TV Review - Deadliest Catch Season 5
Discovery Channel’s Hit Arctic Crab Fishing Series Returns
Apr 27, 2009
Star Trek and Doctor Who conventions move over there is a new fan fest on the block. The last Saturday in April, Seattle Washington played host to the inaugural CatchCon. The completely booked up event, gave fans of the reality TV series Deadliest Catch the chance to see in person the salty crab boat captains they have come to know so well.
We are talking about the hard driving Norwegian skipper of the vessel Northwestern, Sig Hansen, gravelly voiced captain of the Cornelia Marie Phil Harris, hot headed Wizard commander Keith Colburn and brothers Jonathan and Andy Hillstrand who oversee the ship Time Bandit. All of these men routinely ingest massive amounts of nicotine, and caffeine as they pull marathon sessions in the wheel house guiding their vessels through rough seas.
These are not glamorous guys. They are working class Joes. Yet fans of their TV series clamored in great numbers to meet them at CatchCon.
In a TV interview on the April 10th edition of CNN’s Larry King Live, Captain Phil Harris tried to pinpoint while he and his TV crab fishing peers are so popular. “We're doing something that 99 percent of the people can't do.” Harris said. “It's tough. It really is. And I think guys -- when they were younger, it's something they always wanted to do but for whatever reason they didn't?”
If it really is a living vicariously through others formula that drives Deadliest Catch it has seemingly kicked into overdrive. On April14th the fifth season US debut of the show (it premiered a week later in Canada) was seen by 4.1 million viewers. That’s the largest audience in the show’s history according to a Discovery Channel press release.
Deadliest Catch Season Five’s Riveting Start
In the premiere episode, two captains received ominous phone calls from their doctors. Compulsive tobacco chewer, Keith Colburn, learned that he did not, as feared, have oral cancer. Phil Harris, who nearly died from passing blood clots in season four, got word the risk of future clots persists. Harris was forced to stay behind as his ship went out to sea for the first time in 33 years.
Bridging the end of episode one and the opening of episode two was an injury to Keith Colburn. Scuba diving to rectify a problem with his hull, the wizard Captain took a serious blow to the head and was left incoherent for more than a little while. He would return to the wheel house in time to see an ominous red morning sky foretelling the coming of a massive storm.
As the intense squall hits all the featured boats are rocked severely. On the Northwestern the deck crew narrowly avoids injury when two entagled steel crab pots crash against the side of the vessel. Episode two concludes with the Coast Guard searching to find survivors in the wake of the sinking of one of the boats in the crab fleet.
The Continuing Appeal of Deadliest Catch
Though all the drama, action, camaraderie and conflict depicted on the Discovery Channel’s crab fishing sensation the authenticity level rarely flinches. Odd is the moment when anything said or done on Deadliest Catch seems influenced by the fact that there are cameras rolling onboard.
One gets the feeling they are getting the real deal and not a doctored interpretation of the lives of the crab fisherman. That makes the show about as compelling as TV gets.
 |
 |
