“What an intriguing title for a blog post! I wonder what it’s about???”. Well – surprise surprise – it’s actually about the show Deadliest Catch. That may come as a surprise to many, but maybe you just haven’t given the show a chance.
Why would you possibly want to watch a reality TV show, where a bunch of guys week in and week out go through the same predictable situations – bad weather, storms, poor catch, trouble with the new guy on the crew (a “greenhorn”), … . You know the guys are making so much money from the TV show, they can’t possibly be as worried as they say they are about needing to catch enough to make payroll and their boat payments. Yes, there may be some acting, and pushing reality on this reality TV show, but watch carefully, when the first pot of the season is pulled onto the deck, and packed full of Alaskan king crab – at that moment the smiles are real, and the dialog from the captain as he yells instructions at the crew with excitement and energy is unscripted and authentic. In those moments and many others on the show, it obvious when the captain and crew forget they’re on a show, and remnants of the hunter / adventurer drive that is still in all of our DNA takes over.
My favorite character on the show is captain Sig Hansen. Besides being the son of Norwegian immigrants (I like all things from Norway – the subject of a future blog), he’s as American as can be, and knows every old saying, idiom, axiom and adage. He’s without a doubt the smartest (or perhaps shrewdest is a more accurate term) of the boat captains on the show, nearly always finishing the season with the most pounds of crab in his tanks.
Next time you have a chance, watch a new episode of Deadliest Catch, or if a rerun from an older season comes on – even better!