This time actual pirates on an actual pirate ship! Sort of. But despite the wholly different setting and the shift from drama to sit-com we still have:
- A ship
- A varied and individually distinctive crew...
- ...with extensive backstories
- and trips to places that more or less all look exactly the same
On that last point, at least with Our Flag Means Death, that's part of the joke.
The HBO comedy received a lot of buzz in 2022 and for good reason. The first couple of episodes have the feel of an older style British sit-com: a setting that is mainly an excuse to have a group of comedians/character actors bounce off each as characters that are little more than stereotypes. That's not a complaint as it is a comedy style that can be very funny. New Zealand comic Rhys Darby plays Stede Bonnet, a wealthy Englishman dissatisfied with his life who decides to become a gentlemen pirate. The joke in the pilot is that he runs his ship of incompetent cut-throats like a modern-day super-friendly boss ensuring that people talk through their problems and that the staff/crew feel involved in "important" decisions e.g. the design of their pirate flag.
That first episode is funny enough. It hangs mainly on Rhys Darby's usually style of character (think of his cameo in What We Do in the Shadows as the leader of the werewolf [not swearwolf] pack). However, it is unlikely to have sustained 10 episodes or engendered the popular acclaim it received.
The shift in tone is organic as the series takes the predominately male cast on a voyage into the question of what is masculinity in various strange, funny and occasionally violent ways. The arrival of the monstrous pirate Blackbeard (Taika Waititi) sets off the core romance of the story as the unlikely pair of Bonnet and Blackbeard are both seeking to fill a missing emotional gap in their lives.
The rest of the crew have their own stories, in particular, the kind-hearted Oluwande and the initially taciturn Jim who is on a mission of revenge. Jim, played by non-binary Latinx actor Vico Ortiz, aside from getting some of the best lines in the show, has the most complex backstory of the crew, which I won't spoil but which adds to the show's broader question of what is manliness, what are the social expectations around that idea and how it messes with people's heads.
It is a weird and absurd show that keeps managing to hit deep emotional beats and frank discussions about sexuality, friendship and stabbing people.
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