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!

Such an amazing character and acting. Ed is, genuinely loving, playful, kind etc while also having the capacity for extreme violence and even sadism.

Scary stuff!

@Phineyj Ruthie being his mum is an interesting thought. It had occurred to me but I couldn’t reconcile the idea of her being presented as a pig…

As an aside, Taika is really unfairly attractive with the messy man-bun! And the cognitive dissonance between his lovely face/gentle tone and words and actions is so chilling!

It’s everything. The man-bun, short beard, eye makeup, little string of pearls… coupled with the mania. The breathy, sarcastic ‘bit of panto!’ to Frenchie is hilarious, sexy, heartbreaking and bloody terrifying. Which basically sums up Ed Teach.

I’m sad Stede missed the man-bun. I wonder what he’d have made of Kraken-Ed?

Honestly, sounds as if the organisation was chaos if you read on twitter. Lot of refunds being asked for. Not necessarily for ofmd, but the general vibe seemed stressful.

There’s a picture of Rhys online in that t shirt from 10 years ago. I’m enjoying the thrift, plus the longevity of the mermaid obsession.

Ah, I can't quite read the caption.

I did gather reading previous interviews that he has quite the interest in mythical creatures. I also learnt the word "cryptid" which is pleasing. If I ever met Rhys I would ask him if he's been to the Loch Ness Visitor Centre. I was surprised by how good it was. It really tried to encourage some critical thinking.

@mrsjellybee I didn't mean Ed literally was thinking of his mother as a pig but that it was one of those dream-logic things like when your cat starts talking to you and it's your primary school teacher. Or whatever.

Hmm, how would Stede have dealt with KrakenEd? Probably just got on with it. He's insanely optimistic but not entirely deluded. He knows at some level that the violence is there.

As an aside, when Zheng has got Izzy and the rest of the mutiny-implicated Revenge crew in the brig and Izzy says Let me have it Bonnet, but Stede doesn't say anything back, simply bangs his head on the bars in frustration. When the camera goes back to Izzy he has a tear in his eye. He's so disappointed in himself.

I've also just rewatched those 3 episodes, @PhineyJ. Twice, because I wasn't ready to move on. And I agree about the unresolved childhood trauma. It really strikes you from the start, when Hornigold wants to feed him soup. Taika acts it just like he's a little boy again, doing a perfect impression of a terrified 5 year old. Stede does come into it a bit, with the not lovable and noone waiting for him. But I think you're right about it mostly being about childhood (and also showing Hornigold as another abusive parent figure in his life, even if this time he's actually Ed, and in theory trying to 'help' him process things).

And yes 1000 times to that terrifying combination of beauty and mania. He's his most Disney princess in these episodes. Hair up, pretty, cute, delicate jewellery - vulnerable yet utterly and quietly insane. No wonder poor Frenchie is terrified (incidentally, Joel Fry was also phenomenal in these episodes, particularly the end of Impossible Birds and the 'panto for the captain' scenes).

I'm pretty sure there was a cast card for Mrs Teach. Wonder if we can find her first name anywhere. It would be interesting if it were Ruthie, but like you say it's hard to imagine they'd present her as a pig!

Thank you for trying to make me feel better! And his mermaid love goes way back to childhood I think. His cryptid factor podcast has been around since 2008. I'll have to listen to the first one, he might say :)

Hmm, maybe Rhys has a dozen of those t-shirts. I would! He rocks sunshine yellow and they reference the show AND his podcast. Canny!

@TriceratopsRocks@Phineyj

The more I watch the first three episodes of season two the more unbelievably brilliant they become. (And yes I have left my s1 4-7 blanket fort 😭). I found 1/2 very hard with the change from season 1 tone initially, but now understanding the whole, it’s amazing. And pretty cathartic. I think the Innkeeper is one of the best episodes in the entire show. It reminds me of The Seventh Seal.

I really like your thoughts on Ed’s childhood background, both, and have been mulling a lot of thoughts on class trauma in the show over the last few days. Might post something when I’ve had time to think.

Meanwhile, here’s leather and silk for your Sunday morning enjoyment…

*mulling a lot of thoughts on class trauma in the show over the last few days.

@MrsJellyBee as you're a former English teacher, your use of 'class trauma' threw me for a moment - I had this fleeting image of young Ed in school, chaos surrounding him as he was trying to learn 😁.

Meanwhile, here’s leather and silk for your Sunday morning enjoyment…

They should have been holding hands in that scene.

And incidentally, I read yesterday that Taika's kids were supposed to ask Ed/Stede "Are you boyfriends" but they changed it. Bah!!

🤣🤣 I doubt Ed Teach ever set foot in a classroom. I have enough ‘class trauma’ to last a lifetime though.

I saw that. I like the pirate question though. Don’t pirate, kids.

I also saw that Paul Bettany had been mooted to play Stede. 😱

Wow! Now that would have been a totally different show. I can't see Taika as Ed with anyone other than Rhys. It's their history and genuine love for each other that makes them the perfect pairing.

And I should have added trust in each other too (can't edit post as I'm on the app atm).

Paul Bettany is also very tall!

Rhys is about 5 10’’, Taika is just over six foot and Paul is 6 2’’. The height difference is perfect between Rhys and Taika. I just can’t get on board with a tall Stede. I don’t think Taika would’ve taken the part if Rhys hadn’t. The one followed the other…

@Phineyj The shirt says ‘Mermaids gone wild’

Paul Bettany also does 'dark' very well. I don't think I've ever seen him do 'sunshine'. Ed needed sunshine in his life. Also 'bitchy Stede' might have been a bit too cutting. Saying this, I really like Paul Bettany and have been a fan since A Knight's Tale.

"Mermaids gone wild" 😂

Stede's too well mannered (in the best sense of wishing always to put people at ease) to be genuinely bitchy. Although when it comes to people of his own class...his face as he watches the French aristocrats set themselves on fire is a picture.

I am still in a classroom and with (mostly) teenage boys, to boot.

Toxic masculinity is certainly a useful thing to think about.

Mind you most of my "class trauma" is from a girls' school...

I didn't say in my previous posts, but it's so worth an early S2 rewatch just to fully appreciate the bonkers-ness of Buttons and the way everyone just accepts it.

Roach: "So he really changed into a bird? You didn't kill him?"
Ed/Blackbeard: "Yeah."
Roach: "Still sticking to that story, huh?"

Actually, I could see Paul Bettany playing this scene.

I love Paul Bettany as Chaucer in A Knight’s Tale. It was the first time l ever saw him in anything. Everyone was raving over Heath and I was gone on Bettany. That’s just me though. He’s an amazing actor, but not Stede.

I feel quite sorry for Buttons in that his change into a bird was to provide a framing for Ed to grasp the real possibility of people changing. Unless I’ve misread that which I probably have done as he appeared in the post credit scene, but then doesn’t show up again in S2, except as a bird.

He’s hilarious in fun and games which is an insane episode generally - “you can tell this rabbit was actually quite intelligent…from the texture”

If I might step into the Omens-verse a minute, I remember a director interview musing on a particular scene where Crowley had to do a tricky piece of comic acting in a very high stakes situation and they said "who on earth could do THAT...hmm, only David Tennant really..."

Casting must be such a leap of faith sometimes.

But if you can get two leads with existing chemistry...!