Deadliest Catch's Stroke Episode: Did Discovery Channel Show Too Much?
After the cosmos tragically answered the question of whether or not Deadliest Catch Captain Phil Harris would pull through following his stroke last February (he wouldn't), viewers and other industry observers moved on to the more morbid business of whether Catch should actually show Harris's stroke. After all, cameras were everywhere on the Cornelia Marie, right? Last night's episode finally answered the question -- while raising a few more. Click through, watch the video and judge for yourself.
Honestly, I thought this episode was everything reality TV should be. Phil and his son Jake -- whom the captain had essentially disowned after discovering him to be a prescription-drug stealing addict -- reconciled when Jake pledged to get treatment and apologized for disappointing his father (who has been known to have a few addiction issues of his own). It was sincere, riveting stuff (if not necessarily the most creatively edited; how many cutaways to one more mast-affixed WaveCam shot were we going to get?), deepened that much more by viewers' knowledge of the horror to come. Captain Phil was virtually grey at the controls; he jittered and fretted stressed in all new ways.
His stroke itself came after he tried to get some alone time, retreating to his cabin, where he was unresponsive when called later on. His discovery by the crew was depicted off-camera, but the medics' attention to the captain was portrayed with fairly unprecedented candor. People go into the ER on TV all the time, generally with the producers' knowledge -- and thus the viewers' implicit understanding -- that they will come out. Straightforward as the sequence was overall, Jake's brow-gripping terror at the possibility of reconciliation being the last thing his father ever did is... well, I'm sorry. It's profound -- all the more so because it for once revealed the gravest of realities that reality TV is always so desperate to conceal. The show is called Deadliest Catch, for crying out loud. And there might be some crying out loud.
Or maybe not! You tell me.
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This episode was sanctioned by Captain Phil, so those who believe that Discovery took this too far should keep that in mind. We will see Captain Phil in the hospital up to the point of his death, at HIS request. He said "there should be an end to this story." I wonder if creative editing has removed previous nostalgic interactions with his sons, or if Phil, on some level, KNEW his time was very limited, therefore had more of the epiphanies and frank talks with and about his sons than before. It certainly seems as if he was very in touch with his mortality towards the end.
Captain Phil was never afraid to call a spade a spade, he was never afraid to call it the way he saw it. Phil LIVED after the stroke and was coherent and able to say that he wanted these episodes aired. I hope the Discovery Channel keeps it real by honoring Captain Phil's wishes and doesn't air some candy coated version of what happened, Captain Phil deserves better than that. Rest in Peace, Captain Phil. You will be missed, but never forgotten.
Look, for those concerned about the reality factor in this episode-perhaps you should have turned the channel. This is a reality based program and as such should have been shown.
Phil gave up on Phil-after the medical scare a couple of years ago-he went right back to living his life on his own terms and that's the way it was. Thankfully-from the sound of things, his sons got the message and are cleaning up their own acts...that is their reality.
Personally, I thought that it was well done and that it was a great tribute to the character that Phil was.