The Deadliest Catch: The Viking Returns

[thewhiteowl]

Put your comments on this here. Thanks

[gingerella]

Oh my god is this a breath of fresh air after all the tripey mess of the last few DC seasons! Although we are still subjected to the whining of Jake, at least he's less annoying than Josh and actually knows how to captain a fishing vessel so I'll give him that. He has street cred at the least.

I was saying during the Norway segments of this last DC season, 'Geez, I wish we could have a season/show just with Sig and fam in Norway!' And voila, here we are! I love the scenery, the sea looks so different to me, and I'm really liking the Norge crew way better than the American complainers. They seem to do their job without a lot of drama. Not quite sure this troll crab will be a 'thing' but hey, it's already heads and tails better than the OG show so I'm all in right now.

Anyone else?

[iluvobx]

I really do like this show.  So much better than DC with it's tired plots.

I love how Sig is showing a different side.

[Welshman in Ca]

14 hours ago, gingerella said:

Oh my god is this a breath of fresh air after all the tripey mess of the last few DC seasons! Although we are still subjected to the whining of Jake, at least he's less annoying than Josh and actually knows how to captain a fishing vessel so I'll give him that. He has street cred at the least.

I was saying during the Norway segments of this last DC season, 'Geez, I wish we could have a season/show just with Sig and fam in Norway!' And voila, here we are! I love the scenery, the sea looks so different to me, and I'm really liking the Norge crew way better than the American complainers. They seem to do their job without a lot of drama. Not quite sure this troll crab will be a 'thing' but hey, it's already heads and tails better than the OG show so I'm all in right now.

Anyone else?

I'm in. So far it's been quite interesting although I'm sure Sig knew about Jake coming and getting a % rather than Mandy going behind his back. The whole troll crab thing is quite interesting although there doesn't seem to be enough of them for a whole new fishery to open up and Mandy is certainly more of a bigger picture person than her more focused & tunnel visioned father.

[kassa]

Not sure about volume, but if the troll crab are deeper and it's just a matter of getting an open-sea worthy vessel, that may be the solution.  

I'm really enjoying it, too, though I hope in future they are able to bring Jake's family over. If they're truly going to start a genuine business there half (or more) of the year, that would take a lot of pressure off the family in terms of separation. (Obviously this also depends on the amount of family support his wife has at home - leaving that to do it all alone while Jake is gone wouldn't necessarily be an advantage even if it meant she could see him more)

[NJRadioGuy]

I really like this, but as I mentioned when Sig went to Norway earlier in the main season, WHY IS EVERYBODY SPEAKING ENGLISH? I'm good with subtitles and it would certainly make thins appear so much more realistic. When everybody is speaking English it just takes me out of the story.

[Welshman in Ca]

36 minutes ago, NJRadioGuy said:

I really like this, but as I mentioned when Sig went to Norway earlier in the main season, WHY IS EVERYBODY SPEAKING ENGLISH? I'm good with subtitles and it would certainly make thins appear so much more realistic. When everybody is speaking English it just takes me out of the story.

Not sure why you would think that, a majority of them would speak English anyway as they're in business internationally and someone on the boat has to speak English or Jake would be royally fucked, unless he speaks Norwegian. It makes no difference to me what language they speak on the show & I'm sure that discovery has requested that they speak English where they can to make life easier for the viewers in general.

[iluvobx]

18 hours ago, NJRadioGuy said:

I really like this, but as I mentioned when Sig went to Norway earlier in the main season, WHY IS EVERYBODY SPEAKING ENGLISH? I'm good with subtitles and it would certainly make thins appear so much more realistic. When everybody is speaking English it just takes me out of the story.

Sig has talked about some of the people fished with his dad and some fish in Alaska.  With all of them being business people, I would think that they would know English.  You can tell that English is not their native language.

[merylinkid]

I am really enjoying this.   I like the finding the roots and talking to the oldsters/family members about the old days.   Soooooo much more a "bloodlines" story that that stupid Josh thing they were promoting which consisted of Josh pretending to read old maps of Phil's to find fish.   It's not like they were fishing some place that meant a lot to Phil.   Unlike Sig returning to Norway as the captain of his own little fleet of ships (not bad for a family that used to work IN the canneries).   

