History’s “The Curse of Oak Island” has been reeling in viewers for nearly 10 years now with the constant promise of hidden treasure and iconic, yet-to-be-found artifacts. But a lot of the show’s longtime fans feel like things have been growing stale in recent seasons, especially since there’s been little-to-no payoff.
“New season of Oak Island new nails, pieces of wood and rocks waiting to be found,” a viewer tweeted in November 2021. “Same show each week.”
Series stars Rick and Marty Lagina have been leading fans on for nine seasons as they continue to try and unearth “precious” objects hidden deep beneath their little slice of excavation heaven known as Oak Island, located off the coast of Nova Scotia. With each new episode, the pair always seems to hint at some sort of incredible or historic find, and oftentimes they do dig up artifacts that are special or have historical meaning. But the focus always seems to be on the hidden treasure aspect of things, rather than the preservation and local importance of what is actually being discovered in any given episode. With this in mind, many viewers have called on History and the “Curse of Oak Island” producers to change up the direction of the show, and here is what they have in mind.
Fans want the Laginas to focus more on historical finds, rather than treasure
If History is going to keep airing new seasons of “The Curse of Oak Island” for the foreseeable future, then viewers feel as if the show needs a definitive facelift — with more of the focus being placed on the historical aspect of things, rather than the monetary finds.
“I’m pretty sure they will never find anything of value,” noted Redditor u/AnySignature7753 in a recent “Oak Island” discussion thread. “I’m still amazed by the number of tunnels down there, and I’m interested by the history of the island,” the user said. “I wish they would take more time talking about the history of the island at this point.” Redditor u/elwebst wrote, “This is it – I’ve never thought there was an actual treasure, what with all the searching over the centuries, but I do want to see the tapestry of the island’s history woven for us all to see.” Redditor u/DLoIsHere added, “As a longtime subscriber to archaeology magazines, I really came to enjoy [the history] aspect of the show. Especially given that they weren’t discovering anything else.”
Overall, viewers believe that the ultimate thing that works best for “Oak Island” is that the entire show is rooted in the science of archelogy and discovering things from the past. “The archaeology bits I found to be genuine, authentic,” said Redditor u/byrneo. “There’s an educational, wholesome component there that just adds to the family dynamic of the show, where a parent could see real science being applied by real archaeologists in an interesting meaningful way … and see their kids sort of invest in that and get excited by that. It hurts the show by not having them there.”