S01.E03: The Plunger from Down Under

[Tanukisan]

If you haven’t seen the episode yet, nothing but spoilage ahead… you have been warned….

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Benny is like a teenager needing “positive reinforcement”.  You get positive reinforcement when you do something positive.  You’re at sea, Benny, and contrary to your desires/tastes, there are hierarchies and a chain of command.  It’s important to pay attention to this – being at sea is dangerous.  And you’re responsible for the safety of your guests and fellow crew.  You can’t pick and choose which jobs you like and which you don’t.

Well it took three episodes to get to the drunken revel in the hot tub… but there it is!  I haven’t seen that much twerking since Kylie Jenner and Rihanna had a twerk-off.

I love Captain Jason’s style when it comes to no nonsense.  He sets off a general alarm, finds half the crew don’t have their radios, and tells them the obvious – the boat is a mess!  I wonder how many will take it to heart.

Jamie is concerned that Captain Jason wants to do the Bosun job, but I can understand where Captain Jason is coming from.  I think Captain Jason feels he has to step in because the crew just aren’t performing up to snuff.  Actually, that’s the fault of Jamie himself, because Jamie should be telling this THREE deck hands what to do – Captain Jason shouldn’t have to step into the middle of that.

Tumi is such a breath of fresh air, compared to she-who-shall-not-be-named from a previous season of BD.  She’s skilled, enthusiastic, has a great attitude.

Ryan is so pissy.  I feel Aesha’s frustration with him.  But if I recall correctly from previous seasons, Aehsa is just so much in conflict-avoidance mode, their lack of communication will continue to fester until something bad happens.

Cliffhanger for next time – is this the end of Benny?  Are we going to loo(se) him?  Or does he just need to get his “head” examined?  Tune in next time.  (:

[aqusdealer]

30 minutes ago, Tanukisan said:

Cliffhanger for next time – is this the end of Benny?  Are we going to loo(se) him?  Or does he just need to get his “head” examined?  Tune in next time.  (:

My experience with Bravo edits is that when something seems like it's going to happen for sure (eg. Benny waking the Captain)....it's not. LOL

P.S. " I ordered Benny's Thalassa Participation Trophy today" 

Edited March 19, 2022 by aqusdealer

[aghst]

How about the Polish Latina grinding on Jamie's groin in that skimpy bikini but when her soulmate that she's been dating for 5 months says he's going out with some friends she wants to know if there will be girls.

Then Jamie acting salty finding out about Magda's boyfriend back home and not interested in the other single women?

Jason didn't mind Magda going out with the guests for snorkeling but didn't like her thong-like swimsuit bottom letting her ass hang out.  He wanted her to cover up.

I can see the usual Bravo handprints over the editing and shaping the scenes now, so BDDU not going to be too different from other BD shows.  First you have the hot tub party and I think they've prodded Jamie to be extra annoying with insisting when meals are ready so they could have the friction between him and Aesha and then the thing between Captain Jason and Benny seems a little ginned up, the way Jason keeps going at Benny and Benny being extra-defiant to Jamie and Jason.

So his whole "I can't take it no more, going to quit" while just at the start of the second charter looks dubious.

Benny's probably motivated by the same things all these BD casts members are motivated by, get on a TV show, make some money, improve their profile so maybe they're no more reality shows and get bigger social media followings.  Acting up or being noticed on the show is a good strategy to accomplish both.

 

Jason certainly mixes a lot more with the crew, not just getting hands-on with tasks but paying their dinner bill, ribbing with them.  I don't think he's going to be accused of hovering like Sandy in the galley, though he seems okay with what's going on in the galley.

Until Aesha and Ryan have it out that is.

So Bravo is still going to ride the interpersonal conflict leading to possible "firing" card probably at different times of the season.

 

Thalassa is a temperamental super yacht.  Maybe it's seen better days.  First the thrusters and now the bathrooms backing up.  Then you have to have some deck hand flake the anchor chain.

Real issues or some of these are things which have happened to other BD super yachts but they chose to emphasize the issues on BDDU?

[Zaffy]

I started watching this because of Aesha, she and chef Rachel are the only BD crew I follow on instagram. I liked Aesha's attitude and I am glad she is now chief Stewardess. And so far, I think Aesha and her stews are the only good professionals in this boat.
First of all, nobody seems to have bothered with the boat's maintenance.
#Captaincutie shouldn't be doing so much micromanaging. 
Are the cruises so short or they do not provide water sports for the guests?
Benny shouldn't work in a boat in the first place, or doing any other job that requires teamwork and following orders.
The Chef seems to be completely unsuitable to work in a yacht. Burgers? Steaks? crab legs? tacos? This is supposed to be a 5star service and the guests eat glorified fast food? He also has no clue that he is there to serve the guests and not the other way around. I think he will be the first to see the exit. I mean, if the boat doesn't sink first!
 

[aghst]

Maybe there are restrictions on things like jet skis in those waters.

