The Curse of Oak Island 2014

I have been enamored of the story of Oak Island since I was a kid. If I were Rick Lagina and I had a rich brother I might have gone and tried to convince him to go treasure hunting too. The story is there. It's interesting. So where does this show fall short? Prometheus Entertainment and it's owner (and also creator of this show) Ken Burns. Great concept. Poor execution.

Let's face it. 5 seasons all of this could have been condensed into one or maybe two seasons. It has the typical Grade B television series conventions. The constant repeating and rehashing of content, again and again, to lengthen the show. The obviously dramatic attempts at editing and music to make mundane moments seem much more important than they actually are. The use of weak tie-ins to connect the materials they find with each other and to "possible" historic events, some of which may be a stretch,

But as long as there is a glimmer of possibility Prometheus will take that plunge simply to make you keep watching.....

What they are doing is cool, no doubt. There is something there, no doubt. There are many mysteries there to be solved and I do applaud Rick and Marty Lagina for going for it. That is the story behind the show and it deserves to be told. Maybe in a single hour special or multiple ones. But six seasons? No.

This show is made in post. The editors who piece together this pablum and spit it out into some semblance of show to make it into some form of entertainment deserves the credit and raises.

However, as a viewer, this is the equivalent of watching two guys drive to their local convenience store every day, but a shitload of lottery tickets, bring it back to their kitchen table where their friends are sitting, watch them scratch them off, get really, really excited when they win a dollar and really disappointed when they win nothing.... and then repeat the entire thing the next.day.

Now if they could only squeeze content from their other show, Ancient Aliens in there somehow, maybe it would be more interesting. Ancient Aliens on Oak Island!

One last comment. Where, exactly, did the legend that 7 people have to die to find the Oak Island treasure? Never read that anywhere.

A bait-and-switch show.

I've started watching it from season one and finally just pulled the plug because I just couldn't take anymore of what has become a series of memes around my house:

Narrator (excitedly): "They found THAT? And then THIS? And also THIS? Could it be...."
Gary Drayton: "Oh mate, I'm too lazy to ever dig a hole and my expertise is in finding, not digging so dig up that old ox shoe for me that is 2 inches below the surface of that super soft soil, but I and only I get to pick it up once you dig it out"
Creepy Rick Lagina (in the most monotone way possible): "This is our 'ah-ha' moment" (and many other silly sayings he spews)

This entire 2021 season is about them digging up an old stone pathway and going nuts like it's Christmas over every piece of charcoal or worthless crap they find, always getting it carbon dated and always focusing on the "as early as" and never the "or as late as" part of the date to prop up their narrative about, apparently, Moses himself planting loot on this island.

Literally every episode this season has been them digging up a road and making huge leaps about the ordinary stuff they find there.

Think I'm joking about Moses? Only partly. So, to date, they claim that there was a massive treasure planted on this island a hundred feet down that is secured by a very complex network of Indiana Jones style booby traps (because, reasons). It then transforms to the Knights Templar themselves put it there (not joking, seriously, they claim this) and that it is "highly likely" that the Ark of the Covenant is there too (again, not joking). At the very least there is a massive library of the most important documents on earth, such as the 10 commandments and other historic writings encased in concrete in the "money pit".

And that's the thing about the show, they make massive mountainous leaps about every little "artifact" they find, like a piece of pottery a couple hundred years old suddenly becomes "this was likely the tea cup of the sea captain who piloted this huge ship full of gold into this swamp area" and "this piece of charcoal indicates that one of the 'original depositors' (i.e., the people who supposedly put the gold on the island) made a fire here for the sole purpose of creating the 'treasure shaft'".

That is every episode in a nutshell. They don't look for clues to a mystery but rather use the same method employed by the scientifically stable palm readers and tarot card readers to make what they find prop up their narrative of something super important happening on that island. Found a nail dating to the 1500's? Oh, that's because the Knights Templar brought the actual cross of Christ to the island and a nail fell out of it. Got a reflection on a camera lowered into a 100 foot hole? That's obviously gold, but when we go down there to check it in person nothing can be found so it's likely a "flood tunnel" (aka Indiana Jones booby trap) washed it away as part of this "curse".

What they are doing is just stringing the show on for as long as possible so they can buy the rest of the island. When they started they had to get permission for everything, but the tens of millions they have earned from their scam enabled them to buy 2/3rds of the entire island.

And Rick, the super creepy brother (with a checkered history of alleged abuse of women while he was a post-office worker) becomes more "king" with every episode and leaps to some of the most nonsensical of conclusions and might quite be the most boring man on earth.

Let us not forget the cockney accented "metal detection expert" (a super fancy name for any dude who can wave around a metal detector on a beach and find a coin) who any day now will copyright "top pocket find" and wigs out over every nut, bolt and "ox shoe" he finds. Another to leap to conclusions, every ox shoe apparently is stone-cold evidence that because there were oxen on the island then they hauled literal tons of treasure to "the pit".

The first few seasons were interesting enough because you learned of the history, but now they invent history every step of the way. If there was ever treasure on the island (and this is a massive IF) then it's long gone, but they'll not only milk this show for every dime but create two more spin-off shows to suck in cash too while they are at it.

The only upside to this show is that the cast employs a bunch of nobody's who would not find work otherwise. I mean, they have a full time "metal detection expert" on staff! They used to contract out work and then just hired Billy Gerhardt who does the excavations. They have a whole host of people who would probably be flipping burgers if not for this big treasure hunt.

So watch this knowing they will never find anything but will bore you to tears as you learn that - especially in the last 4 or 5 seasons. And, to put a fine point on this, have a Rick Lagina "ah-ha" moment and direct yourself to never get sucked into this show or the two spinoffs (because they also jump to very big conclusions based on zero evidence but for entirely different subject matter).

If you are a history of actual fact finding or real history then stay clear of this show, it's on the same playing field as "Finding Escobars Millions" or "Coopers Treasures" where the history is only 1% of the show and them taking huge leaps into their interpretation of everything found.