This season has been one of the least interesting ones to date. There’s been way too much emphasis on conflict (most of it probably artificial), way too much attention to Elliott (that little punk), and not enough camera-time for the Northwestern. For the most part, most everyone is coming across as assholes.
But last night’s episode took the cake. The behavior of just about everyone on the Wizard was absolutely deplorable, especially Keith and Freddie. Now, I’ll grant that the greenhorn Dane should have never attacked/punched Freddie; that’s just unacceptable in any situation. But come on! Freddie was acting like a complete douchenozzle and instigated the whole thing. The haircut episode was just rediculous and saying that Dane disrespected the captain and the boat was complete bullshit. And from that point on, Freddie just kept digging and digging at Dane. Now I get that the greenhorns get hazed a bit and they get the crap jobs on the boat (since they’ve got to learn from the bottom up). But everyone’s behavior was beyond the pale of acceptable behavior. And putting the octopus in his bag as he was leaving – total dickhead move by the entire crew.
The thing that really disgusted me was Keith and his interaction with Freddie. “Thanks for being the bigger man” my ass. Freddie is nothing but a bully, and Keith just handjobbed him for it.
Keith has always been a bully, surprised at Freddy though. Remember when Keith took the camera guy up against the wall because the coffee pot was empty?
I haven’t watched in a few seasons but caught a large chunk of this episode. Keith rubbed me the wrong way ever since he first appeared. I missed the actual conflict with Dane, but from what I did see Keith didn’t handle it well.
Not enough time on the Northwestern means my primary reason for watching is gone. Although…Capain “Wild” Bill, who I hadn’t seen before is not altogether displeasing to me.
The stuff with Elliot and his personal life didn’t catch my attention enough to keep me from changing the channel.
The only thing keeping me watching Elliott is that I’m waiting for him to kill everyone due to his inattention. First he was mad at his mistress for having another boyfriend and failed to notice an enormous rogue wave that could have easily washed someone overboard.
Then last night it was his lack of attention to having to knock the ice off the boat that caused it to later list dangerously, then he said “it’s fine,” which made the crew go out and knock it off even after he told them not to. And now he wants to fire his engineer for being upset about that non-decision.
The biggest surprise last night came when he actually decided to head back in to fix the engine. I honestly believed he was going to recklessly keep going on one engine.
To be fair one has to view DC in context. On a fishing boat the skipper is GOD, what he says goes, period. He says jump, you ask how high. That is the culture they exist in. That said.
Elliot is careless, thoughtless, impulsive and a narcissist. Bad combination for a skipper responsible for lives on the high seas. He needs a general purpose old school beat down.
Keith is probably not your typical skipper but he might be close. His attitude is just inches away from being a total dick. I listened closely to the conversation between Dane and Keith. Keith made reference a couple times to Dane having a problem with authority. Dane’s refusal to participate in the haircut had nothing to do with authority so that tells me a breach by Dane of someone’s authority took place. Perhaps convenient for them to edit that and use the haircut incident. That said.
I expected Dane to receive some grief over his refusal but not to the extent displayed by Keith and Eddy. Both bullied up on him and illustrated in simple terms how to act like an asshole.
The second ticket stood by and watched as the octopus was hidden in Dane’s luggage, Professionalism dictated he intervene. No respect for the Wizard or her crew and skipper
I would agree with all of this, especially about Keith and his tree-swinging deck-boss and Elliot being a serious punk, but that would mean admitting that I actually watch this shit! Not sure I really wanna do that…
I thought Keith’s speech to Dane about “You have trouble with authority” was dickish in the extreme - I’m surprised Dane didn’t just walk out of the wheelhouse instead of listening to that crap. I’d bet Discovery had to pony up a few extra bucks to get him to stay on camera at that point. But for all that Keith’s an asshole, the fact is that Dane swung at Freddie first. Totally inexcusable, and if anything, Keith’s at fault for not firing him on the spot and confining him to his cabin then.
Freddie’s always been hard on greenhorns, and in almost any other job he’d be out of line, but I’ve got to admit when you’re doing a job as insane as crab fishing, and you’ve got a giant, hardworking Samoan on deck doing twice as much work as anyone else, you probably cut him some slack.
Elliot is fascinating. Does he honestly think that neither of the women he’s trying to keep around watches the show, or have friends who watch the show, or anything?
So on last night’s show, Elliot was limping into port, ready to get on a plane and propose to his girlfriend (not the mother of his kids who he’s also been trying to get together with) when she called and told him she’s got another boyfriend living with her in Elliot’s house. Elliot’s reply? “Maybe we should just go back to traveling together as fuckbuddies. We seemed to get along great that way.”
And what was with Wild Bill giving the greenhorn a big hug when he decided to stick out the season after all? I agree, this year is turning into soap opera drama instead of crabbing drama. Which is amazing, considering the breakdowns and ice we’ve already been seeing.
Hazing greenhorns seems like bad business policy. At some point you’d think that Keith and his crew would get tired of constantly training greenhorns, only to see them quit after/before a single season. It’s one thing to offer feedback, even if it’s harsh - “come on, get that bait over here, we need it YESTERDAY” - but a continuous flow of demeaning insults and epithets is just wrong.
When I’m being trained to do new stuff at work I don’t get a constant stream of shit from the people training me. In most places that would be considered a hostile work environment.
If you are lady, all he wants you to do is answer the phone when it rings…
As for Dane, I thought he completely blew it when he didn’t get his hair cut… this kid is essentially a paid apprentice for a job working with a family of guys who are very tight and have worked together for years… they have a ritual, and you don’t participate on week 1? yes, they were dickish, mean, abusive, and pushing him to his breaking point… it worked… Keith told him that he has to take it, shut up, and work hard… he shut up and worked hard (subjectively, and up to the point that he quit) but couldn’t take it and made matters worse by not showing he could be a part of their family…
I liked Dane. He kind of fucked up by not getting the haircut though, especially when he was told basically by Keith, “you’re going to have problems if you don’t”. I respected him for sticking by it, and he put up with a lot of shit for it and took it. I guess having dead bait and items thrown at you constantly took a toll on him and understood the part where he basically said, “If it comes to a throw down it’s going to be on my terms since he’s bigger than me” and went for it. Notice the shit throwing stopped after that ? That’s all Dane wanted, Keith wasn’t going to do it so he did.
Seeing Keith laugh along with the abuse they dealt out to him before Dane flipped out made me cringe. If I was the Cpt. I would put a stop to it. But since Keith is a bully as well, not surprised. I guess that 1% Dane was hoping to collect at the end of the trip was the only thing stopping him from telling Keith to go fuck himself from the bs Keith was hurling at him.
All because he wouldn’t get a mohawk.
Elliot is going to get someone killed. The crew mentioned in a previous episode they haven’t even had a safety meeting and a few times failed to warn the crew of big waves and not even a peep after from him after the deck hands make it through them. Self absorbed deck hand in the captain’s chair.
On one hand, Deadliest Catch has been around long enough that a newbie should know what to expect on Keith’s boat…on the other hand, a captain should never participate in that level of hazing. I’m still wondering what was cut from the episodes; the abuse being meted out by the crew was excessive, especially if Dane’s only issue was the mohawk.
Elliot is an asshat…I have to think the producers are keeping him around because they’re hoping he will royally screw up (something he’s certainly managed to do with his personal life).
