Black Sails is a television show about pirates currently airing on the Starz network. Because it is about pirates I knew that I would be watching it but the question is, will I enjoy watching it? Is it any good?
It is very good.
The first episode is about Captain Flint tryingto find a certain treasure laden ship but to find it, he has to raid a bunch of small next-to-penniless ships that know where the big ship is. He doesn’t tell his crew what he is up to so they have no idea why their big scary Captain is robbing these tiny ships and that pisses them off.
The first episode is concerned with the upcoming vote for Captain. Movies tell us that pirate Captains were tyrants of the sea who had every order obeyed but in real life, pirates were the only democracy at sea. Hell, they became pirates because they were sick of the tyranny that was common on Navy and merchant ships. On a pirate ships, captains only serve at the pleasure of their crew and can be voted out on a regular basis.
If pirate politics is not your thing, then you might be interested in the sexy women that populate this show. There is the sexy innkeeper who buys stolen goods and gets wet for people who steal things. There is the sexy prostitute who is helping a lucky cook sell something important and there is the super sexy badass pirate chick who is the muscle for her Captain. All in all, that is a pretty good range of female characters for a period piece.
It wasn’t until later that I realized that this series is supposed to be a prequel to Treasure Island but it didn’t impact my enjoyment at all. This was an episode about bad people doing bad things to one another. This was also a lot of fun with a lot of ‘Holy shit! That just happened!’ humor. I am a big fan of characters who are in over their head and know it deep down in their bones.