S01.E17: Drink Like No One's Watching

[aghst]

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The Thalassa crew throws a vow renewal ceremony for the charter guests; Culver breaks Captain's one big rule; on the final night out, everything comes to a head before saying their final goodbyes.

Culver not GAF and drinking with the guests despite the captain telling them one drink with the guests further adds to the suspicion that the crew/cast were encouraged to let their freak flag fly.

Benny was like that at the start of the season, then shaped up.  Culver and Brittini were mild-mannered and then became entitled about enjoying themselves rather than pretending to work.

They're still going on the van trip together but for just a couple of weeks and as friends.  Brittini is suddenly just okay with that, after saying all season she was DTF.  Previous episode she just wanted Culver to tell her the truth, whether he liked her.  Well Culver never said one way or another but it magically resolves itself for the finale!

They packed so much into that last day of charter, with some of the guests puking rather than scuba diving.

My guess is, these shows really doesn't make a difference either way for their CV as far as getting more yachting jobs.  It's just a short period and they could just say they acted crazy for the TV show.  Those with strong CVs like Tumi and Taylor will easily find new jobs and Taylor was there for like 3 episodes?

Jamie is feeling miserable because captain didn't praise him like he did with Brittini.  Doesn't think the captain has been backing him up all season.  So he's sulking and pushes Taylor away, when she was trying to talk to him because she was interested in him.  Has to be a pretty unhappy guy to push away a knockout like her.

But miraculously, Jason has some good words for him and Jamie in his talking head said he's good now.

Just as with Culver and Brittini, Jamie magically ends up happier for the finale!

I don't know when this was filmed but Australia maintained travel and other covid restrictions for longer than the rest of the world except Asia.  So all this very tight hugging with guests and each other seem out of place.  I think some of the first BD shows shot during the pandemic had people fist bumping, not even shaking hands.

But it's show business!

Good to see Jason made it out to the Philippines.  Again Australia made it difficult for any of their citizens to travel because on return they were facing a prolonged quarantine.  That was the case until early this year, after Australia had gotten a high percentage of its population vaccinated.

Or maybe Jason decided he will deal with the quarantine but he had to go see his daughter.

Aesha also said she was going to the US too.  Didn't realize her fiancé is American or at least living in the US.  Maybe she's angling to get on some other BD show.

I actually looked forward to watching BDDU more than BDSY for some reason.  There are good people on both casts but the producers meddling is so heavy-handed and obvious.  Some of the underwater shots were beautiful and sharp.  I don't think I will be going scuba diving any time soon so I appreciated them.

[howiveaddict]

Loved the scuba scenes.  Lol at the sea sick/drunk women puking in unison.  Jaime remained a horrible bosun.  Culver showed his true colors at the end.  Captain Jason is becoming one of my favorites.  Love Tumi and Aesha.  Hope this chef returns too.

Saw that Down Under is going to be on Bravo same night as Med. Hope they have a reunion show.  It will be interesting to see Sandy and Jason , on the same night and compare them.

[pasdetrois]

I hope this version of BD picks up more viewers in the repeat showing.

11 hours ago, howiveaddict said:

Captain Jason is becoming one of my favorites.  Love Tumi and Aesha.  Hope this chef returns too.

Same here. Glad Jason made it home to his little girl. For many families, Zoom and FaceTime were family-savers.

[pasdetrois]

13 hours ago, howiveaddict said:

Jaime remained a horrible bosun. 

Along with his helicopter lessons, Jaime needs some therapy and anger management. The way he reacted to an accidental drink spill on his shirt was disturbing. He has the emotional maturity of a toddler. All that whining and complaining. What a jerk.

[Misslindsey]

On 6/23/2022 at 2:25 PM, aghst said:

I actually looked forward to watching BDDU more than BDSY for some reason.  There are good people on both casts but the producers meddling is so heavy-handed and obvious.  Some of the underwater shots were beautiful and sharp.  I don't think I will be going scuba diving any time soon so I appreciated them.

I am one that prefers BDDU and BDSY a lot more than original recipe BD and BD Med. There were annoying and irritating people on both shows. There are some exceptions, but overall I liked most of the cast on both shows. I really like Glen and Jason as captains. I have been over Captain Lee and his folksy sayings that I feel they amped up on, for several seasons now. The less said about Sandy the better. I did enjoy the last season of BD Med, because with the exception of Lexi I liked most of the crew. I also, liked that season because of the crew camaraderie and I really liked that there were not really any boatmances. 

I really enjoyed Aesha and Tumi in this series. I would love to see them both again on this show. Tumi was great all the way through the season. I would love to see her get to be chief stew somewhere.

