‘Deadliest Catch’ Is Dead-On Good

By LillyKat
PTR Senior Staff Writer

Gale force winds.

40 foot seas.

Snow, rain, freezing spray.

24, 36 and 48-hour working shifts.

Anyone up for crab fishing in the Bering Sea?

In winter?

Welcome to Discovery Channel’s Deadliest Catch - a documentary style reality show which details the adventures – and I do mean adventures – of select captains and crews aboard a group of commercial crab fishing boats who brave the Bering Sea to haul in Alaskan King crab (in the fall) and Opilio crab (in the dead of winter).

I'm hooked.

No pun intended.

Last night was the fourth season premiere of the Opilio crab season (the Alaskan King crab season is over and done with, but of which kicked off the show’s overall season four premiere back in April ... got that? The show splits up its season airings into covering the two crab seasons). The Opilio session was filmed this past winter, and we've already got: a Coast Guard rescue that seems to have gone awry (stay tuned for next week); two Arctic storm fronts, one that seemed to toy with capsizing the Wizard; and, a complete engine meltdown that is forcing the Cornelia Marie back to port.

Did I mention this is only the beginning of the Opilio season?

Now, as we know, I rarely ever get “in” to reality television unless it: a) has some serious meaning; b) allows me to learn something; c) can make me appreciate certain aspects of the human condition without seeming like some sort of perverted voyeur.

This show easily does all three, not to mention makes me appreciate my regular ol’ desk job.

Commercial fishing has long been considered one of the most dangerous jobs on the planet, but Alaskan crab fishing is considered to be the deadliest of deadly due to the extreme conditions of the Bering Sea during the seasons in which these guys set out to fish.

Translation: the Bering Sea, on average, claims one fisherman a week.

Translation #2: Those not sent to Davy Jones Locker get the privilege of being battered around and injured as if it were in fashion given the harshness of the severe weather conditions in which they must work (frigid gale force winds; rogue waves – we remember George Clooney in The Perfect Storm, right?; ice formations on and around the boats that have to be hacked off with sledgehammers; and the danger of working with such heavy machinery on a constantly rolling boat deck).

Yes, folks, these guys put their lives on the line so that we, the general public, can sit down and order some serious crab in a given restaurant.

And we get to see every OMG! moment thanks to some amazing camera angles and the Discovery camera crewmen who have to brave the conditions with the fishermen.

Dramamine anyone?

It's worth noting Deadliest Catch was nominated for four Primetime Emmy Awards for the 2007 television season - Outstanding Nonfiction Series; the third season episode, "The Unforgiving Sea," received nominations for Outstanding Cinematography For Nonfiction Programming, Outstanding Picture Editing For Nonfiction Programming, and Outstanding Sound Mixing For Nonfiction Programming (Single or Multi-camera).

With all that said, I realize I am coming to this show in the middle of its fourth season, and therefore, I am way late to the party. But thanks to a Memorial Day marathon, Deadliest is now securely in my DVR list.

And here at PTR.

Yo-ho, yo-ho, a crab fisherman's life for me.

Vicariously, anyway.

New episodes of Deadliest Catch air Tuesdays at 9 p.m. on Discovery Channel (with multiple replays throughout the week). To check out all the ins, outs, ups and downs of the series on the whole, head on over to the official Deadliest Catch Web site to catch up on the captains and crews of the Northwestern, Cornelia Marie, Time Bandit, Wizard and North American.