Reality tv, normally the kind of thing I just pass on but in this case I have to admit that this is my guilty pleasure. It's like a documentary about how everything works in the gold mining industry. By now I know everything that needs to be known if I ever wanted to start gold mining, which by the way will never happen. Overall it's well shot, with alot of different camera angles that show the whole operation like if you were there. It's also a nice discovery on how people behave whilst having 'The Gold Fever'. I don't have to tell you that money brings the bad out of somebody, it's just obvious when you watch this show from start till the end. The characters they follow during all those years are all different but they also have alot in common, basically they are all first class a**holes. You have the Hoffman crew, with Todd "I can guarantee you" Hoffman as the leader and also the biggest loser of the whole show. Besides taking bad decisions after bad decisions he doesn't do much work. If you want an example on how to NOT run a mining business follow his example. His father, Jack Hoffman (or the papa smurf with the most annoying voice ever like I call him), is probably the most irritating character of Gold Rush. The whole crew likes to pray to God for gold. As good Christians as they are it's gold and welfare they pray for, not for world peace. As a convinced atheist it's just so funny to see them fail time after time. I guess their God couldn't be bothered with them. Needless to say Todd Hoffman and his crew are just the laughing stock of this show. Then you have the Schnabel crew, with the petulant child Parker as the head of the crew. At a really young age you can see that he's discovering gold mining, trying to make his grandfather proud, but ending up to be just a first class a**hole as well. I would probably smash his face after one day but that's just me. But it's fair to say that he learns the business and he will succeed as he knows what he's doing contrary to the Hoffmans. His grandfather and father look like nice people, I guess he didn't inherit their character. Then you have "The Dakota Boys" with Fred and Dustin Hurt, father and son, clearly obsessed by the gold. Father Fred is probably the man with dirtiest finger nails on this planet, I guess a manicure costs way too much for him, the greedy b*st*rd. He starts the show as a claim jumper, basically a filthy little thief. So it's really enjoyable to see karma catching up on him. He obviously can fix things over there in the bush, and that comes in handy, but everytime something goes wrong I couldn't help myself being happy watching him fail and lose money. He's just a little greedy filthy thief. His son is about okay, even though I can see him becoming like his father. And then, for the piece de résistance, you have the Beets crew, with the godfather of the gold mining industry, Tony Beets. The way he treats people is just awful, even his own kids. I don't know how he never got shot or beaten up by now. But he knows what he does, that's a fact. From Dutch origin, you can clearly hear that from their accents, the Beets family business are making money, day after day, year after year, but will probably die friendless with alot of gold. You also get to watch and follow other characters during all those seasons, some good hardworking people that deserve much more than the constant verbal abuse from their "bosses". If I had to chose people to make a good crew I would go for Fred Dodge, Andy Spinks, Dave Turin, Mitch Blaschke, Gene Cheeseman, John Schnabel, Juan Ibarra, Rick Ness and Jim Thurber. I think with those people gold mining would be a success, but also pleasant working, that in my eyes is so more important than money. Basically this reality tv show is about people obsessed by finding gold, but it's all well documented and shot.
Review of Gold Rush
