LAST EDITED ON 07-14-07 AT 11:58 AM (EST)

"I think part of the problem is that the contestants are too limited in what they can do to put themselves in a better position in the game. I thought it might be like survivor on the water, but no, you can't form alliances that well because you never know which crew you may be in"

Actually, the whole revolving crew thing I think was a good idea, and his (MBs) thinking was most likely that since EVERYONE has figured out how to work Survivor, that this would practically eliminate pagoning. But you are right Sidecar, they didn't really think through the logistics of how a crew could bounce back once they ended up on the bottom.

I'm wondering if they thought crews would mutiny more often. Perhaps they believed that 1) Winning crews would rotate Captains, even if the same team won the booty each time, or 2) they believed that the Captain would rotate his officers. Had either of these things occurred, mutiny might happen more often. As it is now, keeping the same Captain and officers, along with paying off cooks etc, gives the losing crew no option of mutiny.

Perhaps if this show is picked up again, they should have the pirates actually compete in a challenge that would determine the two officers, then the Captain would not be able to "stack the deck" (pun intended) quite as easily.

I also agree with Michal that the they have totally botched up the treasure finding. Having everyone go after the same clue in the same area has made this a rather elaborate game of follow the leader rather than searching for treasure. As for the hunts themselves, they are not even all that challenging (well, except from an athletic standpoint.)

John assumed that the compass was going to be an integral part of the game play; that is why her rather stupidly tried to use them as bargaining chips in the first episode. As far as I can tell, they were really just props for effect, rather than valuable searching tools. You dont need them if all you have to do is follow a river, a coastline, a well honed mountain path, and the team ahead of you.

*steps down off own soapbox* lol

ETA: thanks for the great post, Cherelyn!

Or, he didn't really have much to do with figuring out how his shows would work, opting instead to have his minions "follow the formula" that had worked well with Survivor and other rtv shows. That is of one of the many things wrong with On The Lot, as well.