Original BELOW DECK, S1, What a Fun Train Wreck

I've been a bit fixated on my latest binge series of Below Deck from Bravo TV. I've gone back to the first season from 2013 of the original series to see how it started, and oh my, what an annoying train wreck of a show this series started out as.

Below Deck follows the lives of young, good looking crew members who work and reside aboard a superyacht during a typical charter season. The series shows the crew as they deal with their personal issues in order to make their professional careers work.

And I have to say, what an emotional train-wreck this first season is, as we follow some seriously arrogant, self-centered personalities.

We have Captain Lee, the man who runs the boat and is THE boss of all. The Chief stew, Adrienne, chef Ben and other "crew!"

Kat is a raging drunk whose like a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde kind of personality when she drinks. She drinks to black out or have sex with whatever or whoever will play with her. But watch out... if you call her out on it, she'll rip you a new one for being rude for pointing out the obvious.

We have Sam (Samantha), an arrogant pos 3rd stew, who seems to think she knows more than everyone else. (If judging by the smirk she's always wearing when her boss is telling her she screwed up.)

Now if you really want to drive yourself nuts, wait until one or more of the staff blatantly break the rules of a charter and watch them blame the captain or bosses for being too uptight about the rules.  SMH!

Ben, the chef, is the sanity in the center of the craziness that's a swirling storm of arrogant audacity. Plus, he's the focus for the charter guests when it comes to their enjoying every single meal and snack they enjoy. Sometimes, the way he describes his meals, makes it pretty impressive.

Captain Lee...  the patriarch of the boat, is fun to watch. Gruff, stern and occasionally, pretty nice.

Beyond the annoying characteristics of some of the boat staff, the one thing that sets this reality TV series apart from others, is rather than rich wives sitting around and spending money and getting upset about nothing, or contestants locked away in an isolated house competing to out-lie each other, this series focuses on a working crew making a luxury yacht be the end-game for their clients.

Sure, it's a bit disgusting to see people drop $150k for a few day cruise. And sure, some of the guests can be way over the top, but it's still interesting to see how these folks handle the high demands of their clients, and run the boat.

All in all, Below Decks might be more about the sexual tension between people, but can be rather fun to find yourself being aggravated by the craziness of a working boat.  

(There's more about some behind the scenes of this show over on Wikipedia if you're interested:   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Below_Deck )

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