Grue Bayou: "Swamp People"

Louisiana's swamplands have provided the setting for many works of American Gothic over the years, from fiction (Lucius Shepard's Green Eyes; Robert R. McCammon's Gone South) to film (The Alligator People; Interview with the Vampire) and television (True Blood).  And now the new reality series airing on The History Channel, "Swamp People" can be aligned with that tradition.

The show traces the lives of the mostly-Cajun residents of southern Louisiana (the vast region of flooded forests, marshes, and bayous comprising the Atchafalaya River Basin).  As the show's narrator establishes, "This is a hidden world where nature rules...and man fights [or was it "bites"?] back."  The most rugged of these men engage--during the legalized 30-day hunting season--in alligator hunting.  Their efforts are not mere sport, but a matter of earning a living and also protecting their loved ones (left unchecked, the alligator population would pose a serious threat to human inhabitants of the area).

Thematically, the show's first episode focuses on hunter Troy Landry's years-long quest to track down his personal "white whale": the behemoth gator known as Big Head.  The Jaws overtones are also strong here, as Troy struggles to keep summer fun from turning into a bloody disaster.  He aims to kill Big Head before the gator "eats one of them kids" swimming innocently (some might say crazily--such aquatic activity looks about as safe as trying to blow-dry your hair in the shower) in the murky waters.  The show's rhetoric of monstrosity, though, hardly seems overblown when one sees the rotted chickens employed as bait or hears the beastly growl of an agitated gator.

As one might guess from its title, the series features a colorful cast of real-life characters.  None of these people will be starring in a Crest commercial anytime soon, but it's important to point out that unlike many a reality-TV show, "Swamp People" is not some shameless parade of freakishness.  These are proud and skilled folk, adept at living off the (swamp)land and killing off the saurian predators haunting their world (emphasis on "haunting": video clips on the show's webpage indicate that future episodes will touch on the dark folklore of the area).

While I am an avowed despiser of the reality-television genre, I love what I've seen thus far of "Swamp People."  The show offers a fascinating glimpse of a way of life that lies far from the American mainstream but cuts straight through the Macabre Republic.


Note: If you missed the series premiere on Sunday night, you can catch a repeat of that first episode tonight at 10 on The History Channel.