Although I was raised in a conservative Christian family and my mother adores Sarah Palin, I was not a huge fan of hers. I share her values, but I am not persuaded that she has the legal and political skill and prowess; she would be another W. at best.
That said, this show is not about her political campaigns. It's about the human being that is Sarah Palin taking a number of exciting outdoor adventures in Alaska. Some of these adventures, such as fishing and hunting, are routine for Sarah. Some of them were clearly scheduled for the show as a new, fresh adventure that Sarah hadn't experienced much or at all before.
That Sarah is a politician is not completely lost in this show; she makes a number of comments about her career as a politician, and we see her taking on television and radio interviews from time to time as well as making the rounds with the locals making political friends. And as she narrates the show (this is her show, after all), it's a no-brainer expectation that she would regularly try to use rhetoric about her adventures in Alaska as analogous to her political career. But really this stuff takes a back seat--way back seat. You come away from this show seeing Ms Palin as Wonder Woman (one of her friends on the show calls her "Amazon Woman'), not so much "governor", "vice-president", or some other officer of the state or United States. (On the other hand, isn't that just the sort of material America needs in office? Less white collar, more blood, sweat, and tears... That's definitely the message Sarah and her followers want portrayed by this show.)
And actually, the show proves less about Sarah than about her kids. Say what you will about their family (the term "idiots" has been used in these reviews, and I'm willing to bet that such reviewers were not so bright in their youth either), these people are real and down-to-earth, and while one would expect them to be seriously affected for better or for worse by Sarah's publicity, and they certainly aren't unaffected, they still seem, in my opinion, true to who they are. They're not idiots, they're people. One of Sarah's kids is retarded; you really feel like you're getting a transparent view of a vulnerable home, and I appreciate that glimpse.
The adventures that they have are quite interesting, if indeed one finds fishing, hunting, panning for gold, kayaking, and other great Alaskan adventures to be interesting. If not, skip, there's too much of it. But the adventures definitely give a picturesque view of Alaska, and this show is amazingly gorgeous in high definition. Get the Blu-ray when it comes out!!
