****** - Verified Buyer
4.5
This movie arrived in the mail today, regardless of the fact that I just finished ordering it less than two days ago. It was fast shipping without a doubt! And the show is excellent! Hugh and Alex are my top favorite characters. Hugh always has something hilarious to say, with or without the swear words, but that is just his style as King of the Ice Roads. Considering how many risks he's taken, from Canada to Alaska in the deadliest conditions, he can talk however he wants.I'm a big fan of Alex. He always has a gentle side to him, even rescuing the SAME trucker in one season, who had been talking bad about him, and even delaying his run and losing money to save the life of a wounded man in a car crash. I hope he keeps on trucking and decides not to retire soon, unless his health gets worse like in Season 2, and I wish him plenty of happy years ahead with his wife and considerably large family. God bless you, Alex!I've always admired Lisa, trucking ahead as one of the only women heavy-hauling drivers in a man's world, and very glad to see her in this season after I just finished seeing her work in India. Great job, Lisa! She has nothing further to prove to anyone in my opinion, being the only driver left to finish hauling a critical load at the end of the season in India when the other two drivers bugged out, and keeping a positive attitude on the ice roads everywhere while continuing to ask for more dangerous loads. How can anyone criticize her when they can't even do HER job? Keep trucking, Lisa!This season rocks, and I'm looking forward to the sixth one. Might even pre-order it!*Follow up* I have watched this season several times, allowing me to get a good opinion on it so far.Alex---Keeps on driving with Hugh and Rick in Canada. You see him rescue two carloads of stranded passengers from car wrecks or broken-down vehicles in the middle of nowhere, which is virtually saving their lives in 20 to 30 below temperatures. Once again, his devotion to caring about those around him knows no bounds. No wonder his large family loves him so much. His huge fan base does too!Hugh---Yes, he's still a prideful man pushing his rig(perhaps his trailers by too much)to the limit to get the loads delivered, but you see a hilarious side to him. With a busted-down trailer in the middle of nowhere, Hugh waits for help by blowing away moldy oranges and a food can with a rifle for target practice, and with the most hilarious cackle I ever heard, and had to rewind just to hear over again. Definitely making the best of a bad situation there! He presses the buttons of a few guys, especially the General Manager of one trucking company by running one load so carelessly, the trailer itself lost three tires, multiple springs, and $5000 in damage, and gets kicked out of the yard on the spot, along with Rick. But he's not out of work for long, signing on with someone else and taking his antics up another road with another load at a time. I find him hilarious more than offensive.Rick---You can see he's been running one too many trips. I admire his skill for driving one trip with a bad fever and still succeeding, even though he ended up on the wrong road at one point and has to reverse his entire truck for at least several miles to get to the right one, but his stress is clearly at the breaking point pretty early in the season, despite Hugh's help as they truck together, and at one point, he snaps and gets into a tussle with a member of the camera crew. Been working too many miles, I'd say, with too little rest. Still, he makes the season an interesting one.Lisa---On top with the heavy hauls and the push-truck driving, Lisa finds herself into a ditch with one load and gets demoted back to regular hauling. I'm sorry to see it happen too! But I admire her for her courage to keep earning back that trust and not taking it out on the bosses about it, and her determination to keep forging ahead. I hope Lisa herself reads this review, and anyone else considering buying this season just to see her.Dave---I've seen him on the season in India before watching this season, actually. Dave from the very start shows that he prefers to be shook off from rookie status, and despite being inexperienced in knowing the dangers on the Dalton, he blows up at his trainer and lashes out for being treated like a rookie despite his 25 years experience, even though those years don't mean anything on the Alaska haul road. Even with his job hanging on by an inch and getting to drive without having a trainer while scoring high on the load count, nothing seems to make Dave happy at all. Whether it comes from complaining about other drivers to a couple of breakdowns or being delayed by another snowstorm, I think I knew he was going to not last much longer after intentionally ditching a supply convoy that he had been ordered to be a part of going to Prudhoe Bay just because he wanted to drive at his own pace and "not babysit anybody." 1st year drivers with that attitude don't tend to last too long, even though I liked him in his India travels.Maya---A New York rookie who has a slow start in getting load counts due to nerves on the haul road, I'd say I respect her for her positive attitude, getting along with her trainer from the start, getting a smaller and less-powerful truck of her own while just saying, "You gotta start somewhere!" I was especially impressed with her courage to keep pushing ahead with a desperately-needed load during a blinding storm, despite her lack of experience and the fact that scores of more veteran drivers weren't driving in that weather. You KNOW she was going to stay the full season!Tony---I kinda feel sorry for him. He was originally Dave's trainer, and the object of such verbal abuse from Dave's bad attitude, which didn't last very long, as Tony soon ditched Dave at the Coldfoot stop as the result of it and decided to truck alone after that. But he shows his skills as a good and patient driver the whole season. I swear I saw him before in Season 3 perhaps, and it makes me wonder why they didn't show more of him until now. He is definitely a good trucking asset on the haul roads.
