43
‘Alaska’ is tough enough for TV’s new genre
NEW YORK — Watching “Tougher in Alaska,” you might find yourself thinking several things:
UHow the tasks (like gold mining, salmon fishing, railroading) aren’t just hard, they’re difficult in ways you never imagined, and being in Alaska makes them even tougher.
UHow the people devoted to each pursuit are really good at it.
UHow you’re kind of grateful you’re not them.
The last response may be inevitable for a not-so-tough couch potato watching from TV’s comfy remove. “Tougher in Alaska” makes a strong case that the work it documents is taxing, risky — and cold!
But the people who do it seem to love it, and to love the vast, untamed frontier embracing them in the 49th state.
Geo Beach loves it, too. He’s your rough-and-tumble guide for the series (airing 10 p.m. Thursdays on History). And he brings been-there-done-that authority to his hosting role.
An Alaskan for a quarter-century, he has been a logger, firefighter and commercial fisherman. He’s at home around construction sites and oil spills.
“That’s how I paid for my writing habit,” says Beach, a former New Englander who in Alaska found a rich source of material for the commentaries and essays he turns out for various publications, Web sites and public radio.
Add to his qualifications the booming voice, chrome dome and overgrown-kid gusto, and Beach was a natural to make the jump to TV to showcase the state he calls, with proud accentuation, “uh-LAHHSSSS-kuh.”
This week, Beach joins power company workers as they face fearsome snow loads, high winds and subzero temperatures to keep electricity flowing through lines constantly susceptible to the unforgiving weather. Among his chores: helping to install power poles and string electrical wire by hand in the remote village of Kasigluk, where bucket trucks are unavailable.
Future episodes tackle road building, policing and waste disposal, Alaska style.
“Tougher in Alaska” joins a growing genre most easily labeled Tough TV. In this category, testosterone reigns supreme as men (and a scattering of women) clash with nature (“Man vs. Wild” on Discovery), other tough guys (Spike’s “The Ultimate Fighter”), bad guys (“Dog the Bounty Hunter” on A&E), or tasks so yucky only tough guys wouldn’t lose their breakfast (Discovery’s “Dirty Jobs”).