There are easier ways to earn a paycheck.
Roll up your sleeves, and prepare for a testosterone rush: Friday nights are for machismo on Discovery Channel.
If you are partial to “Deadliest Catch,” that engrossing, gritty docu-reality spectacle on Discovery, you won’t want to miss “Bering Sea Gold,” the latest hour to dredge the drama of a dirty workplace for entertainment purposes.
Instead of crabs, it’s gold they’re after, in Nome, Alaska, where glacial melt has deposited tons of gold onto the bottom of the frigid Bering Sea.
“Bering Sea Gold” premieres tonight at 8 on Discovery. As in “Deadliest Catch,” the documentary aspects of the hour supersede the reality elements. These guys may be show-offs, risk-takers, down-on-their-luck eccentrics and jerks, but — unlike the cast members on dating/drinking reality TV — they aren’t poseurs.
Discovery has this formula down: The network’s manly “Gold Rush,” also about mining for gold in the wilds of Alaska, has regularly scored as the No. 1 Friday night show in all of television among men in the advertisers’ desired demographic. Now, “Bering Sea Gold” is positioned to follow.
“Lemme tell ya about gold,” intones a crusty, bearded old man of the sea at the start of the first hour. “Gold makes the world go round. But gold doesn’t come easy.”
A frozen port nine months of the year, Nome attracts all kinds of grisly fortune hunters in the summer, hoping to strike it rich in a collection of oddball, makeshift craft. Or, if they don’t make it to riches, they’d at least like to pay off some debt and child support.
Discovery cleverly mixes a nugget of science into the shipboard and diving scenes, demonstrating glacial action, compressor force and other mechanics with simple graphics.
Four separate dredges come with their own back stories.
“I didn’t come out here to make friends,” snarls a captain who needs to pay his debts to stay out jail.
Father-son conflicts, experienced hands versus newbies, dredge owners versus crew members, and even a woman distinguish the tales: Deckhand Emily Riedel is a “greenhorn” among the experienced tough guys.
The 100-pound underwater vacuum that sucks up rocks, debris and, maybe, gold, is the least of the heavy machinery.
Unlike the heavily scripted “reality” TV contests, the eight-part series brings very real suspense to the action.
“What’s the worst that could happen? I could die, I could go broke,” says Ian Foster, a former social worker now off to search for gold.
Check your outboard thrusters, and watch.
Joanne Ostrow: 303-954-1830 or jostrow@denverpost.com
