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

Yes.

Please please please let it be in the next chapter. That hotel is perfect 🙏🙏🙏 (yes, I've also been wondering quite a lot)

There was a line in a (very good) piece of Good Omens fanfic I read once that said (while Arizaphale was about to check himself and Crowley into a suite at the Ritz normally used by hedge funds and their clients) something along the lines of "it's best not to look too closely at the things you love." Meaning, he and Crowley love Earth but don't feel the need to know e.g. what hedge funds do.

I fear it may be the same with piracy!

P.S. I didn't know that 'unconditional positive regard' was a therapy term. We're sometimes told to take that attitude to kids at school and tbh, it's not bad advice, because you can't move forwards with a relationship if you're forever hashing up past misdeeds.

P.P.S. Izzy says some very rude stuff to Stede...no doubt Stede has learnt to give as good as he gets. Plus the aristocratic party boat - that's pure glee on his face as it burns. If he was 100% nice he'd be boring.

My favourite part of Constellationism so far isn't the rooftop but when Ed puts the lights on in the studio/workspace and Stede is all like "So how famous are you then?!" and "I feel you might have mentioned the SCALE!" and later "You don't actually work at the museum gift shop, do you..."

Love relationship fics where someone makes a wrong assumption and just runs with it.

@Phineyj I love that too, although have to suspend disbelief a bit as Stede is cultured and well-read, so he surely would have heard of Ed even if contemporary art isn’t his thing.

The scenes with Lucius texting all his friends to come and see Ed in the bookshop are brilliant, and the non verbal communication between Ed and Lucius.

I don't know @BillStickersIsInnocent. I suppose I'm cultured and well read (she says, modestly) but my area is stuff like opera and classical music. I edited the website for a contemporary visual arts body for a couple of years and I'd hardly heard of anyone they featured and the management hadn't heard of the kind of performers I'd consider famous. I mean obviously I've heard of people like Ai Weiwei or Chris Ofili or Hockney or whoever - although I don't know that I'd recognise them "off duty" so to speak - especially if I wasn't looking out for them and there was no 'entourage' going on (Ed is kind of undercover at the BL - apart from the staff who presumably know who he is, but then the BL has a lot of well known people using it).

Some of these culture worlds are surprisingly small and don't overlap much with other ones.

Although that scene with Lucius is very funny. Someone more clued in than Stede would definitely have asked more questions.

However, Shearwater is so good at place description that she can definitely get away with pushing the envelope on some other things. Something I love about OFMD fic - people who actually know Britain doing British settings.

Good point @Phineyj I guess even if Stede had heard the name at some point, he wouldn’t know what he looked like enough to place him out of context. Although he is kind of striking of course so possibly an image you wouldn’t forget in an hurry. Anyway, it’s perfect for the story, beautifully written and pulls on that thread of initial misidentification in the show which I love.

I mean Shearwater’s Stede doesn’t know what ‘Strictly’ is, so I can believe he hasn’t heard of Ed.

My favourite part so far is where Stede asks Ed how to unsend a text after calling him ‘My Ed’. It’s so beautifully gauche.

There totally should be a way to un-send a text! Or a WhatsApp, ye gods.

I also think that 'Ed' while certainly being v attractive, is not unusual in a London context. Lots of dual heritage people; maybe not that dual heritage, but it certainly passes the time at parents' evenings...

I’ve just reread the bit where Shearwater’s Ed reveals how famous he is - he’s had a solo exhibition at Tate Modern and been on the front cover of Vogue. Stede would definitely have a subscription to Vogue! I can just about buy him not knowing Strictly though. Maybe.

But I will respectfully agree to disagree.

But he did know of Strictly, didn't he? He knew it was presented by 'the two orange women'. He'd just never actually watched it. Unless I'm remembering wrong (which could well be the case - my memory is hopeless these days).

Ah, it's all in good fun. We're debating fic based on a show that takes a few liberties!

I give you: Crocs.

I don't see Shearwater's Stede as being a Vogue reader at all. TLS, Sunday Times, the Spectator? Titles with book reviews in. He's stylish but not trendy.

I also found it vanishingly unlikely that the Economist would be doing the photoshoot as described (and I actually do read the Economist). Maybe if he'd died, in the obituary in the back... or FT How To Spend It perhaps.

I know @Phineyj my tone was lighthearted, sorry if that didn’t come across.

He’s so a Vogue reader though, and that’s the hill I will die on 😂

two orange women oh, God 🤣 then he makes a Northern Ireland political joke.

Yes, Stede does know what Strictly is. In the same way I know what Love Island is.

I was with Stede re Strictly until that series referred to. Had to admit my error when I actually watched some.

@Billstickersisinnocent no need for dying on any hills 😂😂😂

We'll have to scan future updates keenly for any mention of Stede's reading tastes.

I liked Ed fighting with showy technology that wouldn't do as it was supposed to. Especially the garage door mentioned only in passing.

Ooh the Outlaws is back tomorrow for series 3. That might take the edge off my OFMD obsession.

Oh IF ONLY!

I love that this photo suggests that, if he grew his hair to Ed length, it would indeed be just like in the show - similar texture. That wig is a marvel though - even in close ups you can't really see.

The wig is amazing! He must have been so hot in there with the massive beard in S1, and leathers and wig.

Well, yes. When I said 'game', what I actually meant was more akin to desperate desire!

I believe that's why the beard (thankfully) disappeared for S2 - he said he hated wearing it not just because of the heat but because he couldn't smile or eat properly with it. Maybe filming in NZ climate in S2 rather than LA helped too.

I suspect my hair would look awfully like that if I hadn't had it professionally dyed for the last 10 years and counting!

Grr, so unfair that men can unquestionably be grey and sexy.

The Mad-Max leg brace disappeared in Season 2 as well. Think Taika was finding it cumbersome. In canon, I presume Ed simply stopped dropping off the end of boats like he does when he leaves with Jack. Can’t be good for the knee-joints, that.

I hadn't even spotted that. He does some splendid running on the beach in 2.8 though so his knee seems to have perked up a bit by then.