pirates!

[kindkit]

I have, for the first time since the pandemic started, successfully Watched A Show.

It was Our Flag Means Death, a comedy (more or less) about pirates (more or less), based (more or less) on a real historical figure, Stede Bonnet, known as the Gentleman Pirate because he was a member of the landed gentry who took to sea for reasons unknown. Fair warning, though: this is not a show that cares about historical accuracy, and it deliberately plays with anachronism in some ways, especially costuming.

At first I wasn't sure I was going to like it, because some of the comedy hit my embarrassment squick a lot. But the show quickly did two things I love: it developed all the characters and made them human even when they're ridiculous, and it was gentle. Things I initially feared were going to be laughed at cruelly (e.g. one very obviously gay supporting character, or Stede getting his crew to sew) were laughed at kindly instead, and valued in a clear and amazing way. Meanwhile, the show turns a much steelier eye on toxic masculinity and all the damage it does.

It's also a very queer show, with onscreen queer relationships. There's a nonbinary character, played by a nonbinary actor. There are a lot of characters (and actors) of color. The pirate setting means there aren't a huge number of women characters, but the women who do appear, very much have their own stories and their own agency.

There is a fair amount of violence, not super graphic, some of it comedic and some not. But if, like me, you bounced hard off of Black Sails because of its brutality, this may be the queer pirate show for you. (And if you liked Black Sails, it may be another queer pirate show for you!)

Also one of the stars is Taika Waititi and he is amazing. And beautiful.

Our Flag Means Death can be seen on HBO Max in the US, and is also available through more swashbuckling methods.

Now I'm going to start re-watching it.

Comments

[vilakins]

Thank you for that! I looked it up and though it's US-made, it has two of our actors and apparently (according to a local site) a lot of our humour. I can watch on Neon - cool!

[kindkit]

Yep. Taika Waititi is also an executive producer and directed the first episode.

[radiantfracture]

[Popping in because kindkit commented on my OFMD fanart post]

I also feel like it has a very NZ sense of humour, but would value corroboration from someone with more experience of such.

[vilakins]

Yes, I can confirm this: deadpan and laconic, like Flight of the Conchords, The Almighty Johnsons, What We Do in the Shadows (the film, later a US-made series), and Wellington Paranormal (spin of from the WWDITS film), if you've seen any of those.

Late reply, sorry, because I remembered this comment and had to find it. :-P

[radiantfracture]

Thank you! I also feel like there's something sweeter and sillier about this humour -- at least in OFMD -- as against, say, more acerbic, crueller British wit -- the joke (thesis?) in OFMD is that kindness actually does work pretty well, even if it seems absurd at first.

Would you characterize that as part of NZ humour, or more just an OFMD thing?

[vilakins]

That kindness works is definitely an OFMD thing, but in general our characters are much more likeable and the humour less obvious than in British comedies. I've pretty much given up on modern British humour*, and their drama has gone very Scandinavian-dark.

* I'd rec some old UK series though like Porridge: set in a prison but with the same sort of characters and humour. I've probably seen that at least three times.

[delphi]

I had so much fun with this show and am likewise about to start re-watching it. :D

[kindkit]

I need S2! Like, tomorrow.

[executrix]

I think of this show as "You and Me and Me and You and Me and Your Friend Stede."

[kindkit]

Poor Stede, fated to forever be explaining that no, it's not Steve.

[starlady]

I have acquired it through swashbuckling means and I am excited to start watching it tonight or tomorrow.

[kindkit]

Hope you enjoy!

(Selfishly, I would love to get a critical mass of people on here who've liked it and want to talk about it. I do NOT want to venture onto Tumblr for discussion.)

[radiantfracture]

I love this observation about toxic masculinity -- I'd love to hear more of your thoughts about it, either here or in the like chat I'm hosting in my most recent post.