This - and boring talk at that. Although the plot of where the three-way could go thickened a little.
That’s disappointing, i was looking forward to this weeks episode since last weeks was very good.
It’s still worth watching (if you like the series). Some character developments between Silver & Flint and about Flint himself. But for as quickly as the show eats plot developments, it was very surprising to see the Vane/Flint showdown get put off for an episode.
That was the best episode of the series and fantastic. The London flashbacks ended up building and paying off nicely. It gives a new perspective on the hard, brutal, pragmatic Flynt. This show has been growing into legitimately high end TV.
I’ll admit that I wasn’t overly impressed with the “big reveal” since the show used its narrative power to intentionally mislead the viewers just so it could pop back and say “Ah HA! Weren’t expecting that, were ya?” It’s a device I personally dislike since it always feels to me like the show’s creators are patting themselves on the back for being so clever when, really, it’s like finishing a reading a reading of The Night Before Christmas by saying “And did I mention Santa was… an octopus?!”
That said, I have no complaints about the actual story just the device used to reveal it.
Of more interest to me (and I suppose more flashbacks) is the root of the animosity between Flint and Vane. The first episode of the show had Vane helping to engineer Singleton’s attempt on Flint’s captaincy on the thin pretext that Singleton would be a shitty captain and eventually Vane could poach some disaffected crew members. That’s a fair bit of mechanics to go through just for a couple deckhands and Flint’s crew seems competent enough but nothing hints that they’re the pride of the Caribbean. There’s something deeper there and deeper than their rivaling places in Guthrie’s little world and I assume it has to do with Flint’s original arrival at Nassau. And it sounds as though it’ll come up next week.
All I can say is Toby Stephens…dimples…mmmmmm
It seems to me that Vane just thinks he is the best pirate captain out there and sees Flint as his only legitimate rival. I think at the beginning of the series in particular Flint had a unique and profitable relationship with their fence/supplier Eleanor, which surely could make him a target.
In the “Next week on…” bit, there’s a voice over of Guthrie saying Flint and Vane need to settle this now and Vane saying that it can’t be settled. Granted, this is after Flint just knocked down Vane’s shiny new fort but it sure sounded as though there’s a deeper root to all this.
I think there is something deeper there too but I also wouldn’t underestimate the value of trying to poach Flint’s talent. Navigating, sailing, and maintaining ships like those took specialists with years of education and training. And there were often labor shortages in general in the New World colonies, hence the need to import African slaves and Irish rebels.
Hmmm. A gay pirate. Who’d a thunk it?
He’s bi, isn’t he?
I don’t know. Other than a brief make out session with Miss Barlow in the carriage I don’t think we ever see him with a woman (although the only other women on the show are Eleanor Guthrie and prostitutes). And IIRC, it was her kissing him, which was really to fake us out that they were the ones being “improper”.
I thought they had sex in Season One while he was recovering or otherwise hanging out at his house. Then again, I also seem to remember him not looking especially interested in the act which, at the time, seemed more about preoccupation with the Urca but may have been him not being into the whole “sex with women” thing.
Anywho, at least Rackham provided me with some swashbuckling this week while Flint, Vane, Hornigald, Guthrie, the other Guthrie and Mrs. Flint are all stuck in Pirate C-SPAN mode. Was Rackham’s neck cut intentional or just damn lucky? As soon as the other captain felt inside his collar and came back with blood, I knew where that was heading. Rackham’s sailing knowledge seems superior and it’d be interesting if he was actually a potential equal to Flint at seamanship. I hope Rackham and Bonny reconcile soon since they’re the most interesting couple by far. Well, I’m only counting the major male/female pairings there. Flint & Silver is generally good times.
At this point I’m hoping that something happens to knock Max down off her perch as her smooth “I know all” nature is getting on my nerves. Even as I type that, it occurs to me that it was maybe all of a month ago in “show time”, if even that long, since she was being kept chained in some sort of rape hut by Vane’s men.
I just want Max to have something to do on this show other than stand there and “know secrets”.
Saturday’s episode was freaking excellent.
I actually really like the minor characters of Dufresne and Hornigold, and was glad to see them get a W; I think they have some very legitimate complaints about the way Nassau is run. And it made sense that Guthrie would be vulnerable with Flint, Vane and her father not around to protect her.
Miranda’s character had outlived her usefulness to the plot, and I’m looking forward to Flint going on a crazy vendetta to avenge her, so I think that was a good decision.
I knew Vane was going to rescue Flint. You could just see the gears turning inside Vane’s head as he thought, as he always does, “Hmm, what would be the most badass thing I could do in this situation?”
It was an excellent episode – which is good, because it needed to be after three yawners about pirate parliamentary procedure. RIP Randall and Scary Dentures Pirate. Miranda was more interesting in death than she ever was in life.
Silver’s plan to disable the ship probably seems less of a good idea right now.
In real life, Hornigold took a pardon and became a pirate hunter so I was curious how they were going to work that in (obviously they were given the vendetta against Flint). Wasn’t expecting them to take Guthrie. I suppose next season will have Flint & Vane off to rescue her.
Wow, that was a whole lot of movement. The quality this season has been steadily escalating. And it looks like it was picked up for a third season before the second season started. Interesting. I’m not sure what the economics of such a niche show on a small network look like.
Starz recently licensed the rights for the show to A&E UK for viewership in the UK and Africa. So that’s hopefully a healthy sign if other people are looking to carry the show in their areas.
I’m glad they’ve been getting such early go-aheads for the next season from the network (they were given a Season 2 before S1 premiered) since, if Starz does decide to end it before its ‘natural’ end, they can hopefully spend a season wrapping it up gracefully.
Okay, I watched all of season 1 and started 2. I also read Treasure Island in between. It’s pretty short and a good read. I guess I haven’t checked back with Project Gutenberg in years - now they have Kindle/EPUB/etc. formats with illustrations included.
Flint doesn’t seem like enough of a shit yet to meet his reputation in TI. Granted, it’s just a reputation, and he has bumped the moral event horizon a few times but not crossed it.
Ned Low really was a psychopath in real life. He also became a pirate after some of the other characters are dead. The characters aren’t realistic but that’s fine. Hornigold died at 39, while the actor is a bit older. Also, according to TI, Silver was on Edward England’s crew (one of the nicer pirates), but at the beginning he appears to be a merchant crewman. Wonder if they’ll work that in.
I’m watching this week’s right now, but up until this point, I feel like it is just stagnating. Like everything is just kind of sitting there. They make an occasionally move that is supposed to be huge, but it doesn’t feel huge to me. Just kind of “meh”.
Still like the show, but it is lower in my viewing priority now.