Think Your Job's Tough? Get a Load of These! Review

Overall 4.00 of 5 (by 1 user)

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LauraBelle
South Elgin, IL

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Think Your Job's Tough? Get a Load of These!

the cook of a family with varied tastes, Entertainment Writer, reality TV junkie, a storyteller, A Big Giant Sap

Pros

Chance to see what people are made of, Provides perspective

Cons

Contestants that don't belong there

AUG

2008

If you want a little perspective after coming home from work, check out America's Toughest Jobs on NBC. We've seen reality shows with people surviving out on deserted islands, we've seen people holding it together on a race around the world, and we've seen people dealing without the pressures of just getting along with other people, but we've never seen people just sweating it out on the job.

NBC's newest reality show had its season premiere Friday night. It follows a basic format of having a person eliminated each week until a winner is crowned. The bosses that are on the job sites will be the ones deciding who leaves each week, meaning who isn't able to cut it. Now that wouldn't look good on a resumé, would it?

The premiere episode of America's Toughest Jobs had the thirteen contestants split up, working as deckhands on two crab fishing boats. I guess that's why I'm a freelance writer, as watching it I knew I wouldn't cut it, and wondered why some of these people thought they could. Let's be clear, in the ever-going discussion of which reality shows we'd appear on, this would not be anywhere on my list.

The contestants first task aboard the crab boats was to partake in a good luck ritual, that of sacrificing herring by biting off their heads. Right off the bat, Amy raised eyebrows saying she was allergic and would go into anaphylactic shock. If you have severe allergies why are you appearing on a show like this? Just asking. After this everyone had to gut fish to prepare it for bait. This had more than a few people beginning to get physically ill.

Feeling sick to their stomachs, they then had to lift forty pound bags into a bin, and Amy couldn't lift the bags shoulder height to do so. Again, if you can't lift forty pound bags, then why go on a show focusing on tough jobs? What did she think she'd be doing? I would struggle with it as well, as that's how much the dog food bags weigh, yet I just have a hard time lifting without throwing off. All she had to do was lift and throw into the chute.

After gutting fish and then lifting it up in heavy bags, the contestants were also dealing with seasickness. It was time to prepare dinner, though. Another contestant, Senta, puked in the kitchen sink, and was told by the ship's captain that if you puke in the sink, you're the one that will be doing the dishes. Amy got a chance to redeem herself by cooking dinner, and with bread for grilled cheese that was about an inch and a half thick, she was told they do have bread knives to cut that a little better. She explained she's never been around a skillet or stove in her life, in fact she disconnected her oven at home and stores books in it. So, she's allergic, can't lift heavy items, and doesn't cook at all, yet thinks, she's the perfect candidate to win a show about tough jobs?

Other contestants were on the line as well after this as the actual crab fishing began. Throwing out the big heavy pods on lines required a lot of physical prowess and was dangerous as well. A few people nearly got clocked in the head or pulled out to sea by the buoy type things that are connected to the large pod cages that will collect the crabs as they're thrown out at sea. Some of them excelled at throwing the hooks out to catch the lines to pull the pods back in with the crabs.

Senta, Amy, and a few others were then called out as being the people on the bubble for making it, as it seemed they couldn't handle America's Toughest Jobs. Honestly, didn't Amy know this going in? As they get a second chance at the chores in order to redeem themselves, Amy does just as poorly, but isn't eliminated, just being a typical reality show. The bad ones always stay around too long. She's apparently the Sanjaya of tough jobs.

I wasn't really hyped up to watch this show, but it was really interesting to see how a crab fishing ship works and to watch people compete that have no business even being there. I give NBC credit for this show, as it's fairly innovative. It doesn't mimic twenty other things currently on or seem like we've done it to death. I'll keep watching every week, but I don't think I'll ever see freelance writer featured here.