Our Flag Means Death

2022 - 3 - 4

Hold off on Our Flag Means Death until you can binge it (unknown)

Taika Waititi (director of Thor: Ragnarok) stars in the HBO Max pirate show Our Flag Means Death alongside Rhys Darby, Game of Thrones' Kristian Nairn, ...

But there’s so much content out there these days, and it’s so easy to start a show and then lose track of it amid all the other competition — especially something that starts off as episodic and sitcom-y as this series, without the kind of obvious mystery that makes for appointment viewing. Which is why it might be a good idea to skip the premiere and wait a week before watching it, until enough of the series is available that you can binge it and get a better idea of what really makes the show worth the investment. In the opening episodes, Stede is a one-note-joke of a man, a repeating bit that starts to grate early on. But what’s missing from the history books is what drove Stede and Blackbeard’s relationship, and that’s what Jenkins is looking to fill in with the show. And that pilot in particular feels notably close to a version of What We Do In The Shadows, with pirates instead of vampires. easy to look at HBO Max’s pirate comedy Our Flag Means Death and immediately type it as “Taika Waititi’s latest project.” Waititi, director of Thor: Ragnarok, What We Do in the Shadows, and Hunt for the Wilderpeople, executive produced the show, co-stars in it, and directed the pilot.

A Raucously Funny, Surprisingly Moving Maiden Voyage (unknown)

Rhys Darby and Taika Waititi star in HBO Max series Our Flag Means Death, a hilariously funny but also unexpectedly tender pirate comedy series.

In fact, there's a lot about the series that almost flies in the face of everything we tend to affiliate with pirates themselves but makes total and complete sense as it plays out on-screen. It's obvious that much of the Revenge's crew, Bonnet chief among them, have set sail in part to learn who they really are — and pirating ends up giving them more than an objective, but a sense of unity and family too. Rory Kinnear presents himself as a sneering antagonist from the beginning in British naval man Captain Nigel Badminton, someone who knows Bonnet well from his aristocratic origins (and even long before that when they were the bully and the bullied at boarding school) but who also underestimates the Gentleman Pirate at his own peril. In spite of their very distinctive differences, Bonnet and Blackbeard actually have much more in common than they think they do; both men have been feeling significantly disillusioned with their lives up until this point, with Blackbeard questioning whether he even wants to continue on his current legend-making path or harbor the thought of an inevitable retirement, and Bonnet wishing he could be as ruthless and cutthroat as his peers but continuing to go about it all in a very counterintuitive way. Matthew Maher, as the self-dubbed Black Pete (a name he dons partly to copy his hero Blackbeard), is present to remind just about everyone and anyone about his own impressive resume as a pirate, 20 kills per raid and all. This idea might sound thrilling in theory but is way more difficult in practice; Bonnet wrangles himself a very motley crew made up of men with a varying range of talents, some of whom have significantly more pirating experience than others and are more than happy to voice their discontent with his inept leadership skills loudly and within earshot of the rest of the group.

'Our Flag Means Death' finally portrays historical queerness correctly (unknown)

The HBO Max series delivers a shocking twist with more historical merit than you may think.

For him, adding other perspectives and stories was just a matter of staying true to history in a way we haven’t seen before. Our Flag Means Death takes the “probably” out of this issue by giving these characters the vocabulary we have today to explain who they really are. Ultimately, Our Flag Means Death prompts the audience to ask questions about their own perception of these characters and how they view figures from history. A “woman in disguise” who continues to be referred to as male may seem like a 21st-century invention baked into this period storyline. They adopt a new persona out of necessity and to escape a previous crime that leaves a bounty on their head. Inverse spoke to the stars and creator of the series about why crafting and portraying stories about trans and nonbinary characters are so important.

The Strange True Story That Inspired the New Pirate Comedy Our Flag Means Death (unknown)

Yes, a rich Brit gave it all up to become a pirate. Nobody has have any idea why. Here, the true story behind Our Flag Means Death.

“It was more about zeroing in on the circumstances this character was in, what his personal situation was, what Blackbeard’s situation was, and what they meant to one another. And we know what we know, but there are also these holes, which gave us license to take the things we found interesting and use them to ground the show and then embellish. “I’m a little surprised about making a pirate series to begin with, because that’s not a genre I’m interested in,” he says. Also, we don’t know why any of this happened, why Bonnet screwed up his marriage or why Blackbeard liked him, so we were able to fill in the blanks of the story that we wanted to have.” That Bonnet’s story was fleshed out enough to serve as inspiration for the series—which stars and is directed and produced by Taika Waititi—but not so much that there wasn’t room to play. “Very early on, I was talking to Taika about it, and he said, ‘don’t do any research,’” Jenkins says.

Post cover — Image courtesy of "The Spinoff"

Rhys Darby takes Murray to sea in Our Flag Means Death (The Spinoff)

“It's actually about making it about the mundane – a workplace comedy about people who might be on a pirate ship, and might be sailing for weeks on end without ...

“Both Taika and I agreed that we weren’t really that into pirates,” he says. The comedy tone is there thanks to myself and Taika and David [Jenkins] who created the whole thing,” says Darby. “I just love people who are out of their depth in a position of authority, and trying to get away with it,” he says. “And then I discovered that’s something I was very capable of portraying.” “I just loved all the people that were managing these positions I was in,” he says. “He just decided to go and live another life,” explains Darby. “We’ve all thought about doing that, but this guy actually went and did it, and he chose the most ridiculous life to get into.”

Our Flag Means Death: Neon's Taika and Rhys' high seas adventure ... (Stuff.co.nz)

REVIEW: Watching the first few episodes only made me appreciate just how great Aardman Animation's similarly themed The Pirates! really was.

Much of your enjoyment of Our Flag Means Death will depend on your tolerance for Darby’s trademark comedy stylings. Think of us as your eyes and ears. One suspects it will be reliant on the strength of those they encounter, such is the predictability of the tensions onboard. There are some wavering on the move against him. So what if it has 10 times as many guns as them? “I wouldn’t take it personally, but they don’t like you – or your methods,” his first mate advises.

Taika and Rhys on pirates, mid-life crises and hating grown-ups (New Zealand Herald)

Karl Puschmann talks to the stars about their fanciful yet historically accurate new show.

"I hate grown-ups so I'm never gonna be one." So I just hit the road and ran with it." I was a mistake and Dad didn't want me so I was like, 'well, I don't want this'. I decided I was going to reach for whatever I could and along the way make as many friends as I could and make as many people laugh as I could because that's the one thing I was good at. "I felt very independent since I was very, very young in the sense that I didn't trust grown-ups," Waititi says, following on. I wanted to prove to the adults that I was worthwhile and that I could do something with myself. "And then I go jump in my swimming pool and I think 'I'm all right'." I want to feel alive,' and then doing it. "The big things are never one thing," Darby adds. I don't think anyone's brave enough to do what Stede did and upend their entire life and go out seeking adventure. "He's a very tortured middle-aged man who is questioning everything he's done in his life," Waititi says. Darby stars as the well-to-do Bonnet, giving the character a boyish sense of adventure and wide-eyed enthusiasm for his fanciful notion of what pirate life is. Before deciding to become a pirate Bonnet had been a wealthy landowner living quietly on the island of Barbados with his wife and three sons.