Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Big Timber’ On Netflix, About Loggers And A Huge Timber Claim On Vancouver Island

One of Joel McHale’s favorite running gags on The Soup was pointing out every time the series Gold Rush: Alaska referred to a “glory hole” with the utmost of seriousness. At some point we started to suspect that the show’s writers started inserting more and more “glory hole” lines in the narration just to stay on The Soup‘s radar. If McHale were still hosting The Soup, we bet he’d be very happy that the show Big Timber exists. Why? Read on for more…

BIG TIMBER: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: An intro explains how Kevin Wenstob, owner of a massive mill on Vancouver Island, has taken a financial chance on a timber claim on treacherous ground 200km away.

The Gist: Big Timber is a reality series that follows Wenstob as he and his crew manage the timber that’s been cut down on his claim. The claim consists of top-quality cedar, which can fetch upwards of $30,000 per log, depending on the size and quality.

On the mountain, Wenstob’s crew consists of Coleman Willner, Kevin’s “right hand”, rookie logger Gord King and Greg Kleven, who operates the yarder, which lifts the massive logs from the mountainside to solid ground. Back at the mill, it’s a family affair, with Kevin’s wife Sarah Flemming running the business and their son Erik Wenstob being “Mr. Fix-It.” He says he takes pride in “taking things that are shitty and making them less shitty.”

As the crew finds a massive log that they need to get up the mountain they apply a ring called a choker around the cables from the yarder. The narrator says with a straight face that the loggers “focus on choking a monster log,” but it’s making for problems. When it slips down, Kevin gets into a grabber and tries to guide the log up.

Down at the mill, Erik is there to help fix up the used equipment that Kevin buys to save money; a loader nicknamed “Grover” is out of commission and he has to rebuild the engine for it. But when he installs it, it doesn’t provide enough power for the hydraulics. Kevin stands there and urges his son to get the job done because the longer the loader is out of commission the longer his mill stays idle. Sarah finds out that a massive rat has been bathing himself in the bathroom’s toilet, and sets a trap for it.

Another thing Kevin has to worry about is who he’s selling his cedar logs to. At the dry sorting area down the mountain, he has another local mill owner come over to inspect his first haul. The mill owner is skeptical of how Kevin has graded the logs but buys the haul with the provision that if these are good, he’ll buy everything that comes off the mountain, which is millions of dollars of timber. It’s the only way Kevin’s risk on the claim is going to pay off.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Big Timber is pretty much the logger version of Gold Rush: Alaska or Ice Road Truckers.

Our Take: Big Timber originally aired on History Canada, which makes sense if you watch the show. It’s got that same testosterone-driven vibe as the shows that have run on Discovery or History here in the states. The deep-voiced narrator, the grungy guys with beards, the token woman making sure everything runs well.

But one of the things that people don’t realize about these shows is that they have their own winking sense of humor. Just like how Gold Rush: Alaska constantly talked about working a “glory hole,” Big Timber isn’t afraid to talk about “choking a log” or showing Kevin or someone else talking about “good wood”.

This isn’t by accident, folks. Those lines are either written into the voice over or edited into the episode to let the viewer know, “Yes, we know that we’re presenting these shows as macho sausagefests. But we also know that you’re in on the joke.”

Does that mean our sense of humor is stuck in 7th grade? Maybe. But knowing that the producers are letting us know that they’re not taking this as seriously as it seems makes the show that much more entertaining to watch. We’d much rather see the people on screen do their dangerous jobs and then tell the usual goofy workplace jokes about how dangerous it is, enhanced with the narration, than see set up funny situations like we saw for years on shows like Pawn Stars.

Sex and Skin: Nothing sexual about the phrase “choking a monster log.” Nothing at all.

Parting Shot: After hauling up another huge log, Coleman says “Who’s having fun?” and Kevin says, “Back to work!”

Sleeper Star: We loved Erik’s sense of humor, but we also like Coleman saying that “I don’t want to be puddled” when referring to what might happen if one of those big logs slipped from the choker and hit him.

Most Pilot-y Line: Sarah takes the dead rat that she found in the trap and shows it around the workshop. Then she scrapes it into the garbage. Ewwwww.

Our Call: STREAM IT. Why the hell not? Big Timber is goofy fun with lots of great scenery of the mountains on Vancouver Island. And, if there’s more references to “good wood” and “choking a log” throughout the series, we’re on board.

Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.

Stream Big Timber On Netflix