AX Men

“This is not a game show. This is life or death.” –Eric Waterhouse. Actually dude, if you were on one of producer Thom Beers’ other shows, like Ice Road Truckers or Deadliest Catch or Ax Men, then yeah, you’d be talking life or death. The appeal of Beers’ formidable slate of reality series—littered across basic cable as wantonly as Scrubs re-runs—is that they show actual, non-tv-ready people displaying expertise at arcane occupations. Beers' best work is visually dynamic, and cut with a healthy streak of “Those guys must be nuts!” But Eric? You’re a sculptor from Long Beach. You can’t tell me that you really want to be out on a crab boat in the Bering Sea, trying to haul up traps faster than a secretary from New Jersey. You got a call back from the casting agency because you fit a type:...

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