Storage Wars: Season One

There is a career of storage auditioning. A weird cast of characters goes to storage units where the owner stopped paying his rent. Then, the door is opened and, for five minutes, people can look at what’s inside … from outside. They can’t go in, and nobody knows what is inside until the lock is chomped off and the door opens. Then, they bid with cash and someone new owns a giant room of stuff.

This could make for a solid 90-minute documentary because it’s full of natural drama. The bidding, the mystery, the chance for profit. Yet the show always takes the laziest route, and the results are boring.

The pigeonholed characters are Darrell “The Gambler”, Jarrod “The Young Gun", Dave “The Mogul” and Barry “The Collector.” They’re fine people with different levels of skill and experience. Instead of letting them be themselves, they have to be reality stars. They have their stupid scripted interviews to the camera where they spit out clichés about “raising the heat." Instead of learning more about their individual processes for selling the discoveries, they all stick to their catchphrases.

Most of the fun of the show is seeing the random things that are in the bins. In one episode, there was a crazy set of flare guns, one dated from the Civil War. When they find these unique items that need to be valued, they take them to one of their “friends." Every time, the expert is trying to explain the history of the item and then the show cuts away to the dealer saying how they talk too much. Learning about something does not fit into the show’s outlined formula.

It would be nice if the show occasionally broke format and had an episode investigating who used to own these bins; that could be something worthwhile. Instead, every episode is five minutes of really interesting television and then the typical reality-show idiocy.

The Season One DVD has 19 episodes of the show which totals to 7 hours of content. I don’t know why this is a show someone thinks they need to own. It plays on A&E a lot and isn’t something that is easy to marathon or even re-watch. There aren't any bonus features, so it’s even more confusing of a set.

Season: 2.5 Yaps Extras: N/A