Okay, it doesn’t. Or more properly, the characters do not have your back. In fact, many of them would agree with Elim Garak that shooting a man in the back is the best way to ensure you shoot a man dead.
But what is Black Sails, you ask? It’s a four-season TV series which serves as a prequel series to the events of Treasure Island aka the novel that launched countless film adaptations and continues to entrance readers and viewers with the mystique of pirates and the Golden Age of Piracy. Black Sails mixes those fictional characters from the novel, like Captain Flint, Billy Bones, and John Silver, with very real historical figures like Anne Boney, Jack Rackham, and Charles Vane.
And I think Black Sails is very good, well worth watching at the speed you want (binge or no). It has four seasons: eight episodes in the first, and 10 for the remaining three, making it substantial without being daunting.
But is it for you?
Like most “prestige TV” of the recent era, it’s aimed at adults. I will say it’s about the most TV-MA series I’ve seen this side of Westworld or Game of Thrones, so if you’re not up for that level of sex, language, and violence at this time, hold off now or avoid altogether if it’s never your thing.
It probably also helps if you’re in the mood for a period piece and a pirate tale at that (some of you may well want your timbers shivered around next International Talk Like a Pirate Day, for example).
Don’t be surprised if some line of dialogue makes you wonder who the “levelers” are or who the heck England was at war with in 1705. I certainly didn’t know and Wikipedia was my friend. The writers did some loving research which leads into some of the interesting (and as far as I can tell) historically accurate philosophical themes of the day.
The production values are great. Nothing pulling me out with props, costumes, or sets. They’re using CGI and other tricks with some of the sailing ships on occasion, but it looks decent. There are some great moments of lighting, cinematography, and editing and THANK GOD they hired some folks who understand you still want to SEE CHARACTERS AT NIGHT. The make-up and special gore effects are, as you might imagine, bloody good.
The big thing is the story and the writing. Here we’re getting into more plans within plans –and changing plans– with all the main characters that are incredibly enjoyable to watch. Every character has agency. Like EVERY character. That one minion who helps John Silver? He has a plan. He has motivation. He will keep doing what he’s doing in furtherance of his goals. That poor noblewoman’s daughter? She’s perceptive. She’s using every inch of her education to suss out the situation. And that’s just the SIDE characters. No one is stupid. They may do things that are perhaps not the best ideas, but their motivations have been established so clearly that EVEN WHEN SURPRISES HAPPEN you’re like “Oh yeah, I guess they would do that.”
That is immensely satisfying writing.
The few things that I can think of that people would not like do roll up into “this take isn’t for them,” which is completely fair. It is so, so TV-MA. In one fight scene, a guy chews through someones neck. I do not mean figuratively. I do not mean the camera cuts away to save our sensibilities or the special effects makeup budget. I mean you see a man, in order to win the fight, chew through another living man’s neck until said man is dead BECAUSE SOMEONE CHEWED THROUGH HIS @#$%ING NECK. It’s full-on.
There are plenty of characters to root for and like, even if they are so, so flawed. None of them would necessarily mind the guy who chewed through someone’s neck for instance. John Silver is a charming psychopath. As in, he’s not necessarily murderous all the time, but he is every bit the psychopath he is in Treasure Island only TV-MA so. Some book purists might not like their take on Captain Flint, but he’s an unseen bogeyman in the book while what we’re seeing here is a very troubled, interesting character… who also should not be trusted. In fact, they play with the legend of Flint and pirates in general throughout the series in ways that are immensely satisfying.
Speaking of immensely satisfying, longtime readers (all 7 or 9) will know that “payoff” is something I look for. With Black Sails, they rig the series with every square inch of payoff they can muster, even the metaphorical topgallants. Your familiarity with the novel will be rewarded, but it’s hardly a requirement. For example, you’ll learn why Long John Silver’s nickname is “Barbecue” in the novel, but if you don’t remember that fact, that name origin is delightful in and of itself. In fact, the distance between the time period of the novel and the series allows for many surprises because the novel doesn’t lay out all the pirates’ histories even as the series makes them ring true. You can enjoy this simply as an engrossing period piece.
So, if you’re in the mood for a rattling good yarn that isn’t bashful about putting the blood in “bloody good time,” come about for your couch or whatever form of furniture you favor to watch TV and treat yourself to some serialized gold.
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