Our Flag Means Death - HBO pirate comedy

[JohnC]

HBO pirate comedy loosely based on Stede Bonnet. Bonnet was an aristocrat who left that life to become a pirate. Rhys Darby will play Bonnet. As well as EP and director of the first episode, Taika Waititi will also play Blackbeard, who really did have dealings with Bonnet.

[deKay]

I hope it’s as good as the Craig Charles one.

[JohnC]

Kristian Nairn, Nathan Foad, Samson Kayo, Rory Kinnear, Con O’Neill and Vico Ortiz cast as series regulars. Kinnear is playing two roles, presumably twins.

 

https://deadline.com/2021/06/our-flag-means-death-rory-kinnear-kristian-nairn-vico-ortiz-hbo-max-period-pirate-comedy-1234778835/

[JohnC]

Ewen Bremner and Guz Khan in now.

[JohnC]

 

[Vespa Alex]

Comedy?

 

It didn’t seem funny 😕

[JohnC]

 

[Vespa Alex]

Nope, still not funny

[g wings]

Hmm. How disappointing. It feels like such a wasted opportunity. The title alone built my hopes up. I think I will go back to watching Aardman's Pirates.

[JohnC]

Yeah, it's not great. There's some characters that could be good in a better show, but the comedy here just kind of falls flat.

[jonathanhoey]

We're half-way-ish through the series. Has its moments but seems like it's less than the sum of its parts so far. 

 

Darby and Waititi are both excellent in the two principal roles, but for me the rest of the cast is patchy. Some of them are great, but some of them are just really terrible actors. 

 

Will watch to the end but like, I'm not on the edge of my seat. 

[JohnC]

I liked Con O’Neill being the only one taking anything seriously and being constantly fucked off with absolutely everyone. 

[g wings]

This actually grew on me once I stopped waiting for the belly laughs. I wouldn't recommend it as a priority to watch but it was fun to have on in the  background and the two central performances had some great moments.

[Captain Novaforce]

This has popped up on iPlayer, it's daft but watchable 

[PK]

It's pretty light but I quite like it. It's a bit like a CBBC programme with some swearing and the occasional stabbing.

 

Con O'Neill is great in it, it's hilarious how constantly seething with anger he is

[Mawdlin]

Two episodes in and this is watchable fun with some likeable characters. Totally agree that it has the same tone and light laughs of a Horrible Histories production.

 

Great to see Spud from Trainspotting in it too.

[Boothjan]

I love pirates (avatar check out) and was really looking forward to this.

 

I'm about 4 episodes in and it's.... okay.  Very hit and miss - I think there's the ingredients of something really good here but can't disagree with the CBBC/Horrible Histories comments above.

 

I'll keep watching in the hope it improves a bit.

[Hexx]

Up to episode 6 or 7. 

There's some nice moments, but there's also some really flat bits. It feels like it misses more than it hits, but gets forgiven due to it's cast. 

 

I'm fairly sure I want to like it, far more than I actually do.

[Huz]

Completed it mate. There was a spell around midway through the series when I thought it was going to get pretty good, but it dropped away again to just being OK. The settings and music are great, though!

 

Series end:

Spoiler

I did really like the way Stede's return home played out.

 

[Hexx]

Finished at well.

 

It's tonally all over the shop - but I watched it all (sometimes half watching while doing something else admittedly) in a few days.

Is it a good show? I'm not sure. It's a good idea for a show, with a good cast  and good moments - but sometimes, even often, it just doesn't land. But when it works it works well. I'll watch season 2 for sure, but if it hadn't been renewed I'm not sure I'd have overly cared.

 

Spoiler

Lucius better not be dead! But I can't believe it given all the ways out of that situation.

 

[pledge]

Its not bad, but it just constantly feels like it should be much better given the pedigree of the cast.

[merman]

I really enjoyed episodes 4 and 5, with the premise of

Spoiler

Blackbeard being bored of pirating and wanting to better himself, the fancy cutlery and Izzy)

 

[cassidy]

3 hours ago, merman said:

I really enjoyed episodes 4 and 5, with the premise of

  Hide contents

Blackbeard being bored of pirating and wanting to better himself, the fancy cutlery and Izzy)

 

For me it's the fact he's wearing Mad Max's costume. 

 

Oh and cos of who he loves. 

 

[memories]

Finished this the other week, it's no What we do in the Shadows is it.

 

It's not terrible by any means but it doesn't have much belly laughs.