Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Drive Hard: The Maloof Way’ On Netflix, A Reality Series Where A Top Racing And Stunt Family Takes On Challenging Projects

We know almost nothing about cars; we can change out our wipers, fill the windshield fluid and change out the lights when a bulb blows. But we like watching car shows, especially ones where a shop tweaks a car to make it run better and/or faster. A new series follows a top racing family as they not only work on client projects, but coordinate and execute spectacular stunts on film sets (yes, this family does both).

DRIVE HARD: THE MALOOF WAY: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: A closeup of Sammy Maloof putting on a helmet before doing a stunt.

The Gist: Drive Hard: The Maloof Way is a reality series that shows Sammy Maloof and his family — his wife Jennifer, son Trevor, nephew Joshua, and daughters Kaitlyn, Meghan and Hannah — operating their multi-faceted business. The Maloof family is famous around Southern California for tuning up cars and engines for racing, but Sammy is also a stunt driver, having worked on big films for a quarter-century.

The episodes will feature projects that come into their engine shop, usually related to a race. For instance, a guy from Texas comes in with his Mustang; he’s been challenged to a race by a well-known street racer, and he wants to make sure that his Mustang is up to snuff. His budget is limited, but he promises to split the $10,000 purse with the Maloofs if he wins. According to Jennifer, who runs the business side, projects like these aren’t big moneymakers, but they do get the Maloof name out there.

Hannah, Trevor and Joshua work on the tweaks they need to make to the car to make it feel more solid and responsive, like lowering the suspension, adding sticky tires and stiffing up the roll cage. On the practice track, Sammy gives the client tips on how to overtake his rival, even though his car is a hair slower.

On the stunt side of the business, twins Kaitlyn and Meghan, both apprentice stunt drivers, will be helping their dad on a stunt in an indie film. Maloof has his own stunt coordinator and they lay out and plan the entire stunt, which consists of the twins chasing his SUV down hilly dirt roads, then the SUV launching sideways into a bus, with lots of explosions.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? The format of Drive Hard: The Maloof Way is similar to that of other project-oriented reality series, like American Pickers and Southern Survival. A good comparison show is American Chopper, but without all the explosive family arguments.

Our Take: If you love cars, you’ll love Drive Hard: The Maloof Way. There’s lots of scenes of people tightening things with ratchet wrenches, and people using their automotive knowhow to tweak already-souped-up cars to go even faster. On the stunt side, Sammy and his stunt team plan and execute some pretty spectacular stunts, and the producers seem to know that it’s best to end each episode on a stunt cliffhanger, to see if Sammy is hurt or not.

It’s also fun to watch Sammy Maloof embrace teaching his kids and nephew everything he knows, especially because he is looking to leave the business to them. The dynamic among the family seems to be more loving and supportive than anything else, which doesn’t really foster reality drama (the aforementioned American Chopper), but it also doesn’t feel semi-scripted, either (like on Pawn Stars).

Listen, we know the projects are set-ups; people aren’t just e-mailing the Maloofs and coming in randomly. Sammy Maloof is a great stuntman, but not exactly a good actor. In one episode, a racer that brought his car to another mechanic after the Maloofs worked on it comes to the shop, and there’s supposed to be conflict. But Sammy and Hannah’s lack of acting skills are evident; this is something that, if it was real, was settled long ago and is just being recreated for the cameras.

We’re also not sure the stunts are for any particular movie project. Why would any filmmaker agree to have the best stunt in his or her film get shown on a Netflix series? Again, it’s not a big deal that these stunts are actually for the show and not any kind of movie project, but the fakery is pretty obvious and takes away from how impressive the stunts actually are.

Sex and Skin: None.

Parting Shot: Sammy jumps the SUV and crashes into the bus, which his team has modified to break away in the section he’s supposed to hit.

Sleeper Star: We’ll give this to Hannah Maloof, because she’s both an expert mechanic and a great race driver.

Most Pilot-y Line: When the client’s car leaks oil during the test run, Hannah says that the car “Was supposebly gone through in Texas.” Let’s just say this: At least you can’t accuse the Maloofs of polishing their personalities for the camera.

Our Call: STREAM IT. While there isn’t a ton of conflict in Drive Hard: The Maloof Way, there’s plenty of racing, plenty of spectacular stunts, and plenty of other things to make gearheads happy.

Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.