Started watching based on this thread and am enjoying it so far. Watch the first three episodes. Had to sort of skim the thread here so I didn’t spoil anything for myself. Never saw Game of Thrones but I thought the Rome comparison was pretty good – quasi-historical drama with lots of violence and gratuitous nudity/sex. The dialogue feels a bit too contemporary at times but I sort of feel as though I shouldn’t be taking it too seriously.
I read Treasure Island ages and ages ago and barely remember it but I did play a lot of Sid Meier’s Pirates! on the computer back in the day and everything I know about that era in Caribbean history comes from that Amusing to place some of the names and locations in that context.
Anyway, not too much to add and I’m afraid to read too much until I’m done with it but I thought the OP would like to know they got at least one new person watching it.
Having finished it now and watched the “Inside Look” thing, the “not your usual pirate story” seemed to be more about the lack of peg legs, parrots, hook hands, ghost ships and “Yaar! Avast ye scurvy dogs!” lingo. I think I heard two or three people mention the lack of shoulder parrots in the various promotional bits (although the brothel has a few hanging around in the background).
Saw a commercial last night for an upcoming NBC show, “Crossbones” about Blackbeard. So I guess pirates are the new thing now. Best part (from NBC website):
That should be awesomely great or awesomely terrible. I can’t be the only person to have trouble picturing Malkovich as the same guy who supposedly wove artillery fuses into his giant beard to light before fights and give him just the right burning, smoking demonic look.
(I didn’t think this deserved its own thread and figured this was produced with the knowledge that Black Sails was going to be a show)
Season 2 will premiere on January 24. I still haven’t found good information on the blu-ray/DVD release date for season 1, but I imagine it will be out before Christmas.
Season Two started tonight and it seems to be sticking with the same basic formula so if you liked S1 you should like S2 (and the flipside if you hated S1). Brothel boobs, pirate ships, people getting killed, some laughs from Silver, etc. Guthrie’s adventures remain the least interesting part for me* but I like Flint/Silver and usually like Rackham/Bonnet so it’s still a good watch for me.
*Technically, Flint’s wife is even less interesting but her parts are thankfully infrequent compared to the main three story lines
Dude, the brother storyline is a total snooze fest and needs to be ended. No one cares about that situation. Move those characters, who are fairly interesting, out of there!
I like the blonde lady, Max, Charles Vane, and the dude with the weird beard who runs it. Move them out of there and give them interesting storylines ASAP!.
Said dude is Jack Rackham. In real life, he captained a ship called the Kingston so this season might move him out of the brothel. Or maybe not – I think all of Season One must have happened within a span of a few weeks or maybe a month and change at most and Season Two picks up the same day Season One ended. If this season goes the same way, that would be quite the rapid fall and rise for Rackham.
I don’t, of course, mean to imply that this series (partially based on a fictional novel) is historically accurate except in the broadest sense, just that there’s enough real story to Rackham that I could see them borrowing from it. In real life, Rackham didn’t get his own ship until about fifteen years after the show’s time (1705) but then he didn’t meet Anne Bonny until 1719 in real life either.
So far Season 2 has been excellent. I thought Vane was going to just be a one dimensional villain when he was introduced in Season 1 but as they continue to flesh him out as a really cool character with more depth than I expected he’s starting to almost steal the show from Flint (who is also a well developed character).
Jack Rackham is probably my favorite character, I’m glad to see his fortunes have improved. And I’m glad that plotwise they haven’t forgotten that Hornigold ever existed.
Is there enough interest for an independent Season 2 thread? Or should we just keep using this one?
Given that there is only seven posts so far this season – and one is me saying “Whoops” – I’m guessing this thread can suffice. Maybe ask a mod to add in a spoilers warning in the title? (Since it’s your thread and all)
Agreed that this season has been great so far. Waiting on next week’s fireworks – they better not let me down!
I am liking Charles Vane more with each episode.
I know next to nothing about the characters, having never read Treasure Island, but thinking I might be looking into it now. Is Silver as big of an arrogant prick as he is in this show?
I like Vane more than I did (he’s dragged down a little by his tie-ins to Guthrie, whose story I have little interest in) although he’s almost seeming a little too perfect. The biggest stumble he’s had was getting banned from Nassau… for about 36 hours before he came back with his army of pirate-lumberjacks.
I loved the book as a kid. Long John Silver is certainly a bit smarmy and unethical in the book, but he’s also one of the most charming and interesting characters in fiction.
The actual history of the Golden Age of Piracy is fascinating as well. Lot’s of the characters from the show, like Vane and Jack, are loosely based on real people.
Wow, this last episode was easily the slowest of the series. Not a single gunshot, cannon fire or sword unsheathed. Just sixty minutes of pirates talking. The most action came from Hamilton Sr angrily stabbing his dinner with his fork.
I half suspect that the attack on the fort will be belayed or cut short by news that Ashe’s daughter is inside.
Amusing to place some of the names and locations in that context.