This review contains reported analysis of some of the story lines in Deadliest Catch that may not be as they have been presented to be.
I have been a big fan of this show from the beginning. Even with the relative sameness of the fishing part of the series, the personal situations and the adversity the crews face with mechanical problems, injuries, fatigue, the weather and the sea keeps it entertaining. More bothersome is the license that Discovery has apparently started to take with this supposedly most realistic of their reality shows. While some things cannot be staged, I have read reports that the network has begun manipulating story lines for entertainment purposes (or perhaps they always have, and we are just now finding out about it).
A couple of examples: DC reported that Captain Elliot Neese was fired from the Ramblin' Rose after last season and that he bought his own boat, the Saga. There are just two problems with this: The head of the company that owns the Ramblin' Rose describes Elliot as "a fine young man" and a "very capable" captain (just the opposite of how he is portrayed on the show). It has also come out that not only was Ellot not fired from the Ramblin' Rose, the company who owns the RR is also the registered owner of the Saga - not Elliot. He was given the Saga to run because it is considered to be a better boat than the RR. So much for the "new boat owner".
In an episode earlier this season it was reported that Elliot told his crew not to knock ice off the Saga as it began listing to one side. As the story goes, the crew ignored his instructions and deiced the boat anyway. First of all, if there is enough ice on a boat to make it list, no captain is going to order his crew not to take an action that might prevent it from capsizing. Second, it also came to light that the footage that supposedly shows Elliot's crew defying his orders was shot during a previous episode and it was spliced in to fit the fabricated story.
There have also been rumors that some of the conflicts aboard the boats are orchestrated for television, and that some of the dialog in the wheelhouses with the captains, instead of being spontaneous and real, is in fact scripted and may be shot in more than one take. Given all of this, I also have to wonder about the portrayal of the personal drama of Elliot Neese of the Saga and his multiple girlfriends, and of Scott "Junior" Campbell of the Seabrooke as a double-crossing liar who enters into alliances with other captains and then betrays their trust.
Discovery used to be a network I could count on for scientifically solid, entertaining television. They are rapidly becoming the television equivalent of the trash tabloids you see at the grocery store checkout line (maybe their next series will tell us that space aliens really did visit the President at the White House). They are neck deep in dubious reality shows. They have developed all variety of "monster" shows with various groups chasing creatures that probably don't exist, and now they feel the need to lie about what is going on aboard the crab boats. I guess that the Bering Sea just isn't exciting enough anymore.
I have been a big fan of this show from the beginning. Even with the relative sameness of the fishing part of the series, the personal situations and the adversity the crews face with mechanical problems, injuries, fatigue, the weather and the sea keeps it entertaining. More bothersome is the license that Discovery has apparently started to take with this supposedly most realistic of their reality shows. While some things cannot be staged, I have read reports that the network has begun manipulating story lines for entertainment purposes (or perhaps they always have, and we are just now finding out about it).
A couple of examples: DC reported that Captain Elliot Neese was fired from the Ramblin' Rose after last season and that he bought his own boat, the Saga. There are just two problems with this: The head of the company that owns the Ramblin' Rose describes Elliot as "a fine young man" and a "very capable" captain (just the opposite of how he is portrayed on the show). It has also come out that not only was Ellot not fired from the Ramblin' Rose, the company who owns the RR is also the registered owner of the Saga - not Elliot. He was given the Saga to run because it is considered to be a better boat than the RR. So much for the "new boat owner".
In an episode earlier this season it was reported that Elliot told his crew not to knock ice off the Saga as it began listing to one side. As the story goes, the crew ignored his instructions and deiced the boat anyway. First of all, if there is enough ice on a boat to make it list, no captain is going to order his crew not to take an action that might prevent it from capsizing. Second, it also came to light that the footage that supposedly shows Elliot's crew defying his orders was shot during a previous episode and it was spliced in to fit the fabricated story.
There have also been rumors that some of the conflicts aboard the boats are orchestrated for television, and that some of the dialog in the wheelhouses with the captains, instead of being spontaneous and real, is in fact scripted and may be shot in more than one take. Given all of this, I also have to wonder about the portrayal of the personal drama of Elliot Neese of the Saga and his multiple girlfriends, and of Scott "Junior" Campbell of the Seabrooke as a double-crossing liar who enters into alliances with other captains and then betrays their trust.
Discovery used to be a network I could count on for scientifically solid, entertaining television. They are rapidly becoming the television equivalent of the trash tabloids you see at the grocery store checkout line (maybe their next series will tell us that space aliens really did visit the President at the White House). They are neck deep in dubious reality shows. They have developed all variety of "monster" shows with various groups chasing creatures that probably don't exist, and now they feel the need to lie about what is going on aboard the crab boats. I guess that the Bering Sea just isn't exciting enough anymore.