Well, well, well, the ship has sailed on this show and by that I mean we're at the finale. Finally. It's been a long haul with some high points... and some low ones. Nevertheless, Pirate Master has come to an end. Even though I knew this was the last show, it didn't alleviate any sense of impatience I felt with the episode. It was never-ending. Maybe it was the first challenge between Christa, Ben and Jay to determine who would participate in the finale challenge for Captain Steele's treasure. That was long enough, but the second one went on forever. Especially since Cameron repeated at least three times the players on each crew. Yeah, I heard that the first time. Black crew: Ben, Cheryl, Azmyth, Jupiter. Red crew: Christa, John, Jay, Nessa. Yes my friends, Ben won his first term as captain and $50K in that initial challenge, automatically making Christa and Jay receive the black spots. The "ghosts" all came back to vote in this last Pirates Court. Long-story-short, all the ghosts h...
read more
I'm a bit surprised to still be writing about Louie at this stage of the game. Here is a player that I thought surely would not last very long in the game. Yet week after week there he is, raspy voice and all. I've had my ups and downs with Louie from mild annoyance to commiseration, and to that now I can add a dose of pity. Poor guy. He truly didn’t deserve to be used like he was. Of course, this takes me to Ben, that player who has ridden every available coattail throughout this game. Ben, who, following in Jay's expedition-throwing footsteps, ensured that Louie, his partner on the red crew, would not win, therefore guaranteeing that Christa remain captain and that the Triad II remain in power.Even after last week's blowup, this trio of numskulls managed to stay a team and double-cross earnest, honest Louie. It does astound me, though, that Louie didn't recognize the sabotage. Let's see, Ben couldn't row the boat ashore so Louie had to take over and whiz by the black crew by ...
read more
It is not a wise move to sail the seas in a clueless haze. It is even worse to sail knowing you are in treacherous waters and doing nothing about it. Captain Christa is sailing in such a sea.The statuesque Sweetbeard has made her bed and Jay will soon be kicking her out of it. As captain, Christa has avoided making the tough decisions by relying on democratic input from the crew, but this week she faced a situation where she had to make the difficult call on her own and as a pirate, she failed. Tears and feelings have no place aboard a pirate ship. So when Christa learned that Jay had been plotting against her, she should not have been reduced to tears nor commenced worrying about the fate of Jay’s children should he receive a black spot and be cut adrift. Doesn’t she have a child of her own that she’s playing for? Issue Jay a black spot and be done with it. But no, Christa chose instead to risk the future of her more trustworthy, though just as sneaky, cohort Ben and...
read more
Question: I am having conniption fits, so I hope you can help me! What happened toPirate Master? It has not been on for the past few weeks, although it has been listed in TV Guide. I live in Jefferson City, Missouri, and subscribe to Direct TV, if that has any bearing on it. I was just reading about the "Triad" being broken up and realized it must still be playing somewhere.
Answer: As Bones herself might say, I don't know what that Triad reference means. But then, I stopped watching this one about two episodes in. In case you're still in the dark, CBS has pulled Pirate Master from the schedule but is playing out the rest of the series online at CBS.com. That's why you may still be reading about it ...
read more
Love 'em. Hate 'em. It’s a fine line and one especially hard to toe on this pirate reality show. On the one hand, the players are supposed to be pirates who commit dastardly deeds in the pursuit of their own desires. On the other hand, they’re contestants on a game show, and as a viewer you want the best one to win. But "best" in this scenario doesn’t always translate to the nice guy, the honorable player, the person you could see yourself hanging out with if you knew him or her in real life. What makes a pirate good is their ability to put themselves first at all costs in order to stay on top and take home the most booty. These are not necessarily the traits you look for in a best friend. But in Pirate, now you’re talking. And on Pirate Master you’re specifically talking about Jay.Jay puts the "smarm" in smarmy. He solidifies the stereotype of used-car salesman. He has slithered through this game like that serpent from a certain garden. Watching him on this...
