Wonderful Movie

A Major Disappointment

if their story seems completely bonkers, almost like a feverish work of fiction, you ain't heard nothing yet.

Ok... Let's be honest. It cannot be the best movie but is quite enjoyable. The movie has the potential to develop a great plot for future movies

On the one hand I would just as soon remove it from my record list, on the other hand the subject matter, scenery and characters keep dragging me back season after season.I might be a faithful watcher, but I'm getting really tired of being subjected to editing that is sloppy and obviously forced in an attempt to create drama where none exists, nor is needed.To be fair this is a trait shared among most 'reality' shows, but come on! Just how many times do we have to sit through a train 'bearing down' on a repair crew or broken-down piece of equipment only to find the blockage is cleared in the nick of time!And on the sloppy side of editing, we loyal viewers are repeatedly subjected to panoramic shots of trains that are clearly not part of the current narrative. A fact glaringly obvious when the number of engines on the trains don't match and/or the load is different.All of this would be much easier to swallow if I didn't have to listen to the far from dulcet tones of narrator Demetri Goritsas. I'm not sure who thought this stage actor would make a good television narrator but they didn't consult with me first!!His near-shouting style of speech and uncomfortably close to fingernails on a chalkboard voice might work when trying to project from the stage all the way to the rear row of a 1000 seat theater, but on the small screen it's just annoying!Yet here I am, faithfully subjecting myself to the first episode of the third season anyway. . .

My vote would be a higher if they removed the track issues. it's always the same. Is there really a train coming in 20 minutes when the track is blocked with ice or snow?There needs to me more about the people who need the railroad, more on their reasons for living off the grid, and how the railroad caters to their needs. i would also like to more how much it costs to take the rail into town and where the off grider's get the money to pay for using the railroad. one last thing, the writers need to do a better job with the three in the engine compartment, they are really boring and their awful predictable dialog really is insulting to the program. Good thing I record it so I can skip over those parts.

The premise for this reality show is actually very interesting, however, EVERY show is basically the same plot, namely: 1. There is ice/snow/rocks/debris on the track 2. The train MUST get through with the essential freight 3. "Hurry up the trains a coming."When I say everything is the same every episode I am not exaggerating. The scripted words are so lame its amateurish. The dialog is so absurdly stilted it is almost funny. What is particularly annoying is the phony attempt in every episode to make it seem like disaster is about to strike if the track isn't cleared so they always have at least one railroad person yelling at the workers " hurry up the trains coming" .The workers actually doing the work ignore these commands because even they know that the exclamations are phony and made for TV. The simple reality is that if the tracks are blocked the trains are going to stop and wait until they are cleared, but this show's producers think the viewers are so stupid that they actually believe that the train will keep on coming down the tracks even though the track is blocked. The other part of the show is to focus on the weirdos living off the grid which depend on rail access, with a particular emphasis on focusing on a one handed mutant looking guy And his toothless wife.All in all they took would could have been interesting and turned it into a lame soap opera like show with the SAME plot every episode. If you have seen one or two episodes of this show you've literally seen them all.

OK full disclosure here. I like trains, earlier this week I was shopping for a caboose for the back yard. I'm afraid the house management is going to object and we haven't even gotten to the HOA despite my plan to letter it for our subdivision.Anyway on to the show. If it's running on rails it's got my attention so this show caught my attention the first time I caught it channel surfing.This one those myriad reality shows that shows mundane jobs and hypes everything to the point that you would think that life on this planet would cease as we know it if they somehow failed to complete the task that they do five days a week.The Alaska Railroad is a 500 mile line that serves the interior of Alaska, starting in Seward Alaska. It's owned by the State of Alaska and has no land connections to any other railroads. The railroad is unique in that it has both freight and passenger operations.A typical episode breaks down in several smaller stories with the railroad either as a back drop or as the subject itself. Off griders comprise a lot of the stories. Off griders are people that live off the grid roughing it the Alaskan wilderness usually after a trip to Alaska and giving up everything to move there. (No thanks, I'll take a beach, anywhere without icebergs) With the off griders usually some critical item has to come by train. A recent episode had off griders working to put a roof on a house before a snowstorm. Another story was about another group of off griders moving a house about the size of decent tree house out of the path of rising river. All of these depended on the railroad to get them supplies in the most dramatic manner imaginable. I think Thomas does it better but the Island of Sodor cant beat Alaska for scenery.Meanwhile on the railroad, crews were dealing with their own troubles. One crew was pulling a train with supplies vital to a mining operation and was concerned with getting through a tunnel. (tape measures anyone?) and having enough horsepower in their cheeky little locomotives to get over the highest park of the railroad. (There are formulas for this, and that's why they sometimes double head the engines on Thomas the Tank Engine.) One of the more interesting jobs and dramatic is snow clearing. The railroad employs a number of tactics to deal with this. In the last episode they were using a military surplus cannon(I got to get me one of those, although the HOA is not going to like it.) to trigger controlled avalanches.If after years of mind numbing reality TV you hear a narrator when you're going to grocery store or plunging a toilet, then this will keep you staring blankly at your television screen for an hour. If trains are your thing, then you'll enjoy the photography, it very well done. If you suspend reality to some degree you may even enjoy the operations. This might be better with less stories offered and done in a half hour as opposed the one hour format it's in now.