The press kit for "Ax Men" is vintage History Channel: hyped up and annoying. You open it, and the sounds of chainsaws erupt. They whine on as you frantically try to find the DVD provided for review and end the noise as fast as you can.
The success of the series, which begins tomorrow night, depends on your interest in logging. If you're a logging addict, this is for you. If not, your mind may drift off to the dry cleaning you forgot to pick up, because at some point these logging operations all look alike.
This is not to dismiss the astonishing work these men do. To its credit, "Ax Men" is a serious attempt to give us the daily, scary life of loggers and the history of the industry in the Pacific Northwest, where trees are considered "green gold."
The same team that produced the series uncorked the channel's popular "Ice Road Truckers." What we're witnessing here is the advance of he-man chic. God knows where this will end up. But look at the bright side: Real footage beats the cheesy reenactments for which History Channel is famous.
In "Ax Men" that footage is raw, as are the profane conversations among loggers, some of whom are fourth-generation in the job. These guys can be funny or furious. Tempers flare, and people storm away.
The men repeatedly talk to the camera about how dangerous their job is - so much so that you wonder if there's not someone off camera prompting them, "So just how dangerous is it?"
We hear things like, "You never know how you'll get killed." And, "Most people would say this is the stupidest thing I've ever seen in my life, and I'm not going to do this." All true, in moderation.
In fact, a snapped cable can whipsaw a man in half. A falling tree can flatten you. Jay Browning, owner of one of the companies featured in the documentary, has a prosthetic hand with a claw on it thanks to a logging accident.
"Ax Men" follows four logging companies at different sites in the boondocks of Oregon as they bring down huge trees under horrific risk in nightmarish conditions. These men are under constant pressure to bring out as many truckloads of trees a day as they can because more loads mean more money. With the stress comes increased risk.
As usual, the History Channel punches up the production for dramatic effect. The script is melodramatic. We see footage of trouble over and over again, and the show is suffused with a big ominous musical score.
The sites are routinely located at the top of steep slopes, high above the trees below. A team descends to do the cutting and then attaches cables to the trees that are, in turn, connected to a monster machine on top. It slowly raises them up the slope to load on a truck. A million things can go wrong and often do.
These guys can be a prickly bunch, and I don't blame them. One logger detests the term "lumberjack" and tees off on all of us rubes at this end of the continent. "The people on the East Coast think that a lumberjack wears red and black checked shirts and stocking caps like Paul Bunyan," he grumbles.
I'll remember that the next time I take a chainsaw to a tree.
Sam Allis can be reached at allis@globe.com
