Troy Landry

Troy Landry

Obsession Level: Not What it Used To Be

So I got on board the Swamp People crazy train a little late in the game.  I admittedly have watched none of the first season.  I really have no desire to watch the first season since it lacks the one person that I really watch the show for, Liz, who I paid homage to in an earlier post.  As I said in the earlier post, however, I am completely hooked on the show now.  I warned you once, and I'll warn you again, this won't be the last you'll hear about Swamp People since I could probably dedicate an entire blog to it!  Who knows, I might do that some day.  


Back to the topic at hand.  When the second season of the show came on television, my parents were beginning to watch it and it was spreading more among my friends and family.  It was a good show, they said.  You need to watch it, they said.  You'd love it, they said.  I didn't, however, feel the need to watch it.  Then one day I was at home visiting my family and I came home from an outing with friends to find my mother watching Swamp People on the DVR.  I remember this evening vividly.  


I walked in, looked at the television for a few seconds.  Then I asked my mother.  "What are you watching?"  She said "Swamp People.  You should watch it with me."  "Why?"  I asked.  "It looks dumb, I mean aren't they just riding around in boats and shooting alligators?  It'll be like watching fishing."  (Don't get me wrong.  I enjoy fishing myself, but I don't want to watch other people do it.)  "You'd like it.  It's exciting."  She said.  Finally, I gave up and sat down on the couch with a book.  I had nothing else to do.  As the show played, I found myself peeking over the top of my book.  I wasn't reading, I was watching Swamp People.  That was it.  I was hooked better than one of their gators.  


It was the second season, several episodes in, the night that I became a fanatic.  I was hooked by this one boat.  It was Troy and Liz.  Ok, really it was Liz that got me, but I liked Troy too.  Troy was funny and he was always yelling "Choot'em Liz" which became such a catch phrase that my friends and family use it constantly.  


Here's the back info.  Apparently Troy hunted the first season with his partner Clint.  When the second season rolled around, Clint had left the boat to take up other business endeavors.  Troy was hunting with his son, Jacob.  Jacob, however, was apparently not working out well on the boat and they were at risk of not filling their tags.  That's when Liz showed up and got a job working on Troy's boat.  Good choice, Troy.  


The funny thing is that I remember watching the entire rest of the season and thinking that Troy and Liz were amazing.  I thought they got along so well and worked great as a team.  I figured they had been lifelong friends or something.  I was always so happy watching them banter back and forth.  It was like Swamp Heaven for me...but then a funny thing happened when I received my DVD collection of season 2 in the mail and had a few days off of work.  

Me and my cat snuggled down on the sofa and were determined to have a Season 2 marathon.  It wouldn't take all that long since we were only watching Troy and Liz and fast forwarding through everyone else.  I think it was a two day endeavor for me, kitty, and all the snack food we could stand.  I was so excited.


I started watching the first show, caught up on the back story of how Liz came to be part of Troy's boat, and then the fun began...except it wasn't exactly how I remembered it.  First of all, I didn't see some of the earlier episodes when Liz first started.  I didn't realize how worried Troy was about having a woman on his boat, or how doubtful he was about Liz at first.  She was going to have to prove herself to him.  When he said things like that, though I understood to some degree that anyone isn't sure about working with someone new, I got a little mad.  It seemed like Troy yelled a lot more than I remember, and that he was far more critical of Liz than I remembered.  He badgered her more, criticized her more, and suddenly things didn't seem as wonderful on the boat as they once did.  Troy's obnoxiousness got passed off as him trying to be funny, keep moral up, etc.  I didn't really see it that way.  I felt like some of it was just uncalled for.  


The experience didn't sever my love of Troy completely.  I mean he's still funny sometimes, and some of his joking around isn't aimed at anyone, but I have to admit that it did put a spin on things and knock my enthusiasm level down a notch.  


It also had an effect on the way I felt about Liz.  If it was possible, it knocked my level of obsession up a notch with her.  I felt bad for her with the taunting and wondered how much self-restraint she had to practice not to blow up one day and pistol whip Troy for some of his stuff.  I wondered how many times in her head she was fed up to death with his nagging and insisting that everything be done exactly the way he wanted.  How many times was she smiling because she felt like she had to when really she was contemplating shooting him and using him as alligator bait?  Well, ok...maybe she didn't feel that way, but I would have!  I did want to high five her though when she finally yelled at Troy "Troy, if you call me Elizabeth one more time, I'm gonna kick your ass."  'Atta girl!

Now that we're in Season 3 of the show, Clint is back.  Troy is hunting with Clint again and his sons are managing a boat of their own to help him fill tags.  I find it obnoxious because all of the new boats on the shows are making it where you don't get to see everyone except for every other show (and by everyone, I'm sure you know I'm really just mad about not seeing Liz every show).  I don't care if he wants to run two boats.  In fact, I think the the whole father/son thing is excellent.  I just don't need to see both of them.  

I have to admit, I don't watch as carefully now when the episodes are ones that don't have Liz and Kristi on them.  I mean, I still watch it, but I'm not glued to the television set.  I will get up and have a snack or go to the bathroom, or whatever.  It's not like the Thursdays when Liz and Kristi are on there and I have a 20 minute preparation period prior to the show to make sure that there is no reason, short of a short circuit fire, that I will have to move from being glued to the television.  You never know when they're going to show them, so I sit through commercial breaks too, just in case.  See...obsessed!  LOL

As it turns out, Troy and Liz are seldom on the same episode this season.  Generally they flip flop weeks.  If I had to guess, I'd say that History is doing that on purpose since they are the two most loved characters.  They're hoping that it will ensure that people will tune in every week in order to see both of them.  It's actually a good idea.  A better idea would be to get rid of some of the newbs and put them both on every show.  I'm just sayin', History...

So it's not that I've lost all my love for Troy, or that I don't watch him at all.  I do enjoy his singing and a few of his jokes sometimes, especially when he's being silly.  I also love hearing "Choot 'em" and things like "We got us a tree shaker".  I am simply a little less impressed with him than I once was.  

No worries though, I remain a dedicated viewer of Swamp People, and my lessening obsession with Troy hasn't hurt my crazy obsession with Liz.  :-D