I was wondering though, if you are a qualified captain in the US, is that an international license?   Or did Jake and Clark also have to qualify for a Norwegian license?   I am assuming that if a country specific license is necessary that Sig already had one.   

[Welshman in Ca]

10 hours ago, merylinkid said:

I was wondering though, if you are a qualified captain in the US, is that an international license?   Or did Jake and Clark also have to qualify for a Norwegian license?   I am assuming that if a country specific license is necessary that Sig already had one.   

Haven't watched this weeks' yet but I would think that captains licenses were international otherwise how do captains of the big ships leave one country & arrive in another still as the captain, my best guess (not knowledge) would be licenses graded by tonnage or size (length) in the same was that you can't drive a big rig on a motorcycle license or car license. In the UK you can't even drive a stick shift if you pass your test in an automatic but you can go the other way.

[merylinkid]

that makes sense.   if you are rated for X tonnage, you are rated for X tonnage.   Whether in Norway or Alaska.  Obviously you have to know the waters and any dangers, but that's what maps and other equipment are for.

[kassa]

I'm enjoying it, too - the storyline AND the scenery. What a stunning country. And very nice people. Jake's cousin was adorable. I hope that he can bring the whole family over soon.

Interesting watching Clark step into captaining. Very happy for their family that they have another generation coming up. I imagine Norm isn't keen on the winter fishing much any more, Nick seems to have left (have they ever mentioned it?), and it's a young man's (mostly) game.

I imagine Clark, Mandy and Sailor can run the summer salmon business and give Sig a break. Maybe they'll find another Jake A to grow with them. 

[iluvobx]

3 hours ago, kassa said:

I'm enjoying it, too - the storyline AND the scenery. What a stunning country. And very nice people. Jake's cousin was adorable. I hope that he can bring the whole family over soon.

Interesting watching Clark step into captaining. Very happy for their family that they have another generation coming up. I imagine Norm isn't keen on the winter fishing much any more, Nick seems to have left (have they ever mentioned it?), and it's a young man's (mostly) game.

I imagine Clark, Mandy and Sailor can run the summer salmon business and give Sig a break. Maybe they'll find another Jake A to grow with them. 

I read somewhere that Nick has retired from crabbing on the NW.  I think he might still do Bristol Bay in his own boat.

[kassa]

I miss Nick's annual reference to how much Advil he needed!  He did seem to have been struggling for a while, so hopefully he's got a much more body-friendly life/work balance now.

[gingerella]

So happy there are others enjoying this iteration of DC. TBH, I'm so over the regular DC cast bitching and whining about the same shit over and over and over, ad nauseum. The folks in this Norwegian cast are endearing, funny, and sometimes curmudgeonly but I like them.Loved when Clark finally got them on the crab and that young docklands yelled up 'I Love You Clark!' That was so funny. It's also really interesting to see Sig trying to fish and promote a new species of crab. I'd never heard of troll crab u til this show.

[kassa]

If they can make it work, I can see troll crab being marketed with a cute cartoon. 

[iluvobx]

Did anyone else see the Trident jacket on the guy that handed Mandy the eyeball?  Found it interesting that a Trident Seafood jacket would be there, guess Trident Seafood does have a hand in this with Sig & Jake.

I just hope this show doesn't jump the shark like DC did.

[AAEBoiler]

My wife and I were just groaning on this and previous episodes when a photo of Sig's dad appeared in the wheelhouse. One would think that Discovery has serious daddy issues between Sig's new photo, Jakes's admittedly sad story about his dad, and the endless cutaways to the faded Phil Harris photo. Nobody's liver would be able to handle the Deadliest Catch Dead Dad drinking game.

[NJRadioGuy]

On 10/19/2022 at 9:12 AM, iluvobx said:

Did anyone else see the Trident jacket on the guy that handed Mandy the eyeball?  Found it interesting that a Trident Seafood jacket would be there, guess Trident Seafood does have a hand in this with Sig & Jake.

