After spending three years with the Hoffman clan in the great northern tundra, Discovery is throwing a tropical twist in with their new series Jungle Gold, where the familiar rough Alaskan terrain of Gold Rush: Alaska is replaced with the dangerous African jungle. Both have the same goal. But which one do you think is better?
Todd Hoffman and his (now) divided crew kicked off television’s proverbial gold rush after heading to Alaska as amateur gold miners attempting to bring home money to provide for their families. Though this element has largely been passed over as of recent – likely because the cast is part of one of cable’s strongest series – some additional storylines have been included to help fill the series out.
Parker Schnabel has, for all intents and purposes, taken over where the Hoffman’s family storyline began. No longer a series about just gold mining, Gold Rush: Alaska began to show one of reality television’s most earnest coming-of-age stories, showing the best and worst of adolescent enthusiasm and conviction. Additionally, “Dakota” Fred helps keep track of things back at the original claim. Though short in story, there’s still more to Fred than the villainous character he (sometimes) portrays. Maybe.
But now, three years after the series began, Jungle Gold comes into the picture, serving as a supplemental series to help strengthen Discovery’s hold on Friday night. Jungle Gold tells the same tale that Gold Rush: Alaska began with (see above), but this time they’re taking the mining to the dangerous African jungle, where tribal chiefs are the only ones able to keep the peace and avoid bloodshed.
Instead of the rustic touch of Hoffman and Schnabel, Jungle Gold has Scott Lomu and George Wright VI, two former-millionaire realtors now struggling to pay the bills. Lomu and Wright may have a sharper plan with their gold aspirations than the Hoffmans initially had, but their location is 10x as dangerous, and not exactly full of gold.
Lomu and Wright pretty much have the same financial goals as the Hoffmans, except that Lomu and Wright will have to remove almost all of the gold in their claim to reach that mark – while the Hoffman’s limits appear to only be their ability to run as much dirt as possible. Even if the stories may be similar, Jungle Gold is much more of a suspenseful watch, and not just because of the gold mining.
In Gold Rush: Alaska, stray bears and broken equipment are generally the only dangers we’re used to see associated with the mining trade. Now thanks to Jungle Gold, those preconceived notions of flannelled miners are replaced with black market gold buys, armed miners, tribal chiefs and potential bloodshed. And that’s just in the first episode.
Comparing Gold Rush: Alaska and Jungle Gold really isn’t fair as they both present a different point of view in the world of mining, even if that point of view is of an amateur. Still, it’s almost impossible to say that Jungle Gold isn’t a more instinctively compelling series, no matter how strong the cast stories of Gold Rush: Alaska may be.
If anything, story may be where Jungle Gold is lacking most. Everyone can relate to the notion of wanting to provide for your family, and Jungle Gold does a good job of conveying that element. However, the former-millionaire backstory and quick pace in which Lomu and Wright are able to progress in the goals, from small (sending money home) to large (finding a new claim), weakens those emotional ties, relying on the dangerous elements of the African jungle to help fuel its story.
But who’s to say which is better? Viewers are. So we leave the question up to you: Which do you think is better? Gold Rush: Alaska or Jungle Gold.
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Gold Rush: Alaska season 3 airs Fridays @9pm on Discovery
Jungle Gold airs Fridays @10pm on Discovery
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I watched every episode of Jungle Gold and probably would not watch a second season if there is one. Scott and George must both suffer from Attention Deficit Disorder! They lose their first claim to the Chinese then cut a deal on another claim but never actually do any serious work. They quickly lose interest because its not going to be easy (wasting big money on equipment) so they try making deals with other claim owners. At one point they invest in rock crushers but again the work is too hard so they abandon that idea (more money wasted) and try for even richer ground which is out of their league and budget. If they had stayed on their second claim and rolled up their sleeves I think their fortunes would have improved.
I started watching Gold Rush last year during season 2 and have been hooked ever since. The story of everyday normal guys taking a chance and working hard to make some money mining for gold. It is kinda crazy but that is what the show is about. The fans of this show value the dedication, ingenuity, and toughness on display each week. The documentary production is done extremely well and it makes the viewer feel as if they are there with the problems, the tough decisions, and the victories. Since fans have watched these crews for 3 years we have come to some conclusions based on their actions. Some of these conclusions are not positive but they are accurate. First let’s start with Parker. To begin with you hate this little prick, but the more you watch and learn of his family and his background, the more we see how he acts with his crew, the more we want to like the kid. Second we get to the Dakota boys. Now things started out rocky when Fred decided to buy the claim that he worked during the first season with the Hoffman crew. This was pretty brash but Fred doesn’t really care what you think. It now seems that he was right to distance himself from the Hoffman crew in order to actually make some money for himself. He is the definition of a hard worker and he’s not afraid to go at it alone. His practicality is exhibited in almost every episode through fixing a broken part and just finding a way to get it done. Now to the Hoffman crew. There is the dad Hoffman and Todd Hoffman who are the leaders, for some unknown reason, of the crew. There seems to be better qualified members of the crew but we will get to that shortly. So these two Hoffman guys, do they perform a lot of the work, do they have more knowledge of gold mining, do they take the risky tough tasks as an example to the rest of the crew what a good leader should be. The answer to all of these questions is no. Todd, the head of the operation, spends essentially all of his time on the radio telling the others what to do, this season he also liked to boast that his crew was superior to the other half of the team. He creates division when it is unnecessary. He also loves to pull rank on his underlings when he chooses. When there is a very dangerous job, the operator’s life is at risk, does not step up and do it himself, no he yells through the radio to get it done and he doesn’t care if the truck falls over the cliff with the operator inside. He wears a 316 mining shirt all the time but has the twitter hash tag #goldrushmafia. That leads us to the outcome of the current season when we have been promised a mother lode. Discovery was very non specific and I got suspicious the final 2 or 3 weeks that the mother lode might not be a big deal. See there are alot of people and alot of expenses involved in the hoffman gold mining operation. First there are the trailers, probably 8 to 10, to house the workers and their families. Est. $200,000. Next there are the 2 brand new wash plants, est $500,000. 4 rock trucks, est $300,000, 3 dozers, est $250,000, 2 excavators, est $130,000, 2 loaders, est $130,000, diesel fuel, est $100,000, travel for crew and families, est $ 30,000, and leasing the land for mining, est 20% of the profit. So they pulled out $1.26 million worth of gold. How much did they pay to the land owner, est $230,000. Let’s say 1 million remaining. Now we can subtract the expenses of $1,640,000. Wow that means they are in the red by 640,000. Therefore they did not make any profit, but Discovery does not tell us the expenses so I cannot be sure but say I’m off in the expenses by half so the expenses are only 820,000. That makes them a profit of 180,000 evenly divided, which I know it is not, gives each crew member 18,000 for 5 months of work. That does not meet my definition of hitting the motherlode.
Not sure but Todd must have had a serious cold during this last episode.