Product: Extreme Trains: The Complete Season One (2009)
Rating: 2.0
Good if you can get past the host and the gimmicks
I watched most of the episodes in this series when they were on TV, and they reminded me of a college term paper that lacks enough substance, trying hard to fill the professor's minimum page requirement by using large fonts and wide margins.In other words, these shows do their best to squeeze about 20-25 minutes of worthwhile content into a one hour show. The host is not a good narrator or storyteller, and the video gimmicks get old in a hurry.The core information in each one is interesting to both railfans and casual viewers alike, but the script repeats nearly everything more than once in an effort to fill the time allotted, and the host often resorts to silly or stupid questions and weak humor to try to justify his existence. In one particular episode I wondered if the engineer and conductor were contemplating tossing him off the train to be rid of the annoyance.If the producers had recognized these episodes don't need an hour, and that the host's style is more suited to a young children's show, they could have put out a much better product with 30 minute episodes and a host who knows how to talk to adults.Given the price - $10.49 as of March 17, 2012 - go ahead and buy it if you're interested. As long as you can ignore the host's shortcomings and have a fast-forward on your DVD player you'll be able to enjoy the good parts. If I could find a way to edit them, I'd cut the episodes down to the enjoyable segments and actually watch them from time to time. Lacking that ability and/or the time to do it, I'm satsified enough having seen this on TV that I don't plan to buy this DVD set.