[Zaffy]

The good:

• Most of the crew, especially Aesha and Tumi and their positive attitudes.
  I already used to like Aesha a lot  and I am glad we got to know Tumi, who  at this point she certainly deserves to be Chief Stewardess.
• The lack of the romance drama and sexploitation between the crew. Thank you production!! 

The so and so

• Jaime was a whining kid and not a good leader, he kept going to the captain to complain about others.
• Captain Jason is sexy, but I really think he should be more strict with his crew and take decisions faster.
• The location. I dunno if it is the location or bad direction/editing, but this is the first location of any BD show that I wouldn't care to visit. Wasn't impressed at all.
• At one point the themed "parties" should stop. I really wonder if this is common in yachting or they are doing it in BD just for the reality.

The Bad

• The first chef was so awful that made me think he was a production puppet  just to create drama.
  I really can't believe someone with that attitude and really average cooking skills would work in a yacht. I was surprised clients weren't constantly complaining for such average food.  Comparing him with Rachel or Marco the later are 3 star Michelin chefs and him a food truck cook at best..
• The boat.
  Apart from keep having functioning issues, the interior was like if a rich old couple that died 50 years ago and suffered from complete lack of taste, personally decorated it. So awful...definitely not lux..
  Plus the luck of water sport from the boat. Is it the local sea? is it dangerous?  sharks? the boat?  they mainly (if not only) did snorkeling.
• Directing.  Maybe the director or the camera people were new to this, but the whole thing seemed to lack any excitement or the feeling that this was a luxurious yacht for luxurious trips.

[rur]

1 hour ago, Zaffy said:

• The first chef was so awful that made me think he was a production puppet  just to create drama.
  I really can't believe someone with that attitude and really average cooking skills would work in a yacht. I was surprised clients weren't constantly complaining for such average food.  Comparing him with Rachel or Marco the later are 3 star Michelin chefs and him a food truck cook at best..

This came across my  newsfeed a while back: https://www.cheatsheet.com/entertainment/chef-ryan-villain-below-deck-down-under.html/

I'm more than willing be believe, no matter what he may say, is that he truly is an ass. No one could act like one for that long without already having had some practice. 

I also believe he became more of a jerk as time went on because he probably had expected that he'd get fired within the first week or two. But I'd be willing to bet that he probably didn't count on COVID restrictions and the difficulty of getting replacements requiring him to actually work.

[aghst]

I still believe the producers tied Jason's hands when it came to firing.

Either they wanted the drama or they didn't have replacements lined up like they do in Europe for the BD shows.

Or both.

It wasn't just Ryan, Jason let Benny slide on a lot of things.  So it made no sense him telling Culver that he'd have been fired for drinking too much that one time.

The worst thing was the insubordination and that seemed like they were egged on to take shots back at Jaime and Jason.

Edited June 27, 2022 by aghst

[john Allday]

This is a great show one of the best Below Deck franchises.

It was well done, and the crew was pretty enjoyable. The lack of hook ups was a refreshing change. 

The scenery was a little lacking except for the scuba scenes. 

I will admit I kept looking for sharks.

Is that crazy?

[Tanukisan]

Like a damp squib at the end of your fireworks celebration, these comments are in the order of the episode scenes broadcast….

Synchronous vomiting – not exactly what I’d expect to see at the next Olympics.

Benny was scared by fire.  But Benny is also scared by work, so, no….

All in all, a lackluster final episode.  Impressions on the season:

Ryan/Magda – the only reason you lasted as long as you did, in my opinion, was because Covid dictated so many restrictions at the time.  Unfortunate, but that’s how things were.

Culver – you’re a phony.  Just embrace what you are.  You know what I mean.

Benny – Didn’t like you from Day One, still don’t, despite attempts to redeem you.  You’re a lazy jerkwad.

Jamie – Liked you at first, but you proved yourself to be a whiny bitch.  Play the hand you’re dealt.

Aesha – your hippy/trippy style is really annoying.

Tumi – You are the goddess of the series.  Of all the stew staff from every season of BD I’ve seen, you’re the best.  Any ship would be proud to have you aboard.

Brittini -- *sigh*  Don’t be distracted by others who don’t appreciate you.

Nate – great job taking over as chef.  You obviously care about what you do and it shows.

Taylor – didn’t get to see enough of your work but I have to say your cheekbones are rather disturbing.

Jason – You’re not as bad as Captain Queeg (BD:M), but you’re not as good a leader as you could be.  Your “disco helmet” is very demeaning and not a team builder.  You should listen to your crew more and micromanage less.

The Boat:  It’s an older yacht with older technology issues, but I like the wood and “Titanic” feel to it.  I’d love to spend a few days on it.

