Our Flag Means Death. It's utterly brilliant and I am obsessed!

[TriceratopsRocks]

I'm sure I found a thread on this series a while ago, but now season 2 is out I've looked back and I can't find anything apart from the renewal petition.

For anyone who hasn't come across it yet, I would thoroughly recommend. It starts off as a sort of workplace comedy set on a pirate ship, sort of in the style of Ghosts, and with a similar fanbase to Good Omens. When the 2nd lead character arrives at the end of episode 3, it starts to change and it only hit me two thirds of the way through season 1 that I was actually watching a very different sort of show to the one I thought I had started watching.

From that point it's phenomenal. The attention to detail is superb. Both leads are clearly neuro diverse, from abusive backgrounds and damaged because of these. They both want what they think the other one has. It's about them discovering themselves, accepting themselves for who they really are, and healing. There is comedy, but also heartbreak and despair. The show handles these so sensitively and accurately, down to minute details, and Taika Waititi and Rhys Darby deserve every award under the sun for their work here.

I don't think I've ever obsessed about a show as much as this one. I've tried to make this not too spoilery in case some of you want to watch it, but really I just want someone to talk to about it! I've already watched it countless times and the more I rewatch the more I appreciate it. I said I was obsessed and I really am!

The show has sadly been cancelled, despite its popularity, and the producers are currently trying to see if it will be picked up by another network. I have read that they are keeping an eye on the iPlayer numbers as part of this, so I also wanted to shamelessly plug it here 😁

If any of you haven't seen it and fancy giving it a try, it grows into itself in the first season and you really need to give it at least 4 episodes (episode 4 is where the main story really starts). Its not a show I would have thought to watch myself (DD wanted me to watch it with her) but I'm so glad I have.

I don't really know what I want from this thread really. I want more people to find it, but I also want to just talk about it and obviously can't do that without more spoilers than I've already given. Help me out people!

They are indeed. And Rhys's youngest son plays young Stede. So even more of a family business :)

I started watching OFMD on the basis of this thread, and my DH and I have just finished the last episode of S2.
Utterly brilliant.
Best thing we have watched in ages.
I've just caught up on this thread now, as wanted to avoid spoilers but now planning a full rewatch.
Loved Izzy. Need to go back and watch him more carefully.
Favourite scene was Stede and Ed talking about the restaurant. Just perfect.
Taika is just 😍

Yes, Rhys mentioned that in one of the interviews and also said his son had to repeatedly run into.the tree as his stunt double didn't turn up (tbh the boys of that age I teach would be thrilled to be paid to run into a tree 😂).

I'm really impressed with whoever did the captioning by the way. They've dealt v well with a lot of complex overlapping dialogue.

@Franklefoot Izzy gets better and better on a rewatch. Especially towards the end of S2, I noticed they were giving him more and more speeches where he makes some kind of philosophical point and he has such gravitas that it really lifts those scenes. Although his comic timing is marvellous too. That bit where they're all captured by the missing nose guy and Izzy emerges from the shadows and asks him if he's Pinocchio.

@Franklefoot Hello, and welcome! That scene was a great one :) Those two are so good at improv. There are lovely little touches of that throughout. One that might be improv but I haven't seen confirmed is the 'tea' scene (start of s1e7) where Stede hands Ed a cup. Ed says "...just how I like it"and Stede replies "a dollop of milk and seven sugars" - then stares at Ed, as if it's Rhys seeing if he could make Taika laugh with that line.

And Taika is indeed 😍. But after (errr... several...?) repeat viewings it's Rhys I'm enamoured with.

Yes I agree. It was a fantastic job. DD came in while I was watching and thought it a weird way of doing it, rather than have someone speak over the video and then play the clip, as she is used to. But I loved the way they did it so that all we heard were bits from the show, and the captions kept adding to what was already onscreen. It must have taken them ages to make. And I think I'm going to have to watch it again, soon.

