Norway Part 5 - Aftermath in Magical Realism

Arriving home in NYC I was thrilled to be free but was still furious about the entire situation. Seeing the extreme lengths the producers were willing to go through, from forging hotel confirmations to submitting false lists to the government, I was also concerned they might somehow retaliate against me for shutting down production by refusing to play along/stay silent.

I felt so dumb for even agreeing to do it in the first place. I think I had a false sense of security having watched the show, which is 95% about the young people on the crew and the guests are really just backdrop, unless they get super drunk or do something especially crazy. I figured we could just be polite and boring, not get trashed and have a nice vacation in a stunning place. Obviously I am an idiot.

I had so many crazy scenarios running through my head about what they might do, what they could do to make us look bad. Our time on board was obviously super tame but I kept running through everything we’d said and done on the boat, wondering if something could be used to frankenbite us or make us look bad in some way I hadn’t even heard of.

On the plus side I was happy I’d kept concrete documentation of the production company’s wrongdoings and hoped it would work in our favor to get my charter fee back and not have the footage shown. After some back and forth with the company’s lawyers they agreed to refund my charter fee but would not agree to not use the footage. I then asked if it was possible to exclude just me and A (this was also his request) and they would not agree to that either.

I figured I’d at least take the refund and sort the rest out later, but instead of reversing my original wire transfer, or transferring the funds back into my account, they wanted me sign a new contract on an employee/vendor portal for their parent company, which would then issue me a check. This again seemed SKETCHY on two accounts:
- This was supposed to be a reimbursement, not payment for work/services and seemed like it could have tax implications
- The portal also asked me to sign a fresh release for the parent company, which I was even more uncomfortable with. I had the thought that this was being set up like a settlement where I had to agree to not sue the parent company to receive the payment.

I declined the paperwork in the portal and asked them to please wire the money, citing the fact that this was a refund not payment for work or services.

At some point I felt it might be smart to consult an entertainment lawyer and a fellow diarist was super kind to share one she had used previously. Thank you! This guy seemed to know his stuff but was also kind of hilarious because he basically chewed me out for 10 minutes for even going on the show, which was totally valid. He was also totally incredulous they were willing to give me my money back, whatever the reason, and urged me to sign whatever they asked, take the money and chalk off the whole thing as a learning experience.

I didn’t disagree with him but was hesitant to waive my right to take legal action in the event they did something shady when the show aired. We went back and forth for months, the bank I’d sent the money from was spun off, so I had to open a replacement account, then I moved continents, so no movement happened for about a year. I wasn’t too worried because I still had the letter from their lawyer agreeing to repay me, which seemed pretty solid. I kept a watch to see if/when the season was going to air, and started seeing previews in advance of the start date in autumn 2022.

Around that same time the production accountant reached out to me saying my paperwork had been completed in the portal and they were sending me a check to my NYC address. This was an issue on a few accounts:
- I wasn’t in the US to receive the check, which could easily be stolen or lost
- More importantly I had never completed the paperwork in the portal - who did? (!)

I wrote back immediately saying I wasn’t in the US and unable to receive mail there, so to please cancel the Fedex. I also reiterated that I had not submitted any paperwork in the portal and did not give authorisation to anyone to sign/complete on my behalf, so this was a major issue. Again, SO SHADY! They said they’d look into it and in the meantime the season started airing.

One of the first previews or trailer included the champagne glasses falling/glass breaking from when we boarded (although who knows, the crew was not great so maybe that happened more than once.) We watched the first few episodes with a nervous feeling in my stomach the whole time. Going chronologically I knew we had boarded shortly after a stew had vomited all night saying it was food poisoning when it was more likely too many margaritas. (The other one mentioned it to us when she was serving drinks.)

Thankfully, instead of us being the third charter it was the Real Housewives of Utah. Watching closely, it looked like their charter had been filmed in late September after the original season had concluded. (I don’t have the mental energy to re-watch carefully to confirm all of this but offhand: crew were wearing a lot more cold weather gear than in the summer and sunset times were earlier than it would have in August. The deckhand who was kicked off after the first few episodes was not shown interacting with the guests, presumably because he had been long gone at that point. I think they intentionally put the guy who replaced him on the night shift so that they would have more flexibility on things like this.)

I was somewhat relieved but knew we weren’t out of the woods yet. Since things weren’t being shown chronologically, there was definitely a possibility that we could be shown in the middle or end of the season instead. I thought it was very possible that we might be the very last episode, especially if they were going to show that production had been shut down (I think one earlier COVID era franchise season ended early like this.) Which just kind of prolonged the agony, since most seasons on this network are 18+ episodes. In Australia we could generally watch episodes online the day after they aired, but sometimes there were text episode summaries posted online, sometimes a few weeks ahead, so I also searched those obsessively, hoping we weren’t mentioned.

In January, the network started to announce new shows starting in early February, so I started to feel hopeful the season might be a short one. When we were in France, a batch of summaries were posted online including one that seemed like it could be a final episode, and I was grateful that it would at least be over soon. We watched the last episode (which also seemed to have been filmed after the original season) and breathed a sign of relief finally.

I reached out to the accountant and they wired a FULL REFUND to my US bank account.

We checked the schedule and another show was in the top slot the next week, which meant a reunion or lost footage episode was unlikely. The production company never agreed not to use the footage so it’s possible it could pop up somewhere down the line but I think odds of anything really bad are low. I am so glad this awful saga has finally ended.

I don’t tend to have regrets but if I could do this one over I could definitely have done without this particular “adventure.” It was great to get the money back and not be embarrassed on television in the end but I was really stressed for a full year and a half worrying about what might happen. I was dismayed by the selfish behavior of my guests and ended up cutting ties entirely. Maybe this was a lesson I needed to trust less in people but I was pretty closed off already and am now verging on mild paranoia and slight agoraphobia.

Anyway, happy to bring this particular chapter of my life to a close and move on to new opportunities/experiences.

Last updated February 10, 2023