Our Flag Means Death: Thread 3. It's still utterly brilliant. We are still obsessed.

[TriceratopsRocks]

Ahoy again mateys! Set sail aboard thread 3 where we still wax lyrical about our favourite show, its cast, its music, fan edits, fan fiction and more 😁(there may also be just a little obsessing over our fabulous leads - pictures extremely welcome)!

If you haven’t yet seen Our Flag Means Death, what are you waiting for? Go watch it (on BBC iPlayer), then come back here and join us. But be warned, some of you may find yourself as hooked as we are 🎣.

You may have heard that this is a comedy about pirates and think it's not for you. But it’s actually a show about self-discovery, healing and found-family with a love story at its heart. The joint leads are both damaged by abusive backgrounds and 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, two full threads and many re-watches later.

If you think this might appeal, do watch it and come back and talk to us. It would be lovely if more were to join our crew. But it's a show that needs time. The 2nd lead arrives in episode 3, so you need to give it at least 4 episodes as that’s when the tone changes and the main story starts. It still took me several more episodes to fully appreciate what I was watching, but by 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
Thread 2 : https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/telly_addicts/5076581-our-flag-means-death-thread-2-still-utterly-brilliant-and-we-are-still-obsessed?reply=136060611

@MrsJellybee @TriceratopsRocks It's strange – my friend really loves opera and goes regularly and as you and @Phineyj there are so many stylistic similarities . On paper she should love the show – she’s a big Flight of the Conchords fan and Wilderpeople is one of her favourite films. She gave it a second go, but I’m not certain whether she got very far into the bit after Blackbeard arrives and that made all the difference to me when I first watched. On the plus side I also recommended Boy, which she thought was fantastic.

I guess where she sees sloppy and clunky, I see idiosyncrasies and find them charming 😊 I love the confidence with they’re sprinkled throughout, if they work for plot, dialogue or humour purposes. As you say @MrsJellybee, it’s part of the way the show engages with us – spotting anachronisms, for example, is part of the fun and makes us feel like we’re in on a shared joke. Deliberate anachronisms are there right from the start: Rhys and Taika's accents, as NZ wasn’t even colonised by Europeans at that point (so I guess Ed could kind of theoretically be from NZ but he wouldn't have been speaking English...). And the geography: Stede walking back home from the academy, accompanied only by his (geologically impossible?) petrified orange because that’s needed for a later plot point; the fact that he and Ed can both set off on their own in a dingy and find the crew and the Revenge respectively, but, weeks later, Stede has no idea where the Revenge is. Then there’s Mozart, Pinocchio, fanfiction, gift shops (and leaving bad reviews), Ed’s leathers and tshirt, vibes and pyramid schemes and Nigerian princes… we could go on and on and that's part of the joy of the show.

@TriceratopsRocks I hadn’t spotted that about the rowing seating, that’s hilarious!

Also on the topic of realism and unrealism, I found this beautiful interactive map which the artist calls ‘A Map of Absurdity’. It’s available on Etsy and she’s working on producing puzzles of it too - I'm hoping to buy a puzzle if shipping works out. She’s also done a brilliant timeline for S1which she describes as ‘A Love Letter to OFMD’.

https://ominousrabbit.com/our-flag-means-death-interactive-map/

I love all the anachronisms. I assume they're deliberate. It takes you outside of a recognisable setting to tell a story about love and kindness, but it also messes with the historical setting to remind you that this is not a documentary or a period drama and the thing to focus on is the relationships, not the trappings.

@lizziesaurusx I love this! I have to own this!

@CarterBeatsTheDevil I assume they're deliberate. I’m sure they are. Although there is story, possibly apocryphal, that the shovel was really shiny (I think we see it at the end of the episode), and it kept catching the studio lights, so someone chucked a Crown Royal Bag over it that was lying around. As they are, of course. I mean, if that’s true… 😍

Isn't it fantastic? I was hoping there would be some other map or puzzle enthusiasts on here! The wee clickable notes are lovely - 'Kevin' and 'humble fisherman' on Fang and Ed, and Jeff's Inn and snakery snackery on Ocracoke Island, and Izzy, perpetually vexed.