I’ve been rewatching on my phone, with my earphones in .. you hear do much more: the creaks of the ship, the wind, the cat bell, all the side conversations etc

I've only just started to realise that, very recently. I've often strained to hear the bell in the kiss scene after so many comments about it, and actually only heard it properly last week for the first time (I had an "oh!" moment). But you are right - watching with headphones really does make a difference. It shows how poor the sound is on some modern TVs. Or at least, the ones I have owned! My current watch-through is on TV though, as DS is home and often comes in to sit with me late evening when the rest of the house are in bed. He keeps an eye on the programme while intermittently on his phone. He's sat in on S1Eps4-6 so far. Hoping he'll stay around for more.

I did notice early on, in the very first episode, Stede is reading Pinocchio to the crew. This choice would have to mean something, maybe links to his wish to become 'real', make his mark. Then Prince Richard wants something similar and fails....and remains Pinocchio, and is labelled as this in the final episode, in Izzy's inimitable way!

I loved Izzy's muttered little comments throughout. 'For f**k's sake Bonnet...'

I'm rewatching and my favourite bit is 'you wear fine things well' in S1 where Ed is clearly worried stede will think his piece of silk is worthless. And then stede says his line and Ed looks at him waiting for him to laugh at how rubbish it is (we know Ed has carried that silk for years but stede doesn't) and the laugh never comes because stede is serious. And that's when Ed is lost

I love how Stede says "May I?" and then teases the silk out of Ed's hands, and the look on Ed's face as he allows this to happen. That silk is so precious to him; he carries it by his heart, and I think it probably represents his heart throughout the show. That's what I feel is behind Ed's nervousness. He's allowing Stede to take his heart and hold it in his hands, in a way that probably noone else (except his mum) has ever done. It's such a critical moment. And then Stede seals the deal with his killer line. So romantic. No wonder Blackbeard is lost. I think this is one of Taika's stand out scenes in S1.

Season One was such a joy. Most of Season Two as well (I loved the first five episodes but even with the wonder of Con's singing and the sexy ending Calypso's Birthday doesn't flow that brilliantly) but I am just about to finish my second complete rewatch and I don't think I will be watching 207 again ever (apart from breakfast in bed).

It really is a hot mess and actually made me feel sad. You just can't cut the budget of a show by 40% without making a real difference. The loss of two episodes is just too much for the writers to be able to deal with and, I think I read somewhere, that they didn't get much notice at all that they would be in such a position.

I particularly hated that old 'soap opera' trope of getting people together and then immediately separating them for the most tenuous of reasons - grr!

Never mind, after tomorrow I can go back to episode one LOL.

I will be honest. On rewatch I tend to skip the opening of Calypso's Birthday - the Ned Low bit at the start. But that's all.

Interestingly, that episode is the one that had the most significant rewrites as the network didn't approve the original plot. I read it was going to be about the crew getting fed up of sexual tension between Ed and Stede and giving Stede a makeover to try and get them together. But I prefer the way that episode turned out. Stede didn't need a makeover to make him attractive to Ed, so that part is a bit odd. And what we got shows Stede using his kindness and interest in people to save his crew, really demonstrating how his style of pirating can succeed where traditional 'toxic masculinity' pirating would fail. And we got La Vie en Rose 🌹. If only we'd got to see them dance, even for a few seconds.

Episodes 7 and 8 did disappoint me too, the first time. They crammed so much in for the time they had that several scenes feel too short, like we are missing stuff (which of course we are). But on rewatching I've felt happier and happier with them as I felt I understood them better, and now I really enjoy those episodes too.

Sorry - I do have a habit of writing essays! I just love this show.

I agree about the Ned Low beginning. Given the time constraints I resent it but I suppose we did have to know his MO. It is unpleasant and somewhat boring though.

As I said before I really dislike the fact that Ed and Stede were separated. There has been such an epic story to get them together that I just didn't believe that Ed would leave Stede so easily. I just didn't buy into the whole 'take it slow' thing really after all they have been through and I hated seeing Stede taking on Zheng and getting his backside whipped by her.