I just hope this show doesn't jump the shark like DC did.

If I had to guess, Trident is helping to bankroll the show (or perhaps some boats) to some degree so long as they get their branding in each episode. Note that on the main show, as soon as Steve "Harley" Davidson (ick) started sporting the Trident label he stopped getting the asshole edit.

[Lonesome Rhodes]

It is beyond credible that some fisherman would not have gone after troll crab before Sig.  If those crab were never harvested, there would either be a gazillion of them in the ocean, or they do not reproduce at anything near a market-sustaining rate.

Now that there will be no Bering Sea crab harvest available to Sig and the usual DC suspects, it will be interesting to see how loyal Sig will be to his NW crew.  This is certainly an opportunity for all the crabbers up that Arctic way to make a killing on what they do catch.

Speaking of Trident...how can the Bering canneries continue to operate given the barren seas up there?

[Welshman in Ca]

13 hours ago, Lonesome Rhodes said:

It is beyond credible that some fisherman would not have gone after troll crab before Sig.  If those crab were never harvested, there would either be a gazillion of them in the ocean, or they do not reproduce at anything near a market-sustaining rate.

Now that there will be no Bering Sea crab harvest available to Sig and the usual DC suspects, it will be interesting to see how loyal Sig will be to his NW crew.  This is certainly an opportunity for all the crabbers up that Arctic way to make a killing on what they do catch.

Speaking of Trident...how can the Bering canneries continue to operate given the barren seas up there?

Trident doesn't just have the Bering sea crab canaries and I'm sure they process other species that are caught around the world, they have them all over Europe and other places that land fish & crab. The thing that did surprise me about Trident is that they have only been around since 1973.

[Lonesome Rhodes]

I must have missed Sig apologizing to Jake for his correct call that Kings in hand are better than no Trolls in the bush.

Curious to know if that friend of a friend who had an offload date would have paid a penalty for not showing up.  

Jake claimed over a thousand crabs harvested, and they were getting a median under 25.  How many pots were in that string?  Certainly nowhere near the 40-50 needed.  

[kassa]

On 10/23/2022 at 3:56 PM, Lonesome Rhodes said:

Curious to know if that friend of a friend who had an offload date would have paid a penalty for not showing up.  

There was something in the wording that led me to believe the guy had finished fishing already? And for whatever reason hadn't canceled the upcoming offload. I suppose if he was part of a group, he wouldn't cancel in order to pass that date on to a colleague, and maybe they didn't need it/weren't ready for one yet?

I assume the cannery doesn't care who shows up so long as the spot isn't sitting empty. 

[Lonesome Rhodes]

Yes.  He was done fishing.  But, it seems to me he would have been careful to cancel the now unnecessary offload if there were some liability for failure to do so.  It is odd to me that a cannery would simply shrug off a no-show - especially if a fisherman wasn't even trying to fish.  Smells like Disco shenanigans to me.

I'd love to know how Sig and Mandy think buying that vessel which needed a massive rebuild of all the deck machinery could make economic sense.  Especially with so many Bering fishers going belly up.  I get the time crunch, but for the long term it made no sense at all. 

Was it ever explained what happened to Jake's original contract with Alaskan businessmen?   I loved how Sig just shrugged when he and Mandy VERY briefly discussed the cancellation of the half-million pound contract they failed to honor.  Surely, there was a significant penalty paid!  Recall Jake sweating like he were in a sauna about what it would cost him to fail to live up to his side deal for Reds?  How much did Sig's failure cost them all?  How much did the crews and inputs cost them for that last desperate gambit?

Did Mandy actually mean to say that Sig had banked tens of millions of dollars over the years?  For sure, the NW has been quite profitable.  But, that profitable?  Of course, his Disco association and fame have meant real money for him.  No doubt.  yet, if he really has that kind of wealth, how insane is it for him to continue on the seas as he does?

[merylinkid]

Sig fishes because he loves it.   He's going to keep doing it because that is what he does.   