I love that!

@lizziesaurusx
And ‘Merperson and Friend’ plus the note to the reader about us deciding who said ‘friend’ is. Oh, my heart…

I’m just now obsessing over the Love Letter where they track the Moon phases! This is something I would’ve done if I weren’t lazy. 🤣 I’m so happy someone’s done it for me.

The moon phase thing is just genius - the attention to detail! What a wonderful excuse to watch and rewatch obsessively though.

I love the door of the blanket fort, repurposed in a happier context, perhaps at an inn. and 'a note or anything', because that's so how Ed says it.

What a wonderful excuse to watch and rewatch obsessively who needs an excuse? 😆

I love the list under Captain Bonnet, one of which is ‘Zaddy’ 🤣

I had such a Stede-y day today visiting Wrest Park in Beds. The Pavilion in particular (which is exactly contemporary with the historical Stede Bonnet) is full of trompe l'oeil pillars and sculpture (e.g. painted on to look like it's stone) and there are loads of mirrors! I have visited before but certainly saw it with new eyes today.

@Phineyj What a beautiful place. Trompe l’oeil. I didn’t know that was the term, but the pillars remind me of the Sistine Chapel and the optical illusion with the curtains. Stede would love this.

I want to hear Rhys Darby say ‘trompe l’oeil’ now.

I agree. They're part of the premise of a comedy where pirates with 21C sensibilities meet "real" 18C pirates. I do love that the 21C values win out, even converting Izzy by Calypso's wedding.

It's a bit like complaining about Bridgerton or Plebs for not being historically accurate.

Also! I discovered Bridgerton was filmed in part at Wrest Park (maybe I'll have to watch it). They had an informative blackboard.

I too would like to hear Rhys say trompe l'oeil. Or anything at all really. I'll have to settle for his voice on those Zero with an S radio adverts I suppose. Heard one on Classic FM while I was plodding through UCAS references on Friday and thought I was hearing things.

Although if you did, there's still a Stede version of I Don't Know How to Love Him waiting out there for someone to make...

That looks so Stede - he would blend in beautifully in his pale pink outfit from the start of 1.6, or his gold robe. I loved the Bridgerton Dr Who episode, and am now going to enjoy pondering how a Doctor Who episode set on the Revenge would look.

I too would like to hear Rhys say trompe l'oeil. Or anything at all really.

If you haven't already come across it, can I recommend the Cryptid Factor podcast? Often very funny, usually pretty random and sometimes even informative, if you're even slightly interested in weird stuff. Though I mainly listen to hear Rhys.

https://open.spotify.com/show/6N8YaO6bqGr7RtCMovP4HL

Oh, I’m working on a Stede-version of another song, and it’s a lot more fun. Watch this space 😉

@lizziesaurusx I have listened to some of the Cryptid Factor, but just don’t have time on a regular basis. I do love his voice. I want to bottle his laugh.

Have you see this? Rhys narrates. Starts 11th July. I can’t work out what network it’s on. It looks a lot of fun, but not exactly Attenborough. 😁

https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=I7tnFyG2aK4&fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAR3qwvvMBaF9lzYdVLDNjH_P9Ahxklox0m7qHIIkLPMKHSrWjqowRx0l0FA_aem_jIdBPtnAv7bsartzwatFfw

Ah the lovely beahs!

Shearwater has updated Constellationism!!!

I haven't looked yet but am SO excited.

They'd better not still be in the bar at the end of the chapter

Aaaahhhh. Lovely (just short). But lovely. (And short).
I imagine the next bit will be incoming very soon, given the note.

Re: Constellationism - Would everyone agree to a 48-hour discussion blackout on here? Give people a chance to read without spoilers.

Won't take you 48 hours. 48 secs more like 😀
But yes fine.

It was so short 😢

Seems fair!