Meet a feral pig’s worst nightmare: the Campbell clan.
If you weren’t certain, there really is a reality show about everything… even feral pig hunters.
A&E’s new oddity, American Hoggers, follows the Campbell family of Texas. Grizzly patriarch Jerry is the Hog Boss, and with his two grown kids, Krystal and Robert, together they’re trying to eradicate the state’s explosive feral pig population one swine at a time.
If you aren’t a hunter or live in Texas, then it might be news to you that wild pigs have gotten to be such a problem. In the dry expanses of Texas, they’ve run amuck rooting and destroying crops, damaging fences, overpopulating and goring plenty of humans. Jerry calls them the “scourge of America” and hates them with a crotchety loathing that rivals sailor Quinn’s issues with sharks in Jaws. He’s an old-school tracker that uses hunting dogs as his anti-pig weapon of choice, with his favorite, Rooster, leading the pack. The poor dog looks as weathered as his owner, having lost an eye with a pig-run in some years before.
Assisting Jerry are his 20-something-kids who are a lot more progressive about the pig killing business than their dad. They want to include more technology and create more of a sustainable business for the future. We quickly learn that pops is set in his ways. When they get a call from a rancher in Burkett, the family loads up their rickety Jeep, horse trailer and the dogs for a new road trip to assist. On the way, Robert shows he’s kind of a poet when he eloquently compares the ferals to Chaucer’s demons. I think I’m gonna like that Rob.
On the property, Jerry, the kids and their family friend Lea (an honorary Campbell) get to work tracking pigs that are eating the farmers profits. Jerry puts a tracking collar on Rooster and some of the other dogs in case they get lost and then it’s field time.
Here’s where the show loses me. Obviously trying to capture the adrenaline thrill of the actual hunt, we get the hound cam and then what looks like a pig cam which gives us a nauseatingly jiggly, ground-level views of a few of the roundups. It’s tough to follow any of the action because of the intimate nature of the hog-tying procedure so I quickly became disengaged with the process. Over and over, a dog would yelp, there would be a flurry of horses and dogs running, some humans near the ground over a brown lump, some squealing and that’s it; not exactly enthralling TV. There’s some shooting and a bit of blood, but nothing too graphic if you’re squeamish.
Aside from Jerry, who likes to mumble in a thick accent that needs subtitles for clarification, the Campbells aren’t a chatty bunch and we don’t get to know them spectacularly well. Sure, they do an interesting job but if you’re not a hunter or like watching bass fishing or deer killing shows, I’m afraid a lot is lost in the reality translation. The differences in opinions between dad and kids aren’t even very combustible.
The only quasi drama occurs when Rooster goes missing for a day and a half at the ranch. When they finally captures a big pig, they also stumble upon Rooster sniffing about. We don’t get a Lassie or Benji style epic emotional reunion. Jerry just looks happy his favorite stud is back and that’s about it.
American Hoggers need a lot more focus on the family and the clients to get me interested their lives. And even then, I’m not so sure the Campbells are worth hanging out with on a weekly basis.
This review originally appeared on TV Geek Army.