While not for everyone, Deadliest Catch is... well, not for anyone really. Perhaps the most oddball and longshot television success in all of broadcast history, on paper Deadliest Catch probably has nothing going for it at all and almost everything going against it.

Set on the freezing Bering Sea, the series covers the superhuman endeavors of Alaska's crab fishermen as they battle time, nature, weather, exhaustion, and their machinery, attempting to do what many consider to be the world's most dangerous job. With a cast of salty sea captains and deckhands, and with a backdrop of steel, water, and ice, plus having the subject matter being the exact same thing every episode, Deadliest Catch logically should have lost viewer interest after only a few episodes. However, five years later the show still has a strong following, and is one of the most successful shows on television. (Certainly it's the Discovery Channel's most successful.)

As the show follows the paths of a handful of crab boats, (with a smattering of other guest boats appearing now and then), the sheer extreme nature of the profession is what drives viewers to it again and again. Monster forty-foot waves of freezing water, sheets of ice covering every surface, back-breaking physical labor, tests of endurance as the crews play beat-the-clock trying get as much crab as possible during the fishing season, it all makes for addictive television. Combine it all with keeping the machinery in working condition under such extreme conditions while keeping the crew from snapping from the stress, Deadliest Catch will draw in anyone who has ever had to actually work for a living.

As mentioned, the show isn't for everyone. Most reactions to the series are either 'love it' or 'hate it'. Perhaps Captain John Hillstrand said it best when asked about the popularity of the show, bellowing "You people are all CRAZY... we're just CRAB FISHERMEN!!!"

Perhaps he's right. But many would argue that they're also part superhero.