The Deadliest Catch vs. Me

I’m sitting here in my lovely new living room, relaxed after dinner and with Denny snuggled up to me. I’m watching the best of season 5 of The Deadliest Catch and counting down the minutes to the premiere of Season 6.

The Deadliest Catch was on in the hospital when I was recovering from my transplant. I’d be lying in my bed in a haze of pain, watching these men battle the elements of the Bering Sea in order to fish for Alaskan King Crab. Night after night, I’d watch them being battered by the elements. It put everything I was going through in perspective. Sure, I was recovering from major surgery, but I wasn’t hauling crab pots in bitter cold water and wind and snow on a pitching boat.

Watching The Deadliest Catch made me feel better about my life. Not in the way that watching COPS makes me feel better about my life – that’s just pure smarmy self-righteousness. It’s also not reality TV that makes me want to put my eyes out and pour bleach on brain to get rid of the entitlement and whining. No Kardashians, Hiltons, housewives or shore rats. No crises about shoes, boyfriends, drunken club scenes, etc. The Deadliest Catch is something I can respect. They’re fighting life and death, just like I did.

I like these guys. They’re blunt, straightforward, hard-working, SOB’s. I think they’re kinda hot, too, even though they probably smell like fish. Better fish than hair gel. I love how most of what they say has to be bleeped out. One greenhorn complains, and the response is: “Shut up, haul pots and make money. That’s all there is.” That’s the kind of philosophy I can live with.

Every hospitalization I’ve had, I’ve paid for extra t.v. service just so I can watch my guys on The Deadliest Catch. It has been my comfort through every illness. It has lulled me to sleep, distracted me from pain, transported me away from my hospital bed. I cried when I found out that Captain Phil had passed away. It was like losing a fellow patient, a fellow sufferer, a fellow survivor. I admire their human spirit, the sense of responsibility, their pure gumption and pig-headed determination. I’ve watched them with broken ribs, black eyes, concussions, sub-freezing temperatures, arctic storms…all in the pursuit of one thing: success.

I can relate. I get it. I’m there – well, not in freezing arctic waters hunting for crab, but you know what I mean.

Now that we have real cable, I can watch them on a regular basis, and I intend to watch them faithfully this season. Do not try to talk to me on Tuesdays at 9pm. No hospitalization required.

Join me?

http://dsc.discovery.com/tv/deadliest-catch/

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