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!

Oh that's nice @ExtraOnions. "Il est entre dans mon coeur" (scuse lack of e acute) and quick cut to the below decks snogging ❤️.

That below deck snogging … there is a cut somewhere where it slow-mo’s the bit, where Stede drags him into the room .. and Stede has this massive smile in his face

Thanks ! Was looking for something just like this!
the English chap whose just come on board was in count Arthur strong which is also brilliant

Yes
Rory Kinnear

Well of course he has a massive smile on his face. I mean, wouldn't you?

😂Absolutely!

I have to say that I do find Taika very attractive in the leathers and with some degree of beard. Clean shaven and out of leathers not so much. I don't find him attractive (physically) in What We Do In The Shadows. I am clearly very shallow.

His acting though is excellent, even my husband commented on it which is, almost, unheard of for him.

That's not to take anything away from Rhys who has really surprised me.

…I think Taikia is very sexy in this .. in “real life” not so much.

Saw this today - very tempted

Me too. I struggle with him clean shaven as he then resembles one of my family members!

They are v good acting together. The director (the one that isn't Taika) must have been so chuffed when they screen tested them together, or whatever the appropriate term for telly is.

Gosh, that is quite the table! I am stuck somewhere all morning with coffees but no table to put then on. Could just do with that little beauty. I don't think Stede would have it though. Not Louis XIV enough or something.

I watched Man on Fire (again) last night .. I’d not notice before, the way Izzy said “No Bonnet” in the background when Stede challenges Zheng - it’s very funny

You have to smile :) I imagine Izzy with his head in his hands at that point thinking "Oh no Stede, what on earth do you think you are doing!" Or rather "Oh Stede, you twat" (I mean, this is Izzy we're talking about!). I mean, he's sort of taken Stede under his wing by this point - all that teaching him 'proper pirating' in E5. But poor Stede. Ed has left him, his world is crashing down around him and I don't think Izzy understands just how desperate Stede is not to lose his new family.

And on a completely different note. This is fun....!

Oh now I want to go on holiday!

I went to NZ for a couple of weeks over Xmas and New Year a couple of decades ago. It is a beautiful place.

Well the final two episodes have been watched as a couple. As anticipated I am now feeling rather sad about that. I'd love us to start again but that isn't going to happen.

I did have a sudden thought as I was dropping off to sleep last night about Ed reading the letter in a bottle that the English had been taking the piss out of.

In Act of Grace he had to sign his name with an X. So presumably he can't read! Very glad they seem to have forgotten that because I want him to be able to read it.

I also thought that was a continuity error. Although I chose to explain it as he can recognise his own name in handwriting. And that actually attempting to read through English bureaucrat-ese in the Act of Grace situation would be akin to actually reading Google's terms and conditions, whether or not one was literate.

Neither of them being "read the small print" kind of guys 😂.

Apparently if you were to sign something under duress in those times you made it known by signing with a cross- (or so I read somewhere). So he could read and write but chose not to when signing the act of grace

And I love when they are discussing the small print the English guy goes “or we could just shoot you”!

That actually really confused me too the first time I watched the episode. I kept saying "but he can't read!" as he clearly read the letter. But then I read some possible explanations for it and decided that actually I didn't care if any or none of them were true, just that he could actually read after all, and in that way I get to enjoy the scene fully :) One was that reading and writing are actually different skills, and whereas nowadays we are taught both together, it's actually not uncommon to be able to do one and not the other (e.g. this is really common in relation to a second language). There's also a condition where you can understand written words because you can recognise the patterns, but your brain can't form the patterns themselves - hence being able to read but not write. But the reason I liked best was simply that he can read and write perfectly well, but noone expects this of the fearsome Blackbeard, so he simply pretends he can't so that people underestimate him. I mean, Stede clearly knew Ed can read, otherwise why would he be writing letters at all.

Ooh I am definitely going to use that as the reason.

Ooh I like that explanation too.

Gosh you are a lot quicker to spot the anomalies (or not as it happens) than I am LOL.

This morning I showed my husband the extended scene when they are all getting ready to fight the English.

He had a tear in his eye at the end of it. I think he did like the programme quite a lot by the end.

That's so nice, I'm glad. Now you just have to persuade him that he really does like multiple viewings after all :)

Hmm well then I'm going for can read, can't write...or the straightforward, never put your signature on anything that might come back to bite you...