WHO'LL MAKE HIS MARK, THE CAPTAIN CRIED. TO THE DEVIL DRINK A TOAST. WE'LL GLUT THE HOLD WITH CUPS OF GOLD. AND WE'LL FEED THE SEA WITH GHOSTS: I gave Pirate Master a go last Thursday night and, if you'll accept the apology for the late thread, here are a few thoughts ahead of tonight's episode. The Television Without Pity summary can be found here.
The premise is a perfectly solid one: Fourteen (sixteen?) pirates are put aboard a ship to engage in various pirate-themed reality contests. It otherwise works as any other show: Beauty shots, daily grind, task, elimination strategy, elimination.
The cool thing here is that one fellow is made Captain and, if the initial rule set is the controlling one, he gets half of all the treasure and his two hand-picked officers get one-eighth each. While the Captain and the officers chose who will be set for elimination, the rest of the crew can either vote to bounce one of those guys, or -- if unanimous -- mutiny against the captain. I assume that, over time, the Captain accumulating a half-share will annoy the crap out of everyone else. So it could be good.
There's not much weight given to any sort of coherent narrative when the ultimate treasure (of $1M) is found in the Chest of Zanizbar, on a ship named the Pitcairn something or other, and they're off the coast of Dominica, three points on the globe scarcely to be further apart from one other. But, by gosh, those things sound piratey!
Anyway, I'm not really sure about this show. But I'll try to keep a thread going as long as their is some interest. If nothing else, I'm sure I can find good piratey-titles.
UPDATE: In a related note, Professor Bainbridge looks at the economics of pirate organizations.
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