The ‘Below Deck’ Franchise Has Never Been Better — Thanks To Kate and Hannah

By Lea Palmieri @littleleap
Published Dec. 21, 2018, 9:00 a.m. ET

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Despite whatever was or was not happening in Cartagena on this season of The Real Housewives of New York, there were bigger and better boat rides airing elsewhere on Bravo, as this year’s offerings of Below Deck and Below Deck Mediterranean were the best these shows have ever been. The drama ranged from sexy to serious, the incompetence of crew members was at an all-time high, and leading these epic seasons were Chief Stews Kate Chastain and Hannah Ferrier (Med), armed with their most effective one-liners and eye rolls like never before.

Below Deck Mediterranean was simply the perfect summer show. There was the Joao, Brooke and Kasey love triangle which got pointier at the edges with every episode and when paired with perhaps the fussiest guests this show’s ever seen, there was always a moment guaranteed to have you yelling at your TV. Chef Adam was cooking up the best food and jokes we’ve ever seen him from him and Jamie and Colin were the deckhands that we all wanted to be BFFs with, which adds up to a reality show that not only delivered on the drama, but the LOLs as well. And right at that intersection you’ll find Hannah.

From the perfect muttering of “Quack, quack, bitch” over a guest’s dinner requests, to her pained smiles for the demanding rich people, no one knows how to be so simultaneously professional and petty better than Hannah.  In happier times, watching her fall for the human puppy dog that is bosun Conrad was totally sexy. He was the cute younger guy, she lasered in on him, and their sweet flirting morphed into make outs before we knew it. Seeing her happy and cuddling and having cake fights was a lot of fun. We lived vicariously though these moments, wanting so badly to believe that age totally doesn’t matter. Until it did.

Because for as fun as it was to watch them fall in love it was even more compelling to watch them jump right out of it, without a parachute. After he simply informed her that she owed him 50 euros for cigarettes, the two proceeded to drag out their fight across no less than half a dozen locations throughout one crew night on the town. There was the indignant throwing of money into his room on the boat, the body language of the tense van ride, the awkward stairwell confessions, the white wine outside, more white wine outside, and the ultimatums outside of a club, with every moment of it totally intoxicating. I’ve watched it multiple times and it’s still not enough to truly appreciate the brilliance of how this entire reaction unfurled, all over their beloved cigs.

But the way Hannah lead the drama on (and off) the boat was not just due to cigarettes and disagreements and her precious labels. Her bout with anxiety was a different kind of riveting TV, one that put into perspective for many what anxiety, which is so often hidden inside our bodies, actually looks like on the outside. Watching her convulsing and dry heaving and uncontrollably shaking was eye-opening and important. Millions share these symptoms, and to have a platform to bring awareness to the fact that this is how intense anxiety can be, this is what it looks like, and it can affect anyone, was a new aspect of this show that was just as engaging in a totally different way.

Of course, literally the next day we were back to the good kind of drama, with Sandy shouting at Hannah about enjoying a can of Coke for far too long with the charter guests (Kenny!). “Get away from me,” Sandy says to a shocked Hannah, who was ordered to go to the bridge to see Sandy in the first place. It was an epic showdown between two strong personalities tearing apart semantics and America’s favorite fizzy beverage, and a blowup in the hands of TV’s most skilled producers that was impossible to look away from. BDM works as well as it does because Sandy and Hannah have their clashes — it raises the stakes. They’re fierce females, and the fact that they’re able to butt heads and then be friends again is what keeps this show interesting.

This season of Below Deck Med really drilled home the fact that Hannah is materialistic, but isn’t that why most of us like watching her to begin with? In another world she could (and is) a charter guest in her own right, but to watch this woman who loves her Chanel and her Yves Saint Laurent have to wait hand and foot on the clueless and classless provides a dichotomy that helps us understand exactly how brilliant Hannah really is. She can pour a glass of champagne just as well as she can keep the drama on the boat moving faster than any yacht could sail across the ocean. Tattling to Brooke that Joao was “snapping a dickie” for Kasey was excellence in shit-stirring, just as blatantly mispronouncing his name was a masterclass in shade.

And while Hannah’s strength is in her reality TV skills, with her service skills coming in at a close second, those two are flipped for Below Deck‘s Kate Chastain. Now in her fifth season of the show, Kate is damn good at her job as a chief stew. You want her on your boat to ensure everything is running smoothly. And look, this woman is no stranger to a perfectly timed zinger or blank stare. She’s an expert even. But it is her confidence in her job, not only as a stew but as a leader, that keeps Below Deck dramatic.

Perhaps the best example of Kate’s intelligence comes in her recent glee of learning about TWO separate crew hook ups. She’s ecstatic that Rhylee and Tyler were spooning, and that Ashton and Laura also had a snugglefest, and that’s because she’s a BOSS. She wants a happy productive staff, and really, what’s more motivating than sex — and then of course having to live and work with those partners in close quarters.

She’s also a true BOSS in that you have to earn her respect, as you should. Immediately paling around with Josiah might be isolating to former third stew Caroline and new third stew Laura, but it’s also fun that she found a friend and an equally hard worker on the boat. Does this make her a total mean girl to the others? Look, you can’t be a 100% welcoming woman in her position of power (except to the guests, always). This is a woman who has to enforce the “no ice cream until you finish your chores” rule on the boat. She can’t be your bestie on day one too, come on.

Which leads us to her actual bestie, Captain Lee. Just as Hannah’s head-butting is a highlight on the Mediterranean, Kate’s rock solid status with Captain Lee is a high seas alliance that acts as a constant on this show when everything else is chaotic. It’s sweet and reliable and stable, when truly nothing else is. And while this current season took a handful of episodes to kick into high-gear, it ended up zooming to the highest gear. Between Chandler’s general Chandler-ness and the switch that set Caroline off, A LOT happened. Was Kate’s way of saying goodbye to Caroline via loud music and speakers outside her door, after she abruptly refused to finish her shift, the most tactful way of seeing her off? No, I think many of us can agree on that. But was it better than a screaming match in the hallway? Probably (though not in TV terms)!

All this was before this season’s truly harrowing, jaw-dropping moment where Ashton went overboard, and due to a tightening line wrapped around his ankle, almost lost his foot. Even though the incident was teased for several episodes, watching it was unlike anything we’re accustomed to seeing on this show. It was captivating, only knowing that Ashton’s okay, and will likely serve as one of the show’s most talked about moments, ever.

Now, as we move towards the back end of this season, Kate is up against a very demanding third stew, one that can’t seem to grasp the fact that we’ve all watched enough of this show to know how to do a turndown. But she’ll handle her business like the BOSS that she is and finish out one of the most memorable seasons as strong as ever.

The Below Deck franchise expertly knows how to bring together different personalities from different parts of the world with Kate and Hannah at the center of that, the popular girls we all want to be friends with. Watching them on Tuesday nights from the comfort of our couches, and not as their direct reports, makes us feel like we could be, or even are their friend, at least for that hour. They’re sharp and powerful enough that we never want to get on their bad sides, but that’s because they back up their bark (in this case, the dropping of total truth bombs) with the hard work and poised exterior required of them by their profession. They’re also truly freakin’ funny and flat out great TV. It’s why they’ve led a crew of crazies to two separate sensational seasons of television that were utterly impossible to sleep on, and truly the most bananas boats we’ve ever witnessed.

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