The fish:  The star of the show to me were the scenes of fishes around the reefs and such.  We didn’t get that on any other BD series.

[Welshman in Ca]

10 hours ago, Tanukisan said:

Like a damp squib at the end of your fireworks celebration, these comments are in the order of the episode scenes broadcast….

Synchronous vomiting – not exactly what I’d expect to see at the next Olympics.

Benny was scared by fire.  But Benny is also scared by work, so, no….

All in all, a lackluster final episode.  Impressions on the season:

Ryan/Magda – the only reason you lasted as long as you did, in my opinion, was because Covid dictated so many restrictions at the time.  Unfortunate, but that’s how things were.

Culver – you’re a phony.  Just embrace what you are.  You know what I mean.

Benny – Didn’t like you from Day One, still don’t, despite attempts to redeem you.  You’re a lazy jerkwad.

Jamie – Liked you at first, but you proved yourself to be a whiny bitch.  Play the hand you’re dealt.

Aesha – your hippy/trippy style is really annoying.

Tumi – You are the goddess of the series.  Of all the stew staff from every season of BD I’ve seen, you’re the best.  Any ship would be proud to have you aboard.

Brittini -- *sigh*  Don’t be distracted by others who don’t appreciate you.

Nate – great job taking over as chef.  You obviously care about what you do and it shows.

Taylor – didn’t get to see enough of your work but I have to say your cheekbones are rather disturbing.

Jason – You’re not as bad as Captain Queeg (BD:M), but you’re not as good a leader as you could be.  Your “disco helmet” is very demeaning and not a team builder.  You should listen to your crew more and micromanage less.

The Boat:  It’s an older yacht with older technology issues, but I like the wood and “Titanic” feel to it.  I’d love to spend a few days on it.

The fish:  The star of the show to me were the scenes of fishes around the reefs and such.  We didn’t get that on any other BD series.

Dammit, I can find something to disagree & argue about in any statement made by just about anyone but I can't here & it's a strange feeling requiring a lay down.

[mytmo]

Best things this season are the underwater shots and Capt. Jason.  Loved how they showed level by level when they came back from a commercial.  I would've been fired for sexual harassment with the Capt.  

Jamie still is a bitch ass bitch.

[iMonrey]

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Lol at the sea sick/drunk women puking in unison.

Ugh, that was disgusting and I didn't need it to go on and on and on like that, and then repeated after the commercial break. I hope none of the scuba divers came up anywhere near that end of the boat. It's a wonder some of these guests didn't wind up in the hospital with alcohol poisoning.

Overall I thought the season suffered from fake charter guests the show rather obviously had to recruit. I did like Captain Jason, he's a close second but my favorite is still Captain Glenn. I liked Aesha and Tumi, and Brittini at times although I got tired of her flashing her boobs at the camera crew every time she got in a car so that lowered my opinion of her a tad. The rest of the deck crew was a case study in basket cases. 

[moonchild81]

did anyone watch the new below deck show after this one? it takes place in norway? is there going to be a thread for that one?

[Welshman in Ca]

6 minutes ago, moonchild81 said:

did anyone watch the new below deck show after this one? it takes place in norway? is there going to be a thread for that one?

Pretty sure it doesn't start until November 1.

[aghst]

Someone has to request a new forum or just create a thread.

[rur]

2 hours ago, moonchild81 said:

did anyone watch the new below deck show after this one? it takes place in norway? is there going to be a thread for that one?

I did, and I'm wondering if what we saw was the first episode -- which means the new series will start with a repeat for some of us.

[moonchild81]

was that the first episode because we didn't see them choose rooms and everything like the other ones

[iMonrey]

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did anyone watch the new below deck show after this one? it takes place in norway? is there going to be a thread for that one?

I thought it was OK. Nice boat, nice change of scenery. But you can already tell which crew members are going to be trouble. The cowboy from Texas is already making Benny's work ethic look good by comparison, and the stew who was sick on Day 1 is going to be a problem too. I like the captain and the bosun so far.

[SemiCharmedLife]

Producers, give Tumi a role as chief stew on another franchise.  She is amazing and deserves the advancement.  Keep Aesha on DU; she's got an amazing attitude and will improve in her role as she gains more experience.

I wonder if Jamie ever realIzed that Taylor liked him (at one point) and he completely blew it by being a jerk to her over a tiny accidental spill?  

[sugarbaker design]

On 11/10/2022 at 12:26 PM, SemiCharmedLife said:

I wonder if Jamie ever realIzed that Taylor liked him (at one point) and he completely blew it by being a jerk to her over a tiny accidental spill?  

Good for Taylor, she dodged a bullet.  Jamie has deep, deep problems.