Topic: The "Curse" of Oak Island

[trapeze]

When I saw the promo on this show I just couldn't resist the temptation to watch the thing. This evening the History Channel played out the five episodes of the first season of the show in a lead up to Tuesday evening's season two opener.

Did you hear about Oak Island when you were younger? I did. I remember learning about it during my high school years when the sometimes goofy reality/conspiracy show, "In Search Of..." featured it.

It's a pretty odd mystery IF you believe what has been said/claimed about it. Lots of people have and they have variously lost every penny they had and/or died trying to get to the bottom of it (yeah, pun intended). Seems that there is this small island off of the coast of Nova Scotia that has a backfilled mine shaft that might have something at the bottom of it. Or not. It was originally discovered in the late 1700s...

Again, if you believe the history this thing can only be explained by human construction. Some kind of sadistic psycho put it together so that it would kill anyone who tried to excavate it. And it has, mostly. In the mid 1960s it killed four men by hydrogen sulfide gas poisoning.

So this reality show features a pair of brothers from Michigan who have a butt load of money, a desire to be on television and don't particularly care if they look kind of dumb trying to find the alleged treasure. They go about trying to figure this thing out in just about the most convoluted and expensive way imaginable. But that's the thing about reality tv shows...they must have drama. Results are strictly optional.

So I convinced myself that I just had to see this show because it might be interesting and maybe the boys would succeed where everyone else has failed. Well, the show is full of filler about supposed ghosts, curses, visions, possessions, etc. all designed to intrigue the weak-minded. I find that irritating to say the least. Halfway through I wanted to get one of the mining crews from the "Gold Rush" show and turn them loose on the island. They'd have that place stripped bare in the first fifteen minutes of an episode.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     

[AmericanPatriot]

all designed to intrigue the weak-minded

I watch that show.

What are you implying?
 

[IronDioPriest]

Never heard of Oak Island or the show.

[Libertas]

This thing has always been on the periphery of the paranormal/unexplained phenomenon, it gained infamy with each succeeding venture and the deaths...

Take a look at this chronology of events at Oak Island (it's linked pages go through 2006, after that the Michigan brothers story is the next chapter) , and tell me what pops out at you?

First off, there has been so many people doing so many things to this "pit" that I think it made it easier for the producers of the new show featuring the Michigan brothers (only one of which is really rich, the one on the right "Marty" but it is the other one "Rick" that is more obsessed) to run with this because most excavations are going to find evidence of previous digs to string the audience along.  Like Trap, I cannot count how many times I've yelled, "wall off the ocean and excavate the whole damned island if you're serious about this!" to no avail.

The strangeness of the bay and swamp area is interesting, but I cannot help but think the "pit" is a red herring.  Is this where the negative connotation of "the money pit" derived from for any cash-draining enterprise?  Anyway, the conspiracy theorist who came up with what he thinks the stone carvings meant and the grid layout was interesting, and then the first season ends when a 17th century Spanish coin is found.

New Season kicks off tomorrow 11/4 so at least there will be something more entertaining to watch than MFM election calls.

Oh, and as for curses, really?  So childish!  Hey, curse?!   

[AlanS]

Never heard of Oak Island or the show.

I'm on that list.

[AmericanPatriot]

It's entertainment.
Better than all the alien shows they're rehashing and only slightly less entertaining than Turtle Man and the the Bigfoot hunters

[trapeze]

all designed to intrigue the weak-minded

I watch that show.

What are you implying?
 

What I'm saying is that a straight up documentary/reality show about truly going after the alleged treasure would be interesting enough (there are no ghost stories on the the gold or tuna shows) but instead they have to drama-it-up with a bunch of unnecessary paranormal nonsense. Paranormal stuff is bogus. Always has been. Always will be.

[AmericanPatriot]

I was just teasing you, Trap

History Channel should just change their name to the Looking for Junk Channel.
Pawn Stars and Pickers dominate.
H2 should change to Aliens and Paranormal.

