Latest Guilty TV Pleasure -- Below Deck on Bravo

I love Bravo.  I remember when Bravo used to have all these esoteric and high brow programs with Louis Theroux documentaries and Inside the Actor's Studio.  Then the adorable Andy Cohen started changing things up and gifted us with empty, vapid programs like The Real Housewives series, Millionaire Matchmaker, Top Chef and Long Island Princesses.   I love being able to come home, eat my sad food on my couch and completely veg out to mindless crap and the fake drama of these shows.  I got hooked on the Real Housewives of O.C. and New York several years ago.  Steve doesn't get it.  He doesn't understand how I can spend even 10 seconds watching these shows but I think it's like watching a cultural train wreck and I can't take my eyes off if it.  Occasionally I will watch the hot mess that is Real Housewives of New Jersey but it's gotten boring now that the nut job that was Danielle Staub left (aka, "prostitution whore").

Who doesn't love a good table flipping scene?

However, a new program has entered my life thanks to the programming geniuses at Bravo.  It is Below Deck and this show is awesome.  If you disagree then you are wrong.  Sorry.

Best new reality show.  Ever.

Basically it's about a high end charter yacht named "Honor" in the Caribbean and the staff that work on it and the uber-rich clients that can afford to rent it for their crazy expensive vacations.  Having been to the Caribbean several times, we have seen some of these yachts come into port andbring their clients to the beach and I've always been intrigued by them. Last year while on our cheap-o vacation in the British Virgin Islands, one of the biggest yachts I have ever seen came in called "The Lady Britt."  The charter in Below Deck, while very posh, is probably half the size of the Lady Britt that we saw last year.

Actual photo of the Lady Britt yacht from Google Images.  It can be all
yours for the modest price of $500K per week.

I looked up the Lady Britt on my ipad while sitting on the beach last year.  Let's just say I nearly crapped my bathing suit bottoms when I saw that it cost a minimum of $500,000 per week to charter it.  We watched the crew of the Lady Britt tender in their clients which consisted of the grossest, thinnest and fake-tannest woman I have ever seen and a group of teenage kids that I can only assume were a mix of her kids and their friends. I walked down the beach 3x trying to get a better look at her because at first I thought it was Donatella Versace but it was just a really thin, sinewy, tan, older woman.   We then watched the crew tender back and forth to the yacht at least 7 or 8 times to bring them things they kept requesting - more suntan lotion in different SPFs, fresh towels, an extra pair of sandals, more sodas, champagne, snacks, water toys they never used, etc...  It was ridiculous.  However, I guess when you pay $500,000+ a week you expect to be waited on hand and foot.  It is definitely how the other half lives.

Anyway, check out Below Deck.  I find the crew members to be hilarious and the clients are insane.  Rich people with no class and on vacation where they are drinking waaaaaaay too much makes for compelling reality TV drama.  Trust me.