They said the waters were shallow and that the corals were near.  So one of the main attractions as far as activities seem to be snorkeling.  And for that, they're not diving off the yacht but rather going on a tender presumably to places where the coral reef is just below the surface so that they don't have to dive too deep.

Or maybe the yacht doesn't have things like slides, trampolines, etc.

 

 

[Xebug67]

On 3/19/2022 at 2:39 PM, aghst said:

How about the Polish Latina grinding on Jamie's groin in that skimpy bikini but when her soulmate that she's been dating for 5 months says he's going out with some friends she wants to know if there will be girls.

Then Jamie acting salty finding out about Magda's boyfriend back home and not interested in the other single women?

Jason didn't mind Magda going out with the guests for snorkeling but didn't like her thong-like swimsuit bottom letting her ass hang out.  He wanted her to cover up.

I can see the usual Bravo handprints over the editing and shaping the scenes now, so BDDU not going to be too different from other BD shows.  First you have the hot tub party and I think they've prodded Jamie to be extra annoying with insisting when meals are ready so they could have the friction between him and Aesha and then the thing between Captain Jason and Benny seems a little ginned up, the way Jason keeps going at Benny and Benny being extra-defiant to Jamie and Jason.

So his whole "I can't take it no more, going to quit" while just at the start of the second charter looks dubious.

Benny's probably motivated by the same things all these BD casts members are motivated by, get on a TV show, make some money, improve their profile so maybe they're no more reality shows and get bigger social media followings.  Acting up or being noticed on the show is a good strategy to accomplish both.

 

Jason certainly mixes a lot more with the crew, not just getting hands-on with tasks but paying their dinner bill, ribbing with them.  I don't think he's going to be accused of hovering like Sandy in the galley, though he seems okay with what's going on in the galley.

Until Aesha and Ryan have it out that is.

So Bravo is still going to ride the interpersonal conflict leading to possible "firing" card probably at different times of the season.

 

Thalassa is a temperamental super yacht.  Maybe it's seen better days.  First the thrusters and now the bathrooms backing up.  Then you have to have some deck hand flake the anchor chain.

Real issues or some of these are things which have happened to other BD super yachts but they chose to emphasize the issues on BDDU?

I came to this spin off rather late in its season.  I follow the other Below Deck shows, but for some reason didn't have the correct debut date and am now binge catching up on all the episodes on On Demand.

That swimsuit bottom of attention whore Magda's was completely inappropriate.  I've never been a fan of thong bathing suit bottoms.  People should be keeping their ass cheeks to themselves.  If the female cast members are going to be participating in water activities with the guests, they should have one-piece bathing suit uniforms that they're required to wear.  And nothing like LYING to your soul mate by saying all you did was "salsa" dancing.  What a dumb ass.  Once these episodes air her boyfriend is going to see her stripper twerking and grinding up on another man's genitals.

Jamie is the pseudo bosun.  In my mind he's not an actual bosun, because he's yet to step up and do the job that a true bosun does.  This guy's quite a job/career hopper.  He strikes me as so young to have had as many careers as he has.  It's not like he was job hopping from one e.g. dishwasher/cashier job at multiple different restaurants.  He's had actual careers that he's changed so many times.  He boasts about running training programs as a police officer, yet he likewise strikes me as too timid (I don't know if that's the proper word) to be the effective bosun that Jason requires.

At this juncture it's a toss up for me as to who the most annoying, unlikable crew member is.  I have it as being between cry baby, whiny, disrespectful Benny and bullying, egotistical, narcissistic asshole chef Ryan.

The winners are hands down, definitely Captain Jason and lovely, elegant Tumi.  Damn, this captain is easy on the eyes, and admirable for his persona as well as a doting daddy on his little daughter as well as how he's acknowledging that there are other things at work in  Benny's life that are probably making him the way he is.

 With regard to  Aesha, I liked her on her other Below Deck season, and still do like her as a human being.  She may even be a competent chief stew.  I don't know yet as I'm only four episodes in.  But that voice of hers makes me cringe.  She's so difficult to listen to that the annoyingness of her voice in my mind erases the content of whatever she's saying.  The biggest thing about her management philosophy that I respectfully disagree with is wanting to be BFFs with her stews.  That's never before worked, nor will it ever work.  These cast members in authority positions need to learn that lesson.  You don't have to be an asshole, but you also shouldn't be a suck up kiss ass doormat.  She's sadly also not assertive enough or enough of an asshole to properly deal with the asshole chef.  Kate certainly would have nipped his BS right in the bud.  The captain unknowingly thinks the problem with her and Ryan is lack of communication, whereas he needs to be educated as to the actual problem, which is that Ryan's an absolute, unequivocal PIECE OF SHIT.  Something I can't fathom is why both sets of charter guests (I'm only up to the first two groups of the season) seem to find his cooking out of this world, or those burgers he made "the best burgers ever".  There's nothing that stands out to me with regards to any of the food he prepared for those first two groups of guests.