I know the Disco guys have other businesses, I think Phil had coffee?   Or was that Sig.    Sig doesn't really have any vices like some of the other fisherman.   His kids are grown so he has no expenses for that.   So if he invested his disco money, he could have a few million socked away.   Now tens of millions, maybe not.   But over the years, in total, he could have, even if he spent it on boat upkeep as needed.   

[NJRadioGuy]

With the Alaskan fishery closed for 2022/2023, I wonder if it would be possible to bring a properly-fitted Alaskan style fishing vessel across next summer. You know that the closure is going to bankrupt a handful of less-than-profitable vessels in North America, how hard would it be to bring one or two of them through the northwest passage and register them in Norway (or wherever) for a few years until Alaskan stocks return to normal. It seems to me like the Norwegian vessels shown are ill-equipped to handle deep water crabbing like the boats we see in the main show. Also, what time of year is red king season in Norway? My understanding is that in Alaska it was October to December or something like that.

And of course, Sig lands on the crab (for whatever value of 'on the crab' you want to use) and Jake couldn't find a crab if it bit him on the nose. Par for the course, naturally.

Edited October 29, 2022 by NJRadioGuy

[Lonesome Rhodes]

I about fell out when Sig was giving Jake A. his due in the V/O and then in person.  Way, way, waaaaaaaaaaay, overdue.

I wanna know when Sig harvested the $800K of Reds he kept saying he had in the bank at the start, and throughout, this ep.  I sure never saw anything like it - Jake's good strings included.  There's no way he met that contracts demands.  One major hint is that we did not hear any real enthusiasm from any of the owners about creating a full-on operation in Norway.  Just more vague hopes and generalities.  They certainly did not buy that boat which needed significant retrofitting.

It was odd for me in each "Viking" ep to see the crews go crazy over a pot with even a dozen crab.  If those were in the Bering, they would be restacking ASAP.  

So...at $20/pound, Sig grossed $4 million, plus Disco subsidies.  No wonder the crews got $50K each!  Good for them...IF true.  

All in all, this was a fun spin off.  Per standard, Disco went way beyond a reasonable amount of "legacy" V/O's (How many times and ways did Sig talk about his daddy?).  Most of the meetings we saw taken were as orchestrated as the infamous burn barrel ones.  I think I most enjoyed seeing the very laid back Norwegians who were always wary, and weary, of the go-get 'em Americans who had all manner of crazy notions and ambitions.  Yet, they did respect Sig and Jake as fisher captains.  

Finally, I kept flashing back to the wonderful movie Local Hero.  The Scot villagers were unfailingly nice and polite to the driven Americans, all the while scheming how to best maximize the corporate cash they would all soon be swimming in.  I'd bet a lot that a nice premium was built into all contractual arrangements in Norway.

[NJRadioGuy]

With a little back-of-the-envelope maths, for $4,000,000 gross that would equate to 25,000 average-sized crabs. If you figure a typical Red King is between 6 and 10 lbs each, call it 8 lbs per critter x $20/lb, so each crab would earn them $160. A pot with 25 crab is about $4,000, so they'd need to pull 1,000 pots with a 25 average to hit $4m in gross. With the paltry numbers they were appearing to get for most of the season that would be a stretch.

Then factor in food/fuel/boat rental fees off that, so the $4m gross would be far less net. And Norwegian taxes aren't known to be low either.

[Welshman in Ca]

35 minutes ago, NJRadioGuy said:

With a little back-of-the-envelope maths, for $4,000,000 gross that would equate to 25,000 average-sized crabs. If you figure a typical Red King is between 6 and 10 lbs each, call it 8 lbs per critter x $20/lb, so each crab would earn them $160. A pot with 25 crab is about $4,000, so they'd need to pull 1,000 pots with a 25 average to hit $4m in gross. With the paltry numbers they were appearing to get for most of the season that would be a stretch.

Then factor in food/fuel/boat rental fees off that, so the $4m gross would be far less net. And Norwegian taxes aren't known to be low either.