Please no apologies. I could talk about OFMD all day but don't have anybody to do it with and my OH is starting to raise his eyebrows when I mention it in any capacity. He looks like I do when he tries to tell me something about golf LOL.

I do understand that separating them felt wrong at that point. I didn't want them to take it slow either! But I love Stede's expression in the 2nd "you wear fine things well" scene when he realises that his own words are being used against him. The previous episode Stede had said to Ed that things were moving too fast after their first kiss and 2 whim prone people shouldn't run off to China. The next episode Stede is going all in for a passionate kiss, and Ed stops him to say 2 whim prone people should take it slow. Poor Stede! Hoisted by his own petard.

I see Ed's going off to be a fisherman as his 'panicking' moment that was the parallel to Stede's in S1E9. He still harbours thoughts that he is fundamentally a bad person who doesn't deserve friends, he sees Stede thoroughly enjoying his brand new notoriety (that Ed no longer wants) and he knows that Stede will give it all up for Ed in a heartbeat. That's a big responsibility for someone who is so lacking in self confidence with such a poor opinion of himself.

As for the Zheng thing, Stede had just lost Ed and was terrified he was also going to lose his new family. I didn't like it either! Maybe it triggered his fight/flight response? Until now, when he's been upset he's run off to be on his own somewhere. So he's trying 'fight' instead (I only just thought of this so it might be rubbish!).

I also don't talk about OFMD much at home. DH knows I love it, but not how much I watch it/think about it. He's enjoyed the soundtrack with me when we're in the car, but he doesn't actually know that's what it is 😂

I suppose I think that Ed might have been savvy enough to think that Stede would need protecting from himself after all the adulation and that he might well get himself into trouble which he did, with Zheng.

Still if they hadn't been separated then we wouldn't have got the fantastic "YOU WROTE ME A LOVELY LETTER" followed by the beach reunion. I absolutely loved the change from the usual trope of "I love you" followed by "I love you too" and instead got the refreshing "I know, I know that" which always brings a smile to my face.

I think my husband would probably be somewhat concerned by the amount of time I spend thinking about OFMD. He has never been overwhelmed by any TV offering. Once watched there might be a few moments of emotion (we watched Atonement at the weekend and that stuck with him for a wee while) but then it's done.

The people on Reddit frequently say that it lives 'rent free in their heads' which really does sum it up for me.

Lives rent free all the time … enjoy this scene pack

Lovely! I thought we weren't going to get the beard scene, but then we did get a snippet right at the end. Phew!

DH had a suggestion for me tonight. I mentioned Basingstoke, and he thought it would be a great idea if I started a Mumsnet thread about OFMD to see if anyone else liked it. Errr....🫣 🤣🤣🤣

That is adorable. Thank you.

Another thank you to @TriceratopsRocks. I have been looking for something to replace ‘Ghosts’ and heard some mention OFMD. I then saw this thread and decided to give it a try.

I loved the pilot, but struggled with episode two. I think I would’ve given up if OP hadn’t said to push through to episode four.

OMG.

I have finished both series and absolutely loved it. It took me a while to understand this wasn’t just a ‘Bromance’. I realised they fancied each other with various levels of awareness during the first ‘You wear fine things well’. But the ‘I never left’ wink and the foot nearly finished me off… It’s love! Pure love ❤️

I miss the show already.

Another one … it’s Ed’s face when he first spots Stede swimming towards him, and he realises someone is waiting for him

Oh, Onions, Taika is STUNNING in that whole sequence. I'm going to be wandering around dreamily for the rest of the evening now...

I forgot to say - my lottery ticket sadly did not win, so I can't yet be taking mumsnetters to Basingstoke. But I will try again this weekend. Fingers crossed!

And welcome @MrsJellybee . So glad you liked it. Do hang around and chat to us - there's no need to miss the show, you can watch it again and again and again, and it only gets better😁

You got me watching more videos of them :)