I do find the treasure hunting aspect of Oak Island interesting and am willing to accept the possibility of booby traps and such

[Libertas]

I think in a long ago discussion with Sectionhand and others we pretty much had History nailed as being a little loose compared to the high standards of our (anybody educated "old school" - 3 R's!) upbringing.  Most cables stations are in that leaking boat, it's just not the Network's that pull stuff out their butts and shout "Eureka"!

[AmericanPatriot]

I am in the slow process of weaning off Direct.
As soon as I can get out with no early termination penalty.

They continue to raise my rates and try too tell me they aren't just that my promotions are expiring.

Last call they tried to tell me that $120 wasn't more than $100.

[trapeze]

I was just teasing you, Trap

I didn't think otherwise. My reply was more to clarify my original remarks than anything else.

Reality shows (even fairly bland ones like the HGTV remodel/real estate shows) always throw in a healthy (and frequently unnecessary) dose of "drama" to make their stuff more "interesting." You can almost always count on a "cliffhanger" going into any break for a commercial so as to keep the short-attention-span viewers from switching to a different channel. The cliffhanger almost always turns out to be a big fat nothing burger that insults the intelligence of, well, people like us. But it is apparently needed for the idiots who get interviewed on the street and can't identify Joe Biden by his title or even recognize a picture of him. I hate that I have to watch stuff that is (at least partially) crafted for morons.

The shows which tend to be least insulting to their viewers are the ones that revolve around law enforcement because there is usually enough bonafide drama in them without having to invent any.

But, yeah, I would be more than a little interested to see the whole Oak Island thing put to rest, once and for all. If it was me who was fronting the cash to get it done it would be over in less than a year. A engineer or two plus a modest construction company (the kind that builds roads and bridges) would be able to deal with it in short order. Unfortunately, depending on the relative success of this show it could drag out for several years to string the viewers along. Lots more ghost stories, for sure.

[Glock32]

I was just teasing you, Trap

History Channel should just change their name to the Looking for Junk Channel.
Pawn Stars and Pickers dominate.
H2 should change to Aliens and Paranormal.

I do find the treasure hunting aspect of Oak Island interesting and am willing to accept the possibility of booby traps and such

I think in a long ago discussion with Sectionhand and others we pretty much had History nailed as being a little loose compared to the high standards of our (anybody educated "old school" - 3 R's!) upbringing.  Most cables stations are in that leaking boat, it's just not the Network's that pull stuff out their butts and shout "Eureka"!

I liked it better when it was "the Hitler Channel."  WWII documentaries are at least real history.  I do actually like Pawn Stars as well, since they make a point of delving into the historical significance of oddities.  But a lot of the other stuff they have now is just insultingly banal, populist schlock.

You know.  This:

[Libertas]

Yeah, that doper, jeesh, what a complete jackass!!!   

Nice hair, pal!   

[Predator Don]

I LIKE Counting Cars

[Libertas]

***Spoiler Alert!***

Boy, did this new episode fall flat...

They open up talking about the coin they found at the end of last season...yeah, we get a date now, groovy.

Then they scan the frozen swamp...flash forward to Spring/Summer (I guess they didn't do crap in between, not get permits for the warm season ahead of time, nothing like that...) and they slosh around the swamp and find an old Oak stump...and then debate skipping the swamp outright (pushed by Marty, Rick wants to find that scan hit on the non-ferrous object that supposedly is the size of a table, yet somehow eludes anybody poking around the swamp)...then some old casson's the Blankenships made a long time ago are dragged out and set near the swamp while they wait for the permits...

Then a kid comes in with news that the government wants to basically shut down treasure hunting on the island by making it insanely expensive to do so, so while that legislative idea percolates Rick switches to abondoning the swamp for now in favor of drilling holes in the money pit...which is hilarious because that pit has been drilled more than Madonna and is likely to be about as unrewarding...

There's your recap!

What a waste of an hour...it beat political coverage IMO, and that's about it.

Oh, and skip the show after this one, some crap about giants...caught the first half and then turned it off...I'd rather watch that fat dumb stoner Squatch hunter guy than this crap!