I must have missed the $4,000,000 being mentioned, when was that?

[NJRadioGuy]

6 hours ago, Welshman in Ca said:

I must have missed the $4,000,000 being mentioned, when was that?

On 11/2/2022 at 4:33 PM, Lonesome Rhodes said:

So...at $20/pound, Sig grossed $4 million, plus Disco subsidies.  No wonder the crews got $50K each!  Good for them...IF true.

Just replying to this, if that $4M number was correct. I didn't think their quota was anywhere near that. 100,000 pounds or something? That would have been $2M. I'm too lazy to rewatch.

[kassa]

I loved Sig saying that there are two days in the year that he knows to leave June completely alone -  the Norwegian Parade Day, and Christmas. I can just picture him sitting quietly in the livingroom afraid to speak unless spoken to. In his little suit.

[Asgarin]

Regarding money ,according to local newspapers the owner of Stålbas lost a lot of money on the whole project, also losing his fishing license afterwards. Stålbas is now up for sale.  According to the paper, they only caught 200 kg (on Stålbas) during the filming. Seems very low, but who knows.

On the Troll crab, I believe the concept was only for the show, it's well known that the female Troll lays too few eggs for viable commercial fishing.

Sig  got to brush up on his history, Norway celebrates their Independence from the Swedes, not the Danes ;).

Also, had to google Stålbas, as it was really familiar to me and I couldn't remember why, wondered if it had been in an accident or something.

Turned out it had been a norwegian coast guard vessel the years i served in the Norwegian Navy, have been on a bunch of exercises with her :).

[merylinkid]

Why did he lose his fishing license?   Poor guy, he probably thought going in with Disco would be a good thing.  

I liked this show MUCH better than the stupid bloodlines thing with Joshie boy.

[NJRadioGuy]

My big question is "What's Next?" For the main show I can't see another season since there's no crab fishery operating for the foreseeable future, and it really looked like Norway was a bust. I think we might just have seen the last of them.

[Asgarin]

16 hours ago, merylinkid said:

Why did he lose his fishing license?   Poor guy, he probably thought going in with Disco would be a good thing.  

I liked this show MUCH better than the stupid bloodlines thing with Joshie boy.

The story was behind a paywall, so only got the highlights. Apparantly he hadn't caught much before the show either, so could be a quota thing.

[ceecee]

Since Jake is considering moving to fish in Norway, and Sig might also fish there due to the closing of the Alaskan fishery,  might there be a season of Norway?  Is it feasible to bring their own crab boats there? Wild Bill also fished there with Sig, he might return. 

[gingerella]

Has anyone seen rhis new show called Ice Cold Catch? It looks like a rip off of rhis version of DC. Seems to be in Norway, uses terms like greenhorns,and just feels like this show with different people. 

[iluvobx]

I haven't seen it and I really can't say that I have even seen it advertised.  Seems like all the Discovery channels are showing old shows and crossing them over between the channels.  Discovery is not the station it used to be.  It was a great channel, now, not so much.

 

[kassa]

On 11/19/2022 at 4:56 PM, ceecee said:

Since Jake is considering moving to fish in Norway, and Sig might also fish there due to the closing of the Alaskan fishery,  might there be a season of Norway?  Is it feasible to bring their own crab boats there? Wild Bill also fished there with Sig, he might return. 

A lot may depend on whether they have the legal right to work in Norway. Sig's wife is Norwegian (I think) so she could presumably buy a boat and hire him to run it. I can't imagine Norwegian fishermen (or their government) would welcome a mass influx of American fishermen/boats.

It will be interesting to see if the DC boats move to other waters (New England, Gulf Coast, etc). They'd still get hassled for being outsiders, but it seems much more do-able and could make for interesting tv.

[NJRadioGuy]

Golds are still being fished this year if I recall, so maybe that's what the show will have to focus on? Maybe cod, too. I'd still love to see the Norwegian story playing out, though. I really loved that series!

[kassa]

I hate that they keep airing old stuff with new "first broadcast" dates attached. Thought a new season had started Tuesday night, but no.