Culver, though seemingly very nice, has a face that annoys me to death.  His mouth and smile are disproportionately large for his face.  It looks like a Jack-O-Lantern smile.  However, if that's the worst I'm able to still say about him moving forward, then that makes him also a good crew member.

I don't particularly care for the layout of this yacht.  The master bedroom is disappointingly small, especially when compared with the luxuriously ginormous bedroom on Below Deck Sailing Yacht.

Edited May 2, 2022 by Xebug67

[iMonrey]

Quote

Benny is like a teenager needing “positive reinforcement”.  You get positive reinforcement when you do something positive. 

You took the words right out of my mouth. He's like a typical example of "participation trophy" culture. He's just in that generation. It's scary to think kids like this are so unprepared to work actual jobs because they've been so coddled all their lives. I love the way that Captain Jason is messing with him though.

Does anyone else think Magda looks like a young Toni Collette? 

Jamie is kind of an asshole, but I kind of don't blame him for getting so pissed off about Madga. The way she was grinding up against him in the hot tub was definitely sending the wrong signals. 

We've seen about a hundred BD shows by now and I've never seen a deck crew member having to climb down into the anchor well to guide the chain before. Is that something specific to this yacht?

I'm assuming Captain Jason's daughter is not by his first wife if he no longer has any contact with her. Wonder who the baby mama is and what the story there is.

I don't know how much longer Chef Ryan will last. I about did a spit-take when he said "It's not my job to know what the guests are doing." Um, YES IT IS. It's pretty simple, really, he has to wait for Aesha to tell him when the guest are ready before he starts plating the food. He seems to think he's just supposed to set the food out on his own time-table then ring the dinner bell and yell "Come and get it." WTH. I can't believe he's ever worked on a yacht before, he seems totally unaware of how it works.

Quote

Something I can't fathom is why both sets of charter guests (I'm only up to the first two groups of the season) seem to find his cooking out of this world, or those burgers he made "the best burgers ever".  There's nothing that stands out to me with regards to any of the food he prepared for those first two groups of guests.

Well, to put if frankly, the first charter guests were self-proclaimed "foodies" who were just obsessed with taking pictures of their food for their instagram accounts so as long as it looked cool they were happy with it. And this second group of guests, again to be frank, are rather obviously low class. I'm sure the food tastes good, but yeah, sooner or later they're going to have charter guests with more educated palates who will turn their noses up at fancy versions of drive-thru food.

[Tanukisan]

2 hours ago, iMonrey said:

iMonrey said:

We've seen about a hundred BD shows by now and I've never seen a deck crew member having to climb down into the anchor well to guide the chain before. Is that something specific to this yacht?

Yes, this yacht is older than others we have seen in the series.  Newer yachts don't require "flaking" the anchor chain -- the system does it automatically.  But this boat is indeed older and it shows in other areas too.

[Welshman in Ca]

8 minutes ago, Tanukisan said:

Yes, this yacht is older than others we have seen in the series.  Newer yachts don't require "flaking" the anchor chain -- the system does it automatically.  But this boat is indeed older and it shows in other areas too.

That spanking new weirdly shaped boat on below deck med seems to have plenty of issues as well proving that newer is not always better, just ask one of my ex wives.

[Mahamid Frauded Me]

I am surprised Aesha hasn't unloaded a nice cast iron skillet to Ryan's head. Cap't Fine can come over and drop his anchor at my place anytime 

[SemiCharmedLife]

On 3/19/2022 at 2:39 PM, aghst said:

How about the Polish Latina grinding on Jamie's groin in that skimpy bikini but when her soulmate that she's been dating for 5 months says he's going out with some friends she wants to know if there will be girls.

Then Jamie acting salty finding out about Magda's boyfriend back home and not interested in the other single women?

Magda seems to be quite the hypocrite.  I'm sure she's not going to remain faithful to her long distance boyfriend, especially with several crew members already drooling over her.  

Jamie didn't need to disrespect Tumi and Britini just because he was shut down in his pursuit of Magda.  Hopefully, his attitude toward other crew members improve.  

[Dirtybubble]

On 5/2/2022 at 2:10 PM, Xebug67 said:

Culver, though seemingly very nice, has a face that annoys me to death.  His mouth and smile are disproportionately large for his face.  It looks like a Jack-O-Lantern smile.  However, if that's the worst I'm able to still say about him moving forward, then that makes him also a good crew member.

It runs in the family.  The pics that were aired of his father and brother seemed to have that large mouth as well.  He seems to have such a wonderful personality and a strong work ethic so anything physical can easily be overlooked.  😄

Ugh with these charter guests.  They all seem like relatively nice people but holy cow hello 1996!  It's almost like the pinnacle of their careers/lives was in the 90s and that's just where they stayed.

[Mr. Miner]

On 7/20/2022 at 3:17 PM, Mahamid Frauded Me said:

I am surprised Aesha hasn't unloaded a nice cast iron skillet to Ryan's head.

It don't have to be Aesha and it don't have be a skillet, someone just needs to smack the sniveling little twat with something.