Message #255548

[Valerie]

Since making his fortune in the oil business, Marty has managed to buy up most of the island. He and Rick are working with the father and son team Dan and Dave Blankenship, who first went after the treasure back in the early ‘70s and now live on the island. Marty tells us that Dave is slowed by an injury that permanently disabled one side of his body, but that “he can outwork any three guys because he’s done physical work his whole life.” Later, when we see Dan, the voiceover tells us, ridiculously, that Dan is “the type of man that other men call ‘tough as nails.’” We get it: the Blankenships are real men’s men who were true badasses in their day. We’re apparently supposed to ignore the fact that one is hobbled and the other is too old and infirm even to cross the 140-acre island to watch them work at the site.

The Curse of Oak Island, by title and general aesthetic, focuses on building up the mysterious aspects of island lore. But in the first episode, the only unexplained moment occurs when some HD footage vanishes from the guys’ computer in the middle of a presentation. The rest of the show explains why and how the holes are flooding and Rick and Marty’s plans to get around it. We then watch them pumping dirty water into a dumpster and talk about scuba diving into a nearby cove to try and find the source of the flooding. None of this suggests a curse or conundrum, not even when Rick runs across an odd vertical wooden spike in the cove during low tide.

The pumping operation and the scuba plans are worthwhile first steps to getting at the treasure. But the former is not exciting television and the latter doesn’t even get started by the end of the episode. As The Curse of Oak Island documents the excavation step by step, you might anticipate that watching the show on a week to week basis will be akin to being there with Rick and Marty in real time this past summer. The series stops short of showing what the brothers are eating for breakfast and dinner and where they’re staying, but just barely. It spends plenty of time driving in the car with them as they discuss what they’re about to do for the benefit of the cameras.

At the same time, the premiere holds back information concerning the island’s history, such as how exactly six other treasure hunters died in this quest. The better to break up coming episodes from the monotony of slow digging, one supposes. Despite the pacing problems, though, the central mystery of Oak Island is engaging. But viewers may be not have enough patience or free time to see it through.

http://www.popmatters.com/review/177938-the-curse-of-oak-island-slow-going/