Ice Road Truckers: Deadly Roads Season 1 - DVD

Content: The Ice Road Truckers leave the Ice Road and head into brand new territory. In Deadly Roads, the spin-off to the hit documentary series, Lisa Kelly, Alex Debogorski, Rick Yemm and Dave Redmond try their hand at trucking in India. There they have to transport loads to remote construction sites and villages on the sloping and often unsecured roads of the Himalayan mountains. The fact that the truckers' skills are not easily transferred to the unfamiliar situation is shown by the fact that old hand Alex Debogorski, who after all has been on the road for forty years on the Dalton Highway and other not exactly safe roads, gives up after only one day and travels back home. Dave Redmond takes his place, but like Lisa Kelly and Rick Yemm, he has a hard time with the dilapidated roads, unsecured bridges and deep canyons. Add to that the sometimes extremely risky driving of the locals, who step on the gas hard even in the most dangerous places. This makes the guest truckers break out in a sweat and they have no choice but to break out in tense cursing.

While they drive the Ice Road in trucks whose cabs are made of solid material, here they have to squeeze into trucks that only have a wooden frame. Not exactly confidence inspiring. In order to conquer the unfamiliar roads, the drivers are assisted by a so-called spotter, who shows the way at particularly narrow or sloping steles and is thus also an important part of ensuring the safety of Lisa, Rick and Dave. But sometimes the spotter has to get behind the wheel himself, like when Lisa Kelly just can't drive any further because she's so panicked.

Surely, Deadly Roads again uses camera angles, sound effects, and repetition to simulate more drama than is actually present. And at times it's a bit annoying when Dave has to mention how deep it goes next to him towards the abyss every time he looks out of the window. Moreover, in the ten episodes of the first season only the same thing happens. Nevertheless, the whole thing is definitely gripping. The dicey situations press the viewer again and again in the armchair and lose even after the first episodes hardly in intensity.

Who likes the Ice Road Truckers, simply can't get past Deadly Roads. Because on the one hand, the roads traveled here are almost more dangerous, the nature more merciless and the trucks much more unsecured. But on the other hand this series stays true to the style of Ice Road Truckers and provides extremely good entertainment with impressive shots and quite a few dicey situations. Therefore: absolutely worth seeing!

Picture + Sound: The technical realization of the documentary series is on a good level, although the image due to staging reasons comes in part a little shaky and blurred. Colouring is good and good overall sharpness can be noted, particularly in the landscape shots. The stereo sound is absolutely adequate for the series, especially since the action is primarily dominated by the voice-over voices and some sound effects anyway. Good.

Extras: As a bonus, there are just under twenty minutes of additional scenes on the third DVD. Not a lot, but well worth watching!

Conclusion: Deadly Roads is, by design, really nothing more than a new season of Ice Road Truckers, but the switch from the Ice Road to the sloping and unsecured mountain roads of the Himalayas for a whole new explosiveness and thus also for a freshly ignited entertainment value provide. The 10 episodes of the first season provide diverting entertainment for all fans of IRT, while the technical realization is also quite adequate. Twenty minutes of additional scenes isn't mind-blowing, but it's a nice bonus. Recommended

An article by Frankfurt-Tipp