Ice Road Truckers regular drivers (and fan favorites) have to traverse, delivering everything from hydroelectric supplies to Buddhist totems to flammable helicopter fuel. The main Ice Road Truckers may have indeed jumped the shark (or in its particular case, glacier), with one too many “close calls” in the frozen northern climes of the Arctic Circle, but IRT Deadliest Roads may have some legs (and/or wheels) if it can manage to find enough global challenges to keep things picturesque and often very, very scary.

Anyone who has in fact watched any of the often incredible Amazing Race episodes which have taken place on the crowded streets of India will know that traffic in the main cities there is nothing less than completely and utterly insane. Probably less known, but no less treacherous, are the many outlying roads, many of which are (to put it mildly) unimproved, and of course IRT Deadliest Roads found some of the least improved of them all, huge cliffside lanes that forge well into the Himalayas. Several Ice Road Truckers regulars, including Rick, Alex, Lisa and Dave, make their way first to Delhi and then on to a patently crazy attempt to drive over the Rohtang Pass on what is no doubt accurately described as the Freefall Freeway, freeway being a decidedly relative term for what is often barely wide enough to hold one car, let alone two.

Over 180,000 people have been killed on India’s roads and indeed statistics suggest that one person dies every 4.5 minutes. That’s not hard to believe seeing the really formidable roads (some might call them paths) the drivers need to get through. In fact we see a number of wrecks throughout IRT Deadliest Roads, several with crushed shells of cars and trucks, and one which happened just as the film crew arrived sadly featuring the death of its driver. Roads in India are not for the faint of heart, and without spoiling anything that comes up in IRT Deadliest Roads, at least a driver or two has serious qualms about continuing on the show. Adding to the pure, inescapable danger of the roads themselves is the fact that the Indian trucks, unlike steel-bodied American makes, are (believe it or not) simply wood frames attached to a chassis, therefore offering little to no actual protection should an accident occur.

Each of the American drivers is assigned a “spotter,” a native Indian who helps guide the drivers through insanely narrow passes with ledges that catapult off downward for thousands of feet. (In fact, one of the most oft-traveled stretches in this season is aptly called The Ledge). The spotters actually get out and help the drivers navigate to the very tippy edge of some roads so that opposing traffic can get by. Unfortunately, tensions arise between at least a couple of drivers and their spotters, and Lisa ultimately decides she’d do better without hers, leaving her a woman alone in the wilds of India, something that leads her into what appears on the surface at least to be very real danger.

IRT Deadliest Roads is a much more authentic enterprise than the main Ice Road Truckers has become over its several seasons. Deadliest Roads actually seems to involve some bona fide danger, as opposed to often manufactured feeling perils that face the drivers in Ice Road Truckers. Some of these dangers are the result of the topography, which is just simply unbelievable at times, but there’s also a very real cultural element here that pits some pretty blustery Americans against equally tempestuous Indians. While most of these interchanges ultimately end up peacefully, a couple get pretty close to being completely out of hand. There’s some passing humor late in the season when Lisa figures out she’s finally learned how to “negotiate” with an Indian who is claiming damage to his car (even though she had the right of way), and her “solution” is pretty humorous.

While some of the goods being delivered are understandable, including a wealth of hydroelectric equipment for a gigantic dam project and, late in the series, some flammable helicopter fuel for a remote mountain village, the long segment of the drivers delivering Buddhist statues seems a bit far fetched. At least this sequence has some really beautiful shots of some Buddhist monasteries, including several religious practices playing out before the cameras. Even the hard bitten American drivers seem awestruck by their location and having the opportunity to witness this strange culture in all of its remote glory.

IRT Deadliest Roads benefits immensely from the exotic locales its exploits. Some of these are at least semi-squalid and fetid, as in the crowded streets of Delhi. But the more rustic elements, while edge of your seat scary at times due to the almost unnavigable roads, also provide some absolutely breathtaking scenery. The adrenaline gets pumping more than once from a number of skewed perspectives, including cameras mounted on the tops of the trucks which point straight down, revealing the sheer cliff edges which the trucks are driving next to and in some cases actually over (on small breaches where if they move quickly they won’t fall). The cultural clash between the Americans and the Indians is also a visceral element of this season and keeps things much more off kilter than a typical season of Ice Road Truckers. IRT Deadliest Roads actually holds a good deal of promise and it will be interesting to see what other crazy locations the scouting producers can find to keep this show as interesting as this first season is.

Ice Road Truckers: Deadliest Roads Season 1 Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

IRT Deadliest Roads is presented with an AVC encoded 1080i transfer in 1.78:1. This is one of the most incredibly picturesque outings in the entire histoy of Ice Road Truckers, and some of the footage of the Himalayas is literally awe inspiring. For the most part, this series boasts excellent sharpness and clarity of detail, though like all Ice Road Truckers offerings, there are a number of night vision and other elements that are overly grainy and purposefully soft. Several of the truck mounted cameras also do not offer the best image quality, but overall this series boasts a very solid image, and the scenery is most certainly unmatched a lot of the time, with bright, beautifully saturated color and some excellent depth of field.

Ice Road Truckers: Deadliest Roads Season 1 Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

IRT Deadliest Roads has a lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mix which suffices perfectly well for this series' limited sonic ambitions. Some might argue that a nice surround mix could have helped to elevate (no pun intended) such high mountain scenes as some thundering landslides and a beautiful high mountain thunderstorm, but taken on its own terms, this lossless stereo mix is perfectly adequate and actually provides a good deal of low end to boot. Narration is steady and always easy to understand, and the onscreen confessionals by the truckers are almost always clear. Occasionally the guys and Lisa talk to each other on walkie-talkies, and those elements can be a bit hard to decipher at times, but on the whole, this is a well above average soundtrack that does what it should with a minimum of fuss or bother.

Ice Road Truckers: Deadliest Roads Season 1 Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Additional Footage (SD; 25:54) features a number of short segments which didn't make the final cut of the series, involving everything from the drivers arriving at Indira Gandhi International Airport to a kind of funny sequence in a driving simulator where a virtual child doesn't survive crossing the street in front of one of the drivers.

Ice Road Truckers: Deadliest Roads Season 1 Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Color me surprised, if maybe even a little shocked. I fully expected IRT Deadliest Roads to be a real snooze-fest, but instead I was consistently captivated not just by the treacherous conditions these drivers faced, but also the cross-cultural elements which are fully on display in every episode. Gorgeously scenic while at the same time flat out frightening, IRT Deadliest Roads is a really worthy new entry in the Ice Road Truckers franchise, and as far as I'm concerned, easily outshines the anchor show itself. Recommended.