Our Flag Means Death: Thread 2. Still utterly brilliant and we are still obsessed!

[TriceratopsRocks]

Ahoy there mateys! Hop aboard our ‘safe space ship’ thread 2, where we can continue to wax lyrical about our favourite show.

If you haven’t yet seen Our Flag Means Death, what are you waiting for? Do go watch it (on BBC iPlayer) and then come back here and join us.

You may have heard that this is a comedy about pirates and think that's not for you. But it’s actually about self-discovery, healing and found-family with a love story at its heart. It does begin as a sort of pirate workplace comedy, but in episode 4 the tone changes and that’s where the main story really starts. The joint leads are both damaged by abusive backgrounds and think they want what the other has. The show is about their healing and their respective journeys. It’s tender, romantic, funny, emotionally intelligent and utterly refreshing. It subverts genre expectations. There is comedy, absurdity and a good amount of heartbreak and despair - sometimes in the same scene! The acting is outstanding (Taika Waititi and Rhys Darby especially). But the writing, music, costumes, sets, the sheer attention to detail – for a show with only 18 half-hour episodes it is still keeping us talking, a full thread and many re-watches later. Can you tell how much I love it?

If you think this might appeal, do watch it, then come back and talk to us. It would be lovely if more were to join our crew. But be aware it's a show that needs time. The 2nd lead doesn’t arrive until the end of episode 3 and that’s when the main story starts. You need to give it at least 4 episodes. It then took me several more to fully appreciate what I was watching but then I was hooked - and had to immediately watch it all over again. If you like Good Omens, What We Do in the Shadows, Ghosts or even Bridgerton, this might be the show for you.

(I’ve kept this spoiler free, but if you scroll down you will no doubt find many, so beware!)

Thread 1: https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/telly_addicts/5008593-our-flag-means-death-its-utterly-brilliant-and-i-am-obsessed?reply=135294204

I’m an AU convert. Didn’t think I would be, but I love ‘watching’ them fall in love again and again in different scenarios. And when it’s AU I don’t wince at the dialogue not sounding quite right or feel something is out of place in the canon setting.

I like it when it feels emotionally right, and the small amount of AU I’ve read has been very good at that. Plus we get descriptions of Stede wearing gold-rimmed specs and turquoise Fair-isle jumpers with his brick shithouse arms.

Convert. 🫠

I honestly love to think of them falling in love in every lifetime, and to me, AUs are just me reading about those other lives they might have had. I blame The Tolling Bells :)

The other lifetimes thing also ties in nicely with Plato (as mentioned above) as he was interested in reincarnation/migration of souls (he writes about Socrates talking about it at the very end). John Donne also wrote a long and very weird poem called Metempsychosis about the journey of a soul.

And that now tops my list of hazy random bits of knowledge I would never have thought had even the vaguest connection with OFMD.

@MrsJellybeeI would go alone, but I have the orientation skills of Stede at the end of 2.4.

Go! And report back. You just need a treasure map.

Another favourite - the views from it are spectacular (though my photo is a bit squint).

Constellationism is so well written! Stede's internal voice is just to die for.

And as a Londoner of a couple of decades' duration, it's very entertaining to have the West End so well described (I avoid it...the odd lovely shop is so not worth the tourists).

I’ve just read Constellationism. Oh my God. Utterly beautiful and romantic and sexy…the longing! They feel like two believable, fully fleshed characters within a love story that stands alone. I was dubious of AU stuff but this has changed my mind. I now need a lie down!

And that now tops my list of hazy random bits of knowledge I would never have thought had even the vaguest connection with OFMD.

I'm loving the hazy random bits of knowledge, @lizziesaurusx . And the lighthouses, loving them too.

@TriceratopsRocks And the lighthouses, loving them too.

I fell into a 3 foot hole on the way to this one, just after taking the photo, and ended up having to do the whole of the two hour walk back with one welly full of mud, but it was worth it.

I was only a Londoner for a couple of years, 20 years ago (so it probably doesn't even count), but reading Constellationism really reminded me of the thrill of first moving there and walking round central London seeing places I'd only seen on TV/films or read about, exploring the newish British Library and the British Museum. It even made me want to go back and wander round finding Stede's favourite shops, especially the Bagariet.

