Deadliest Catch
Despite the lack of “twists” and executive contrived “plots” the show Deadliest Catch on the Discovery Channel is consistently among my favorite shows. I think part of the reason is that they make it seem extremely real. The people on the show are real and that goes a really long way. No one in their right mind is there just to be on camera. If there was any way to filter out the wannabe reality stars, telling them they need to spend a bunch of times in cramped quarters on high seas working long shifts in freezing spray while taking significant risk to their own life — well, that’s probably the way to do it. Maybe some people go up there “hoping” to get on a boat to get on TV but I don’t really think it’s common. Plus those jobs can be hard to come by. Anyway, the realness of the show really appeals to me.
Sadly, the realness of the show came to full strength on the latest episode (Season 5, Episode 3). It was probably the single most powerful and emotional episode of TV I’ve ever seen. Sure, I’ve seen other emotional moments on fictional TV — one that really sticks out is when Bodie and Poot have to kill Wallace in The Wire. But that didn’t compare to this episode of Deadliest Catch.
Once again, the realness of Deadliest Catch is the key. A typical Deadliest Catch episode jumps between the “feature” boats a few times, they catch some crab, they celebrate, some other boat doesn’t catch crab, they complain, etc, etc. It’s somehow entertaining even though it’s the same most weeks. This most recent episode featured very little in the way of actual fishing. Instead, it focused on the sinking of a boat called the Katmai and the subsequent Coast Guard rescue mission. The footage from the sinking is non-existent but Discovery Channel sent out cameramen with the Coast Guard. Because of where the boat sank, it took the Coast Guard close to 10 hours just to fly a helicopter out to the area. A plane and cutter went out too but clearly helicopters are the tool of choice to locate and rescue survivors when a boat sinks.
I want to do my best to not ruin the episode but I do have to say that some of the fishermen survived. And a bunch of them agreed to be interviewed for the show — and their interviews really made the show. Absolute incredible stuff. And by incredible, I mean incredibly heart-wrenching and sad. Like most people, I usually see news reports about “x people died” or “y people were killed in such and such accident” and I shrug it off. I usually don’t give it another thought simply because it’s a part of life and it seems like those things happen all of the time in our world. But to see the interviews of the survivors and their descriptions of the events that happened and the months that followed was really just… sad. I don’t know how else to describe it. Some of the footage and statements made during the episode were just so gut-wrenching. I really feel for those guys who were on that boat. I know they signed up for a dangerous job and they all knew what they were getting into, but you can’t help but feel terrible for them after watching the show.
Anyway, it’s hard for me to put these sorts of emotions into words but I really hope that other people get to see the episode and the incredible story of the guys who were on the Katmai and in the water for 17 hours in the freezing Bering Sea.
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I love anything the discovery channel puts out. The deadliest catch used to be my favorite as well, but I really like the survivor man. Man vs Wild kind of seems staged to me but yea those crabbers are nuts. Cold water, bumpy seas, life on the line…ouch. Definitely beats watching the ice road warriors discovery channel put out. I hope they axed that show?