Deadliest Catch is great because it's a job nobody here can do.
Watching a crew work with 30 foot monster waves crashing over the boat in the middle
of an arctic storm is dramatic to say the least.

I've watched it here and there over the years, and have watched all of this season, and there's usually something interesting going on.

Based on the number if seasons its been around, I'd say if you think it's bunk you're
in the minority. It's also REAL, just a camera crew following the fisherman around on the
boat. Characterizing it as a REALITY show is unfair given the rest of the things that
currently exist under that heading.

I don't see anyone "acting the part" - that's total bunk.

Good F'ing show.
Sure a whole lot better than watching a bunch of guys drive around in a circle.

+1

Have you noticed that every couple of minutes they inform you that it's the world's most dangerous job?

I enjoy the show and havent missed a season yet.

There is also the danger involved. People want to see if any of their favorite crew members are injured or not. So you have that aspect of drama to it. Already this season there was one guy who almost went overboard and another apparently is going to be severely ill.

Then there is the future of the Harris brothers. Will the eldest follow his late father's foot steps, will the youngest successfully battle his demons?

And lastly are the relations between individuals and the success or failure of the captains.

Beyond the dramas and danger that will entice viewers there is the support that the show provides to the idea of the Puritan work ethic that many believe in. These guys in a few months of particularly hard and dangerous work make an immense amount of money compared to most.

Granted there is the bullsh*t so to speak. There is the physical pain and the apparent response to it by some, that being drug use. This doesn't get much play and for obvious reasons.

I worked up in Dutch Harbor in the 90's for a few months when I took a quarter off from college, I worked as a greenhorn on a similar Pollock/Cod boat with Steve who is the Engineer on the Cornelia Marie and was the engineer on my boat.

I'm a big fan of the show and can tell you there is not much B.S. to it. The work those guys do is dangerous with very long hours of back breaking work in the worst weather (20 hour days with 15 minute break to eat is common), and the personalities of most of those guys is just as you see on the show, making money is the top priority and respect is earned via hard work and not via BSing.

Most of those guys work their butt off for that good money, but they blow most of it when they get home (work hard, party hard) and most of them have divorces and broken families due to the 9 months away from home each year. The danger is real, one of the partner boats next to the one I was on, had someone get their arm amputated from an accident while we were fishing as the net was being pulled in and the guy driving the crane wasn't paying attention, we heard it on the radio and I saw the Coast Guard copter come in to lift the guy off the boat and rush him to the ER back on land.

I enjoyed the adventure for that quarter but it reminded me of a very very long Army bootcamp and I decided it was not the life for me in future seasons, (I didn't really enjoy bootcamp either come to think of it).

So it is normal that a long running reality show like that is hard to keep interesting for this many years unless they really start faking it (which in this case they aren't), but I still really enjoy the show as a way to follow some of the "characters" and as insight into a hard life and dangerous career that most of us don't experience or are unwilling to sacrifice for, I have tons of respect for the guys that do that for a living and think in a few years, as the fisheries get more fished out, that lifestyle will get harder and harder and eventually disappear.

+1 They used to have some good stuff on there. It seemed every time you went to it, you saw footage of WWII. It got to the point I was calling it "The Hitler Channel" since he was on there so much. He can't even get a cameo appearance on that channel these days.

I don't bash the guys fishing they got more courage then myself, but sometimes it just the same. Granted, it probably is not in real life going out in a dangerous situation over and over.

The only shows I like on Discovery is Mythbusters, Dirty Jobs and occasionally American Choppers.

Have anyone seen the show with the US Navy EOD team in Afghanistan? That's interesting! And nothing I ever would do.

Some interesting posts here!

Im not much into this show or the countless other reality shows like it.
But I do like watching "Finding Bigfoot" You know their never going to find anything, but they always come up with a creative reason why they didnt find anything.
Plus - If you have a drink everytime one of them says "sqwatch", you will have a nice buzz at the end of the episode.


Rob

I don't watch these shows on a regular basis but I do like Ice Pilots and Flying Wild Alaska.

And I'd certainly prefer these shows to something like CSI, which I was forced to watch last night since I'm at a hotel, out of town, with the wife. That show was a bunch of crapola and cliche. Even my wife had it figured out...'it's to early in the show for this guy to be the killer'.