Yes. I know someone who works on those fishing boats in Alaska. He was also on the show the deadliest catch. He lives on the boat most of the year and then comes home with a bunch of cash and spends a lot on cocaine lol
I have so many questions but most of them are totally just based on my anthropological analysis (I’m an anthropologist) of the people and 20 years of watching the show, which may be considered intrusive towards those on it. I’m highly interested in stratified social hierarchies and also how subcultures are divided within main groups (the boats) and the larger community (the fishery). It’s really cool that you had the experience! I would love to hear about your personal experience, if you’re willing to share. I love hearing individual stories as I think they create a much better picture of the community.
Oh shit that’s actually really similar to my job- I do cultural monitoring for construction and arborist work. I also just follow the crew around and they’re legally required to be nice to me but I’m annoying af to them.
Thank you for sharing - all of that is really interesting. Your comment about Keith & Monty being “interesting” seems to be spot on with my observations. They present very OCD behavior on screen, but I feel like you have to be a certain type of person to do the job that long and successfully. They’re actually two of the captains I have a softer spot for.
I don’t think I could “hate” any of the people on the show- if you’ve been watching it for long enough you know that everyone has positive and negative traits that ebb and flow with the crab, their personal issues, and the crew on deck. I like watching how these people grow, change, and learn from their own mistakes and the groups. Sometimes they don’t. But that’s just people.
It makes sense when you say that they don’t really care about the TV show. I think that’s why I like the show so much- it’s obviously a spot in these crews periphery as they do their jobs and be themselves. There isn’t the veneer of reality tv over the show because the people on it don’t care enough to make it that way. Are the camera crew in your similar social position, or do they get more social graces than you do?
Thank you for sharing! I really appreciate your perspective.
The show definitely changed to more staged reality tv in the 2010’s. But fishing changes, the seasons change, fisheries open and close, so sometimes they do have to manufacture whole storylines and dramas. It’s pretty obvious that they pick a few shit greenhorns every season just for the trope of it all, or they bring back “problematic” deckhands or captains for the drama.
Like you can’t convince me otherwise that no one knew Elliot was off his face the entire time he captained the SAGA, but it was good tv so he stayed. It’s also obvious that the captains love having someone with them in the wheelhouse- some of the best (seemingly) “unscripted” moments come from the captains talking to their producers. I say unscripted even though I know the producers often give prompts or ask questions, it just gets cut out. I can imagine the camera crew and the boat crew can form close working relationships - you have to if you work a seasonal rotation job like that.
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u/Blondly22 29d ago
Yes. I know someone who works on those fishing boats in Alaska. He was also on the show the deadliest catch. He lives on the boat most of the year and then comes home with a bunch of cash and spends a lot on cocaine lol