I’ll confess I was skeptical when I first saw advertising for Black Sails. But the season finale just aired last night and overall I’m very impressed with the show. I’m not claiming it’s the next Game of Thrones or Breaking Bad, but it was really good.
The show either had a huge budget, or made very impressive use of the budget they had. There’s several really cool scenes of ship to ship combat. And as a white guy, I’m contractually obligated to love anything involving old wooden sailing ships… they’re beautiful.
What I liked best about the show though is that the plot was interesting and exciting while maintaining a sense of internal logic and not crossing over into over the top ridiculousness. There are several premium channel period pieces that, in my opinion, would have been much better if they were a little bit more grounded in reality. I’m looking at you Boardwalk Empire, Deadwood, and The Borgias.
The first season had 8 episodes and it’s already been renewed for a second season. So if you like historical dramas, or just want to enjoy some action, sexy pirate wenches, and the occasional witty quip, look for Black Sails when it becomes available to rent streaming or on DVD.
If anyone else has been watching and has something to say about it, I’d like to read your opinion. Also, this is for the mods, I’d rather this thread didn’t get merged with a previous Black Sails anticipation thread that was started about 2 months ago, if that’s ok.
Oh? We watched the pilot and were kind of bored. It was like they figured that Game of Thrones’ whole formula must be boobs and swashbuckling. Well, no, there’s more to it…
So it really got better?
The same production company, Tall Ship Productions, is doing Starz’ Outlander series which will air this summer. Now that, I’m excited about.
I think the plot developed quite intelligently after the first episode. I was worried, even after watching the pilot, that it might be cheesy, but it didn’t go in that direction at all. I’ll also note that after just watching the first episode of Game of Thrones I wasn’t all that impressed, but after watching the entire first season it was my new favorite show.
So yes, Black Sails gets better. Of course, it does continue to have epic amounts of boobs and swashbuckling. But I also happen to enjoy boobs and swashbuckling, so long as the context isn’t idiotic.
Actually i read that their smallish budget was the reason there was so much “land” stuff as opposed to actual pirating. Either way it was highly entertaining, more in the vein of Spartacus than Game of Thrones, which isn’t surprising since they are both Starz shows.
I like it but I do have trouble following some of the plot and the various factions involved. Note that the series is supposed to be a prequel of sorts to Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island. So given that, we can expect that certain characters will survive, although they may lose a limb.
(And I was slightly amused that in the autumn Starz had a completely unrelated series called White Queen and now they have Black Sails.)
I started watching it because my wife was out of town and we were DVR-ing all the shows we watch to see them together when she got back, and I’d already run through all the shows I watch that she doesn’t. I wasn’t expecting to enjoy it, but I did, and am looking forward to seeing the last few episodes.
I’ll admit there are some hokey plot points, and inauthenticities (e.g., all the women in the pirate’s camp are beautiful!) But hey, it’s entertainment!
It’s a mix of Treasure Island characters, original characters, and historical figures, like Charles Vane and Anne Bonny. At least one character who was alive in Treasure Island has already died on the show. I don’t think they’re going to be sticking too closely to either history or Treasure Island, more of an “inspired by” deal.
I think I know which character you’re referring to as having died on the show, despite being in the book Treasure Island. Remember that he died off-screen and we never saw a body. So I’m assuming he’ll return at some point, perhaps somewhat the worse for wear. (I hope so, as I liked the character.)
I quite liked the entire season. It was surprisingly substantial for a Starz production, compared to more over-the-top fare like Spartacus or cringeworthy camp like Da Vinci’s Demons.
That may very well be true, I’ve no idea what your taste is. But the main reason I started this thread is that after watching the first 8 episodes I was far more impressed than I was after watching only the first. The show was far more subdued and tightly plotted than I was expecting after watching the first episode. Characters I thought were one dimensional (like Vane) get some depth to them. Plots I thought would develop in a contrived fashion actually ended up with quick and logical resolution. For example, I thought half the season would be devoted to Flint and company trying to deduce who had the stolen page. Instead they immediately realize that Silver is the only possible culprit, and the plot takes off in a very different and more interesting direction from there.
Certainly not Game of Thrones, but definitely Spartacus grade.
I recall something in the “making of” show where they said it wasn’t your “usual pirate story”. Not sure what they meant, as it basically is the usual pirate story - swashbuckling, boarding ships, stealing treasure and going back to Whore Island to drink and grab some booty. You know…“pirate shit”.
A lot of people have been comparing Black Sails to Spartacus because they both aired on Starz, and I compared it to Game of Thrones because I think you need to watch the whole first season of both shows to experience them best, but really I think Black Sails is most similar to Rome.