On the surface, Deadliest Catch would seem to be a fairly repetitive show. The weather turns bad. Waves batter the fleet. Crab pots are dropped. Crab pots are drawn up. Some are full, others aren’t. After a few episodes you’d think most viewers would flip to something else.
But we don’t.
The show is riveting, as much now at the close of its third season as it was at the very beginning. Why is that exactly? Well I’m no expert, but I have some theories.
Basically, Deadliest Catch is – if you’ll forgive the loaded metaphor – the perfect storm of network television. No other reality show has the rich brew of themes underlying what may at first appear to be a fairly routine fishing show. Among the most compelling themes:
Theme #1 - The Boy Becomes a Man
One of the primary focus-points of every season has been on the Greenhorns (i.e. rookies) - a brilliant move on the part of the producers. We watch these inexperienced youngsters (well, most of them are young), cockily announce their entry into the field, and we see their determination to prove themselves worthy of their fellow deckmates. We watch them either rise to (or fall away from) the challenges that the Bering Sea has to offer.
This is truly one of the most compelling themes of the show, perhaps because we (the viewers) are ourselves as much Greenhorns as those youngsters. We know as little, if not less, about the business of crabbing than they do, so we can’t help but identify with them as they struggle to keep up the pace and learn the ropes. Those who make it to the end of the season – through all the pain, sleep-deprivation, and, let’s face it, screaming and derision of the full-share deckmates – have truly achieved something great. And we’ve seen them through that amazing journey, every step of the way.
Theme #2 - The Gamble to Get Rich Quick
Americans love to gamble – if you need convincing of this, just do a quick count of all the televised poker tournaments that are on cable these days (and while you’re at it, check their ratings). Its part of the American dream to want to “get rich quick.” So in that sense, these crab fisherman are living out the American dream. They make as much in three days as some of us make in an entire year. Sure, it may be dirty, disgusting, dangerous work, but they’re out there and they’re doing it – they’ve thrown their chips on the table. Come hell of high water (and in their case, its generally always high water), they’ve made the gamble, and there’s a part of each of us that wishes we had the guts and gumption to do the same.
Of course, getting out on the boat is only the first step. You actually have to catch the crab to make money. And that’s why we can watch two, three, or five hundred pots being pulled up by the hydraulic wench, and never get tired of it. Will there be a full pot of 800 opies? Or just a couple of hangers on and a disoriented codfish? You just never know. It’s a gamble. And that’s why we’re riveted.
Theme #3 - The Last Bastion of American Masculinity
Its not for nothing that the theme song for Deadliest Catch was Bon Jovi’s classic “Dead or Alive.” The cowboy theme runs strong in this show, and with good reason – there’s so darned few left in the world. A cowboy doesn’t have to herd cattle or ride horses or even catch crab. The cowboy ethos is instead concerned with brute masculinity, about working a damned tough job for long hours, until your body is busted up and bleeding and you can barely walk in a straight line.
Sure, there are lots of “hard” jobs left in America. But on the whole, we’ve spent the last fifty years sanitizing and shrink-wrapping every aspect of daily life until its as safe and worry-free as possible. Machines do our heavy lifting, “safety-inspectors” make sure we sit in ergonomic chairs and don’t suffer repetitive stress syndrome. We’ve got warning labels on just about every imaginable product. And we have a national craze about suing folks whenever we bump our heads or sprain an ankle on their property.
Then you watch Deadliest Catch, and you get a glimpse into how “real” men used to be. These guys sever a finger and then wrap the stump in electrical tape so they can keep on working until the job is done. They work 72 hours, non-stop, in single-digit temperatures.
Meanwhile, we regular Joes bitch and moan about cold half-caff-lattes and half an hour of unpaid overtime.
These are just three of many underlying themes to this show. There are many others, but there are the ones that grip me, personally.
I get a lot of people asking me how I can watch “the same old stuff”, three seasons in a row. My answer is always, watch the show again – really watch it – and then see how you feel afterwards. I don’t give a whit about fishing… heck, I don’t even eat crablegs. But I can watch this show for hours on end. Nothing else on television feels so real. No other characters fill me with that unique mix of envy, dread and admiration.
I’d kill to have a beer with Sig Hansen.
And I’d kill twice to never, ever have to be a Greenhorn on his boat.
