America is understandably slow in getting into the Slow TV racket.
I fell under the spell of the Scandinavian trend this summer while on a visit there. (I wrote about it here.)
The idea is to just have something go on and just turn the cameras on. This summer it was a boat traveling around the land of the midnight sun, capturing people on the shore who waved, or didn’t. It’s a ratings hit in Norway, partly out of national pride, but maybe out of a mesmerizing art as well. In a world of quick cuts, shouting and commercials, here were hours of soothing shots of the sea and shore.
I thought perhaps public television here would pick up on it after it announced its “Big Blue Live” this summer. It was live, had cameras trained on a Southern California bay filled with marine activity. But it also was scripted with narration, interviews, previously shot pieces, lest the audience get bored. It really wasn’t slow TV at all.
Discovery America picks up the slack today with a show that promises five hours of landscape from a camera mounted on a train in “Railroad Alaska: Real Time Train Ride” (Destination America, 9 a.m.), a journey that, when it reaches its end, starts all over again for an instant repeat at 2 p.m.
Press releases for the event don’t seem to be completely convinced. “When turkey isn’t enough to put you to sleep on Thanksgiving, Destination America has the snoozefest you need,” a press release says.
A spinoff of the existing Saturday night series “Railroad Alaska,” which is like a lot of 59th state shows about gold digging, full of colorful characters in beards, this one has no coots or galloons in sight. just a pair of long, snaking rails through curving through 500 miles of snowy countryside.
As for sound, it’s just a muffled clickty-clack and the occasional toot of the horn when they approach a road or intersection. It’s almost exciting to see a car with the possibility of another person being in there.
And for being about trains, it’s weird. You don’t see trains at all, except for a jarring close up Go Pro fixed on the wheels. Almost always what you see is the train point of view from the front.
It’s hypnotic and a great use of television. Except that the one hour screener I saw was cut into little seven or nine minute segments That’s helpful in one sense in that they let one know where you left off (Milepost Marker ; 80 Miles to Healy). but then t’s off to some big commercial blocks that would ruin the whole atmosphere.
Best to record the thing, or watch it with a DVR delay sufficient to zip through the ads and get literally back on track.