It's incredible, isn't it? How can the writer know the characters so perfectly? The only thing that could improve it is the final seven (?) chapters. Although I don't think we'll want to leave the characters there - I hope there will be more stories in the series.

The thing I love about Constellationism (apart from the amazing writing, the place descriptions so good you could actually be there and the laugh-out-loud funny parts that stop I being overly sweet) is that being 21st century AU versions, they have options their 18th century counterparts don't have.

So Ed is somewhat trapped by his fame but still has a satisfying creative career. And Stede is somewhat trapped by his personal circumstances and youthful decisions but still has a lot of fun and nice things in his life.

Good for the 21st century, I say.

And having existed on the edges of the contemporary visual arts world for a while, the photoshoot scene was the best written, touching and hilarious thing I've ever read.

Appropriately, somehow, my autocorrect tried to render 'trapped' as 'teapots' both times 😂.

Great lighthouse @lizziesaurusx. Worth a wet boot.

That's "it" not "I", grrr we need edit on the app.

I love the way the author has captured their inner voices - all those thoughts - I can hear them so perfectly. Although it does mean I occasionally have to scroll back up when one of them answers a question that was asked 3 paragraphs ago 😁

I love how in this version Ed has the good things that he deserves actually happen for him. His energy, his creativity and his focus are valued and although fame comes with negativity and constraints, at least he’s famous for doing something beautiful that he loves, rather than for brutality and fearsomeness. I felt a real lump in my throat when they got to ‘The Teach Gallery’. And Stede can live out his dreams of being immersed in books, libraries and fine tailoring in a world which embraces him for it.

I’ve now also joined the queue at the Bus-Stop of Impatience, awaiting the next arrival of Constellationism. When is it due, please? Taps watch and stamps feet…

It's been just over 2 months. Longest she went was 3, generally it's about a month. So it will be soon.
I live in fear she's going to leave a chapter on a down note for weeks. I was genuinely worried when Stede opened the door to Nigel 😳

Oh but it was so worth it to experience Nigel's comeuppance!

She said in one of the notes that she has the whole thing written so presumably does a lot of proof reading (it's beautifully edited).

I'm in two minds. Of course I'd love to read more but it's also poignant to have them suspended in time in the cosy bar and with no resolution on the bedroom situation. I can wait for Schrodinger's bedroom a little while longer, I think 😍.

Because I am sad and an over planner, I have been pondering at length if they will end up going home eventually in left over hotel branded tshirts or whether they'll have to dispatch the friendly barman to the Herne Bay Sainsbury's superstore for something to wear.

😂

Apart from "Work Experience", which was an absolute delight to read, I would say that I generally prefer the AU fics. I am a bit surprised at myself, but I think as someone else has said it lets me enjoy the story and the characters without getting irritated at inconsistencies between the writer's OFMD and my OFMD. (I really hated the Lord of the Rings films because I had far too intricate and detailed an idea of how the world and the characters should look in my head to tolerate any significant deviation caused by someone else's.)

'Work Experience' is kind of an AU/Canon hybrid. I agree, it's absolute genius. Laugh out loud funny. I'll be reading again soon.

But I need them to have The Conversation'.

And for Stede to finish his 'layby epiphany' sentence.

And Stede to take his shirt off.

Well think how nice it's going to be when you do 😀

I will think on it. A lot. 🙂

https://www.facebook.com/share/v/3G3xdPYyhTNEip9G/

In case anyone missed Samba's BTS. It's on his Insta too.

Oh thank you for this, I hadn't seen it yet. My latest attempt at a rewatch isn't going well - I'm too ensconced in the fan fiction atm, and also watching 2 other shows with DH/DD. Just finished the TdF one (really enjoyed it, although I do like a bit more yearning. And as a cycling fan the believability is rather stretched to the limit 😆). I absolutely adored the narrowboat fic (it's definitely on my rec/read again list). The photoshopped images were just brilliant, particularly the Rhys and Taika ones {swoon}. There are a couple of images I really, really need to find the originals of 🫠.