TVSquad

Pirate Master was awful - I watched the first episode and when nobody talked like a pirate at all, I bailed. Or walked the plank, if you prefer.
But to take this as condemnation of reality tv in general is insane. And to act as if that would be a good thing too is even more ignorant simply because there are many good examples of it that people do watch and that is reflected in the ratings again.
I get really tired of this elitist attitude that all reality tv sucks, especially when it comes from someone writing on a tv website who should be better informed...

Reply

I watched the most recent episode (with my dad, at his request) and I was irritated that none of the "pirates" did what pirates would have done when the key went missing - knocked down the other team, stolen their key and kept going.

I know it probably wasn't allowed in the game, but for the sake of authenticity, someone should have at least considered it out loud.

Reply

And what about Mark Burnett's also gosh awful show "Are you Smarter than a 5th Grader"? He's got so much money in all these different shows. He's not hurting and we'll probably see others in the future. I just hope that there is some "quality" rather than some show to fill an hour of tv time!

Reply

Also in Italiy these rality will die... http://www.solospettacolo.it/18072007/la-lecciso-sullisola/

Reply

With competitive reality TV, it's all in the characters and execution. "Next Food Network Star," "So You Think You Can Dance," and "Hell's Kitchen" have all been fantastic this season because of good set-ups and good personalities.

Reply

What took so long?

Reply

Just read the Variety article that is linked to this article.
Funny thing the author Josef Adalian says it was moved to Monday night earlier this month.
It was actually Tuesday!!!

Reply

arrrrrrgh... ye shall be missed matey

Reply

Just because you have a certain "taste" (some would say lack of it), that tends towards you liking the crap out of the bottom of the barrel that is reality shows, does not give you the right to disparage anybody else's sane opinion of reality shows, hedgehodge. There is no such thing as a good reality show, they all appeal to the absolute lowest common denominator, and I feel sorry for you that you believe otherwise.

Reply

CBS has not had a good summer with its new shows (Creature Comforts canceled) and now Pirate Master. I also know that BB is down in ratings. Only their re-runs are performing.

Reply

I'm glad it's gone. I am really getting tired of the glut of lame reality shows. I think enough already! Maybe I'm bias I tried out for Survivor last year and didn't make it. :P The shows for a while used to really look like a cross section of America, now they all look like Hollywood Bimbo and Buff guy celebs in training.

Reply

in all seriousness... this was one of the most poorly executed shows television shows i have ever seen. I know they couldnt come in and play "survivor on a boat". But, if they would have came in to it with some humor and an ability to laugh at themselves it might have had a chance. Instead they put the show in this weird in-between place where you couldnt tell if everyone really thought they were pirates or if they were just delusional from so much dramamine.

The character/character development has also been horrible. Losing the few strong characters (physically and personality) they had in the first few weeks (sean, christian "the nigerian nightmare" okoye, john "the scientest/exotic dancer") was really a deathblow. I mean who are half of these characters that are left?? Blonde dreadlock girl? i dont even think they showed her until the third episode. Blonde breast-implant girl? I still dont think they have had any clips of her talking, only show her when its a cleavage shot. Kendra? easily the weakest/stupidest/most blah reality show contestant ever.

With such little personality and character development on the show the producers really could have done something to make the challenges more exciting. Why would they think that a 2 mile uphill hike would be interesting to viewers? None of the challenges had any checkpoints or challenges that would let one team gain any seperation over the other and most ended up with the 2 teams randomly digging in dirt hoping to find the "treasure". The other thing that really bothered me with this show was having the exiting contestants be "cut-away" rather than having to "walk the plank". I mean, really... who was in charge of this one?? So jsut to sum it up : poor characters, poor challenges, and no walking the plank... that looks like 3 strikes to me.

Reply

Joey.
In response to your nasty comments about anyone who likes any reality tv being the lowest common denominator doesn't really help your argument. If you think of reality tv as being an extension of documentaries, then it includes the likes of 7-Up and the shows which followed it which are regarded as some of the best television shows made. Even if you want to simply regard this new wave of reality game shows, there are some really good ones such as The Amazing Race, the British version of The Apprentice and even Survivor which is still incredibly entertaining. To disregard an entire genre because there are bad shows would be like saying all sitcoms are awful because of Two And A Half Men or crime shows suck because of CSI. All I am saying is that anyone who is writing about television should be more open-minded rather than damning all reality tv because of a terrible show like Pirate Master.

