Five ways to improve Pirate Master
So, Pirate Master is sailing gamely along, and while they’ve clearly learned from Survivor, they’re making new mistakes that are sucking the life out of what should be a fast-paced, high-spirited show.
Here’s how I’d fix it:
1) Put them on two ships. Having two competing crews on one ship is just awkward. It feels odd, it’s just too random and it eliminates several of the fun aspects of the pirate genre. We never get a great shot of two ships sailing to a destination, one chasing the other.
2) It’s too hard to mutiny. I’m not sure what it’s going to take to have the crew mutiny, if Joe Don’s “I’ll take all the money, thanks” behavior didn’t do it. There’s no reason to require the entire crew to mutiny for it to work. Just have a majority vote for it. Oh, and take away an auto-mutiny if the crew loses a challenge. It’s cheap and taking that away would actually build resentment toward a captain and cause an actual mutiny to happen, which is a lot more interesting than it being a no-drama automatic occurrence.
3) Enough with the scavenger hunts. Yes, treasure maps are a staple of the genre. But they’re not the only staple of the genre. Let’s see a challenge that involves firing cannons or featuring swordfighting or shooting pistols. This is a fairly lily-livered set of pirates we’ve got here.
4) Give us Rupert as a host. The host on Pirate Master is some anonymous no-personality dweeb. Rupert helped inspire this show and he’s got the larger than life personality required for the hosting gig.
5) Camp it up. The Chest of Zanzibar and Captain Steel stuff is just terrible, partially because, as lame and fakey as it is, it’s treated so seriously. Let’s have a talking parrot and clues shoved in skulls and giant Xs marked on the ground. Go big or we’re going to sleep.
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I absolutely agree about bringing Rupert on. The man is such a popular character that viewers even refer to Louie as a “Rupert” because he looks and acts the part.
Comment by Jenn — June 25, 2007 @ 7:46