read more
I watched Episode 10 of Pirate Master online at my desk today, making the random note: Nessa, Kendra, Louie = weak team; Jay Christa Ben — New “triad”; Jay = snake. Stuff like that. I had to laugh at myself though, because there I was taking notes to blog a show that was no longer on the air. Why exactly was I doing this? I still don’t know. I blame it on an odd quirk of mine — that strange compulsion I have to finish something that I’ve started. So, here I am discussing that Titanic of reality shows (probably with myself). This is the task I have set before myself. Here I go.I bet that if this episode had aired, a lot of folks would have really enjoyed tonight’s show. The challenge was great. It was grueling. I don’t know if they are getting longer as the show progresses or if they just seem that way now that there are fewer players. Regardless, the challenge was great. People actually had to use some smarts to figure out the "bottle in the p...
read more
Yesterday the rights to O.J. Simpson's If I Did It book were passed along to relatives of murder victim Ron Goldman. The family said they plan to exploit the theoretical tell-all in order to collect the $33.5 million they were awarded in a wrongful-death judgment against the bankrupt football star turned bogeyman in 1997. TMZ.com reports that So You Think You Can Dance judge Nigel Lythgoe has hooked up with Bobby Ewing's and Elvis' ex, Priscilla Presley. Pass it on! On Friday Pirate Master contestant Cheryl Kosewicz was found dead in her home, an apparent victim of suicide. Her boyfriend took his own life just two months earlier. FX will rerun the first two episodes of the new Glenn Close legal drama Damages on sister cabler MyNetworkTV on Wednesday. If that means one less day that we ever have to see American Heiress, I'm all for it.
read more
Azmyth Kaminski, Pirate Master
It's good to be captain. Just ask Azmyth Kaminski, the longest-reigning and two-time leader on CBS' recently canceled Pirate Master. Standing 6-foot-3 with long blond dreadlocks, this 27-year-old deejay from Los Angeles took the role to heart, even assuming a (British?) accent. But as so often happens, those in power stand alone: When Azmyth's "Triad" alliance was disbanded, his once-happy crew wasted no time ousting the leader who had quickly gone from everyman to overlord. TVGuide.com spoke with Azmyth about the show's demise and why he wants to change the face of reality television.
TVGuide.com: You have become one of the most recognizable people from the show, but what stood out to you about your experience on the ship?Azmyth Kaminski: The expeditions were what I really loved about the show. They were just phenomenal. There's so much that happened on the ship that no one has
read more
Question: I realize that Pirate Master was not the greatest show in the world, but I liked it, and, according to the message boards, so did other people. Personalities were coming out, twists were being added, and there were only five episodes left when CBS decided to pull it. Are they really generating more money by airing repeats of 48 Hours? They already invested the time and money in filming, editing, etc, so why pull it? The announcement included a line about the final shows being streamed on the website at 3 in the morning. Oh gee, thanks, CBS, I'm so freakin' grateful. The networks wonder why people are turning to cable channels: Well, one answer is the cablers' loyalty to their viewers. CBS doesn't have that much to offer as it is, so maybe it should quit ticking off its viewers.
Answer: In another summer, I'd probably agree. But this summer, things are so competitive and so crowded on network and cable that I'm not really surprised when a network pulls a flop off the air, even
...
read more
CBS ought to send every viewer who caught this most recent episode of Pirate Master a gold coin. After canceling this ratings disappointment, those who did follow this show now have to log on to CBS.com to catch streaming video of the remaining few new episodes. Given what could have happened — being forever left to wonder at the outcome like, say, fans of Invasion, Reunion, or Threshold — we few fans should be grateful that we can at least see the full run of the show. Watching this episode, however, I kept asking myself why? Why pull the show now when this episode involved so many tweaks to the game that it is now at its most interesting? Why do they ever let Louie do the puzzles? Why did Christa bid for the royal pardon?First off, the changes: Ben and Jay have been stripped of their officer statuses, courtesy of the host. (Coincidence that this move comes right after the ghost pirate debacle?) Now these former officers are both eligible for a black mark, but they can no...
read more