Reply

Hey Hedgehoggy,

I got your back if you want to take a pillowcase full of batteries to Joey Geraci. Joey, go get a clue loser.

Reply

Hedgehoggy is right, I am growing absolutely sick of the entire reality television genre being held responsible for each individual series failure. All dramas will not be pulled because "Traveler" had terrible ratings. All animated shows will not die because of "Creature Comforts."

The only thing that the failure of "Pirate Master" proves is that reality television fans have become discerning enough to differentiate between top genre shows and derivative crap.

If only those of you blindly condemning the reality TV genre en masse could learn how to do the same.

Reply

I enjoyed this show, as far as summer filler goes. Certainly it was horrible, but infinitely better than On the Lot, which should be so fun, but is so painful to watch.

Yes, I think they had poor personalities on the show. But I also think they didn't really think it through, so the execution isn't good. I hate watching a show that just vanishes though; I like to know how things end. I hope the remaining episodes do end up on the web.

Reply

Totally agree with david. The "challenges" on this show were the biggest joke of any show I have ever seen. When one team figures out a clue and starts heading to the next spot, all you have to do is follow them instead of trying to figure it out for yourself. There's no incentive to be first because once someone figures out where the treasure is buried, then it just becomes a free-for-all with both teams scrambling to find it. Your odds of winning are the same regardless of whether or not you get to the spot first.

The idea for the show wasn't terrible, it just got screwed in execution and cast.

I hope the failure of this show doesn't reflect on Survivor, which continues to be one of the most engaging reality shows on TV.

Reply

This was a great show and a perfect example of why "film snobs" like Mr Sassone are mostly at fault for so much crap on TV today.

This show had everything that every other dark, depressing, cynical, boring, overly expensive genre show on TV today lacks. It had heart, and it had the excitement. And it had believable characters! It had lovely women and truly exotic locales.

Pirate Master tried to show us the enjoy that a simple adventure story could tell. It wasn't trying to preach to us about how terrible the world is. It wasn't so politically correct that it sucked the fun out of life.

You know, network adventure/sci-fi/fantasy shows have had a hard time in the ratings too, but I guess reality shows are to be blamed for their failure too.

And as for the reality TV fans who complain...I guess the producers should apologize to them for trying something different and not giving us another bland dating/competition show. This was hardly a Survivor rip off. I mean, Survivor is just a bunch of people sitting around on a beach eating bugs and complaining about each other...for fifteen seasons! The challenges are wimpy and designed with 65 year olds in mind. The locales are all way too similar to each other. It was an interesting idea at first, but they never improved on the concept. Splitting the tribes up by races was one of the worst ideas since the Jim Crow laws were passed, I mean, come on.

Pirate Master took the adventure elements of Survivor to a whole other level. I don't know what to say to anyone who thought the challenges were "lame". Some of the rules could have been different, but the challenges themselves were very exciting.

Survivor wasn't a totally original concept, it was just something that dared to be different. Pirate Master probably is more similar to Road Rules anyway. Besides every show, dramatic or otherwise, takes something from shows in the past. There are always originators in any genres that everything else can be traced back to.

Anyway, the sad thing is really that Hollywood doesn't try more things like Pirate Master. They will spend 200 million on childish video game films like the Pirates of the Caribbean sequels, yet they shun things like Pirate Master, which are many more times entertaining and are made for peanuts.

Film snobs, remember, if the scripted shows coming out of Hollywood were all so great, then Reality TV would never have taken off in the first place. There wasn't reality TV on the networks in the 70's because the shows were of a much higher quality back then, and there was more variety.

This is really a sad day for entertainment. Rest well, Pirate Master, it was fun.

Reply

It was an entertaining show for the summer duldrums. I think the move to Tuesdays, without sufficient notice, insured its demise. Should have left the last five episodes play out on Tuesday evening as they had nothing to lose.

Reply

I'm really getting tired of this. They suck us in with a "new concept", and just about the time it starts to look interesting, they decide to show the rest on the internet. Not everybody has DSL or cable or broadband. Those of us with dialup who live in a rural area watch television, too.

Reply