This show has received so much backlash for being "fake," that the producers decided to make an episode (S1E5) addressing the accusations.
The thing is, most viewers have no idea what goes into making a television show. You can't just follow people around with cameras. You need permits in many cases and appearance release forms from anyone you film. You might miss a critical moment - like two brothers shooting a caribou at dusk - so you reenact it, cut a scene together with what footage you have, etc. It happened, it just didn't unfold directly in front of the cameras in real time.
If the family goes into a bar to attempt to barter with the owner, you think the cameras were already in there all set up? Or if they go into a store and flirt (poorly) with the female cashier? Of course not. Those people are asked in advance, sign waivers, and maybe are even coached a little how to behave. It's been done this way since 1992's The Real World.
Where Alaskan Bush People succeeds is in its characters. I find these people fascinating. And whether or not there are sides to them we don't see (of course there are), what we do see is endearing.
The problem is all the repetition. At least for the first two seasons, the writers have introduced us to the family about a dozen times. "Bear runs through the woods, Matt is the oldest," etc. I realize the show aired on Discovery before I got to it here on HBO Max, and it's cut for commercials, but my God, how many times are we going to get the recap of their first cabin, then being run off their land, then their boat sinking, etc. The Christmas in the Bush episode (S2E1) was particularly excruciating and I fast forwarded through most of it. An hour of them cutting a tree down and decorating.
But it goes on for 12 more seasons! I'll skim along and find out what happens to this interesting family.
UPDATE: Having watched (or skimmed, really, due to the insane amounts of repetition) to halfway through season 8, my tune has changed a bit. The show *is* fake. But, a few caveats: Of course I don't think the family are actors (I even follow some on instagram). And I believe the basic story of a family of libertarian parents and their seven kids who, for a time, truly did seem to live off grid. Once the show started, though, their lives understandably changed. "Browntown" wasn't as remote as it was depicted on the island of Chichagof, and there's no way they're feeding those strapping kids with a couple of deer and that tiny, sad garden. Or even the chickens they had one year, or the cow. No, the show never comes right out and directly claims they are 100% self-sufficient, but its implied. And it's just not true.
When the family must move to California for Ami's treatments, okay -- no problem. It's a "reality" show, after all. And in real life, stuff happens. But after a season (7) almost entirely of repetition and flashbacks, the family then ostensibly heads to Colorado. Only, at the start of season, they're not in Colorado, but Washington State. Wait--what?? Unless I missed something, this was NEVER EVEN MENTIONED. Season 7 just ends with them in Colorado to start a new life, and somewhere into season 8, Bill Brown says "Washington," and then Birdie says "Washington." I looked it up. They're in Washington.
But -- and here's the more important thing -- they're not really living atop a mountain in Washington. They're not living in those four teepees, or even the mobile home. No way. They're in city clothes, well-fed, sitting around a fire while the cameras roll. A crew goes off with Matt and he makes some fireside coffee, or purifies water, and the producers spread this across a couple of episodes. That way it looks like daily life for the Browns. It's not. They arrive for a time, get wired up with the microphones, and the cameras roll while they cut down a couple of trees or build a small deck off the RV. Bam is dating a producer. Bear wears Michael Jackson leather jackets and pants. Rain is a California kid if I ever saw one.
But hey, I like them. I think they are genuinely good people. I think this show happened to them, and it's obviously changed their lives irrevocably. But they're no more "Alaskan Bush People" than I am. They're a reality TV family, a sort of anti-Kardashian family the cameras follow through changes and misadventures. Try as the producers might to bend the show towards some kind of survivalist family story, toward bushcraft or outdoorsmanship, it's really not. But that's okay.
The thing is, most viewers have no idea what goes into making a television show. You can't just follow people around with cameras. You need permits in many cases and appearance release forms from anyone you film. You might miss a critical moment - like two brothers shooting a caribou at dusk - so you reenact it, cut a scene together with what footage you have, etc. It happened, it just didn't unfold directly in front of the cameras in real time.
If the family goes into a bar to attempt to barter with the owner, you think the cameras were already in there all set up? Or if they go into a store and flirt (poorly) with the female cashier? Of course not. Those people are asked in advance, sign waivers, and maybe are even coached a little how to behave. It's been done this way since 1992's The Real World.
Where Alaskan Bush People succeeds is in its characters. I find these people fascinating. And whether or not there are sides to them we don't see (of course there are), what we do see is endearing.
The problem is all the repetition. At least for the first two seasons, the writers have introduced us to the family about a dozen times. "Bear runs through the woods, Matt is the oldest," etc. I realize the show aired on Discovery before I got to it here on HBO Max, and it's cut for commercials, but my God, how many times are we going to get the recap of their first cabin, then being run off their land, then their boat sinking, etc. The Christmas in the Bush episode (S2E1) was particularly excruciating and I fast forwarded through most of it. An hour of them cutting a tree down and decorating.
But it goes on for 12 more seasons! I'll skim along and find out what happens to this interesting family.
UPDATE: Having watched (or skimmed, really, due to the insane amounts of repetition) to halfway through season 8, my tune has changed a bit. The show *is* fake. But, a few caveats: Of course I don't think the family are actors (I even follow some on instagram). And I believe the basic story of a family of libertarian parents and their seven kids who, for a time, truly did seem to live off grid. Once the show started, though, their lives understandably changed. "Browntown" wasn't as remote as it was depicted on the island of Chichagof, and there's no way they're feeding those strapping kids with a couple of deer and that tiny, sad garden. Or even the chickens they had one year, or the cow. No, the show never comes right out and directly claims they are 100% self-sufficient, but its implied. And it's just not true.
When the family must move to California for Ami's treatments, okay -- no problem. It's a "reality" show, after all. And in real life, stuff happens. But after a season (7) almost entirely of repetition and flashbacks, the family then ostensibly heads to Colorado. Only, at the start of season, they're not in Colorado, but Washington State. Wait--what?? Unless I missed something, this was NEVER EVEN MENTIONED. Season 7 just ends with them in Colorado to start a new life, and somewhere into season 8, Bill Brown says "Washington," and then Birdie says "Washington." I looked it up. They're in Washington.
But -- and here's the more important thing -- they're not really living atop a mountain in Washington. They're not living in those four teepees, or even the mobile home. No way. They're in city clothes, well-fed, sitting around a fire while the cameras roll. A crew goes off with Matt and he makes some fireside coffee, or purifies water, and the producers spread this across a couple of episodes. That way it looks like daily life for the Browns. It's not. They arrive for a time, get wired up with the microphones, and the cameras roll while they cut down a couple of trees or build a small deck off the RV. Bam is dating a producer. Bear wears Michael Jackson leather jackets and pants. Rain is a California kid if I ever saw one.
But hey, I like them. I think they are genuinely good people. I think this show happened to them, and it's obviously changed their lives irrevocably. But they're no more "Alaskan Bush People" than I am. They're a reality TV family, a sort of anti-Kardashian family the cameras follow through changes and misadventures. Try as the producers might to bend the show towards some kind of survivalist family story, toward bushcraft or outdoorsmanship, it's really not. But that's okay.