The premise sounds good enough. The eldest sons of a family 'living off the land' go out on their own to 'become men' and see if they can make it 90 days out in the wild.
The problem, well like most of these fake survival shows, they have ALL the modern conveniences possible. They have snowmobiles, 6 wheel ATVs, chain saws, rifles and unlimited ammo (they need it too because they are bad shots). They also happen to make their camp at what appears to be a brand new cabin, which I suspect was built just for the show.
Supposedly the family lives on the land and makes the money to buy all this along with all their other supplies for their actual home primarily from trapping. They are always claiming how disconnected they are, but they live on a road with a mailbox and a school bus drops their kids off. They are certainly exaggerating quite a lot. Those ATVs and snowmobiles are thousands of dollars and upkeep on them is also no joke. They have modern clothes and access basically to anything you can get at Walmart.
Still, I give the show a shot because the premise itself still seems good and a 90 day survival show would be a welcome change from the BS we currently have being marketed as survival.
The problem is the show really isn't about the 'Sons' of Winter. Instead of focusing on the two sons like the title would suggest the show constantly jumps back to the house and the father where we see them setup traps and do basic chores. The father has a tendency of constantly repeating the same lines over and over and let us remember he moved to the wild, it's his second home, not his first. Yet he seems quite sure of himself on all walks, of course in relation to how stupid the two sons act, I can see why he might be arrogant.
In either case, the show does not deliver it's basic premise well enough. There is no real focus on the 90 day survival task, rather they split the show up and just randomly jump back and forth between the boys out in the brand new cabin with their chain saws and ATV and the rest of the family back home, the 2nd part being especially boring.
It's really just another wilderness soap opera, not a survival show. Fat Guys in the Woods, for instance, offers a lot more survival and education on the wilderness than this show, which tends to focus on social interaction more than wilderness survival.
Like all these shows, they lie to you about exactly where all those cool toys the family has comes from. Many of these people have other jobs where they make their money for their snowmobiles, tractors, and bulldozers and so on and so forth. They also exaggerate how cut off most of these places are, many of which are just a short drive from a major city and a Walmart. Then they try to sell you on how one with nature these people are.. using their chainsaws and snow mobiles and brand new shiny modern tools.
I've watched several episodes hoping the show would move it's focus to the kids survival plot, but it keeps jumping back to the trapping business that supposedly is the heart and soul of the families income. The father is just an annoying character that probably says things like.. 'if you make a a mistake out here YOU DIE' like 5 times in every episode just to keep the dramatic element alive. You can't help but think, well if that's the case then how is your dumb ass still alive.
The wilderness is dangerous, but they don't live in the real wilderness and they have full access to every modern convenience they can buy, which seems to be quite a lot. This show is almost as bad/fake as Alaskan Bush People, but it's not quite that over the top. The idea is the same though and the kids do dumb things to keep the show exciting while the dad tries to act like some 'holier than thou' character doing what he can just to keep his family alive on the brink of pioneer country. Of course in reality they have roads, electric, cars and major cities close enough that the only pioneering really being done here is to push the boundaries of survival show BS.
Living in a cabin with guns, tons of ammo, ATVs and snowmobiles. That's not survival, it's more like a vacation that lots of people pay thousands of dollars to experience. Sure, it requires some work, but game is plentiful, ammo is seemingly unlimited, they have a really nice pre-built shelter and plenty of traps and supplies. So far I haven't seen anything remotely like wilderness survival in this show. It's more like a sensationalized hunting and logging show.