Who would’ve thought that a show produced by Platinum Dunes about the ins and outs of the pirate life would be so great? When the Starz show BLACK SAILS was first announced, like many others, the first thought that came to mind for me was “um..nope”. Following that sentiment, the TV series based two decades before the events of Treasure Island quickly faded from my mind, until the good folks at Anchor Bay sent me a copy of the first season to check out. I had a few hours to spare, and popped that baby in, ready to shrug and be impartial to what would play out in front of me…until it happened. The unthinkable happened. I found myself hooked, leading to binge watching the entire 8-episode first season in two days.
The show, led by THE MACHINE‘s Toby Stephens as Flint, the captain of the Walrus, spins a perfectly crafted eight-part season that never feels like you’re watching a TV show. Every action from the pilot on plays a part in the arc of the season, and there isn’t a single episode that isn’t crucial to the story being told, the story of Flint and his men chasing down a ship and its vast amount of gold. What sets BLACK SAILS apart from every single other pirate adaption, is how much it deals with the politics of the pirate lifestyle. Sure there are battles and ships being blown out of the water, but it’s almost secondary to what it takes to lead up to those battles, the back-stabbing, everyone trying to one up each other and look out for themselves life that gets bypassed in a lot of films and various other takes on one of literature’s most classic of stories. Much like a BATMAN BEGINS for pirates, the show shows Captain Flint first coming into contact with John Silver (INXS: Never Tear Us Apart), who in this adaption, is a thief ready to spread dissent and try to outwit almost anybody he comes in contact with. When Silver steals the crucial page of what would lead Flint and his men to a wealthy fortune and a new life, the show begins a back and forth, person against person angle to almost every single character, making it feel like every character has something up their sleeves.
While most shows give you a bang for a season finale, BLACK SAILS decides to inject its viewer right into drama, with Flint’s crew having absolutely no faith in him, and readying themselves for a mutiny. Putting the viewer into the turmoil right away is effective, providing tension that in truth, never really goes away. Even in the show’s quiet moments, you have the feeling that something is on the horizon, ready to come drive a wedge between a captain with a lot to hide and a past that he just might kill to keep secret, and the men and women whom either serving as his crew or inhabit the pirate haven of Nassau/New Providence. Along with Flint, Silver and every other member of the Walrus, we’re given more than a dozen characters to focus on, on and off of the island. While that may sound like a little too much to some, the show succeeds in the writing of its characters, not a single one of them wasted whatsoever. Governed by the beautiful and thoroughly powerful Eleanor Guthrie (MALEFICENT‘s Hanna New), the island is a place in which pirates bring their stolen goods and sell them, a place that instantly pulls you into the show, making you want to know what’s behind every single building’s doors. Eleanor is so driven to run Nassau her way, that she’s not afraid to stand up to any man, woman or father that stands in her way.
There’s so much character development involved with not only the leads, but even the secondary characters, that every actor gets their time to shine, and they get that in spades. A former lover of Guthrie’s, the deadly and brutal Captain Charles Vance (Zach McGowan, TERMINATOR: SALVATION) leads the crew of the Ranger; Max (Jessica Parker Kennedy, Fear Itself), a prostitute who looks for the big picture, is caught between her secret relationship with Eleanor (and Eleanor’s backing of Flint and his crew) and the idea of helping Silver sale the missing page for enough money to lead a new life. Each resident of Nassau has a story, every member of each ship has a reason for being on their ships, and it’s through the eight episode season, that we learn what those reason are. Characters like Flint’s first mate, Billy “Bones” (Tom Hopper, TORMENTED) and his growing feeling that he may be helping someone who thinks of his crew as expendable, are so fleshed out, that though they may come off as small pieces of the show’s puzzle, they instead are given multiple episodes to grow and come into their own. As a viewer, you’re continually wondering if you SHOULD be on Flint’s side, and as members of his crew begin to question the reason behind their quest, you find yourself going back and forth between which side you fall on. Flint’s fight to preserve his quest and to win (and keep) the favor of his men is continually questioned, with his Quartermaster/friend Gates (Mark Ryan, THE PRESTIGE, Dwight H. Little’s PHANTOM OF THE OPERA) being the beacon of sticking up for him and doing whatever he can to put their opinions back in line, even to a bloody point.
So many choices are made, backs are stabbed, and more than a couple major characters end up falling at the hands of people both expected and unexpected, that BLACK SAILS is easily entertaining, giving the feeling of sitting down and watching one of the most entertaining mini-series disguised in TV show form. It’s a cinematic-like experience that causes you as a viewer to fall in love (or hate) with multiple characters, their agendas and the reasons they lead the lives they do. While some might want more battling involved (there are about three or four ship battles in the season), BLACK SAILS instead focuses on its characters and less on the blowing stuff up approach that the show’s producer, Michael Bay, is primarily known for. Quite an excellent surprise of a TV show and a fresh look at characters that fans of the literature that so many of the show’s characters come have grown up loving, BLACK SAILS is a hell of a time. Arrrrrrrr!
Aside from the eight-episode first season, the set comes with a few short EPK-like special features featuring how the show was made, the costumes were designed, as well as others on the characters’ places in history. While the special features are somewhat short and nothing to write home about, the show itself shines, making it a worthy show to check out.
