National Geographic’s Life Below Zero: First Alaskans is back for a second season. The series focuses on a variety of Alaska Natives and their tools to survive through the state’s harsh winters.
Some of the featured Natives are:
- Tig Strassburg passes on knowledge and skills to his seven children.
- The younger Apassingoks become the village providers.
- Joel Jacko combines traditional and modern methods.
- Jody Potts-Joseph builds a new life in her native village.
- Marvin Agnot upholds coastal subsistence.
- John and Teresa Pingayak train the next generation.
I’m afraid to say that this was not a series for me. These types of shows typically hold zero interest for me, and I didn’t find any redeeming qualities to keep my interest peaked. Going into the show, I thought it would be purely about surviving the winters, but it worked in a lot of other elements, such as keeping traditional values, hunting and fishing. While that would seem like a good variety, it just felt unfocused to me. It wasn’t helped by some strange, choppy editing choices throughout.
Many reality shows like this often have at least one character with a fun, clever trait, but in this show, everyone lacked charisma – which made it really hard to stay focused. I also thought the show went a little too far in showing dead animals. There was one particular scene where a dog was seen to be eating a dead, bloody bird, and it just left me thinking, did we really need to see it?
If this type of show is your thing, then you may get something out of Life Below Zero: First Alaskans, but for me, it’s a hard pass. However, if I were to pick one redeeming factor, it would be the beautiful Alaskan landscape prominently featured throughout. Life Below Zero: First Alaskans gets 1 out of 5 stars from me.
Life Below Zero: First Alaskans premieres on Tuesday, May 2nd on National Geographic with the first two episodes and streams on Disney+ starting June 7th.