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

Oh, I’m thrilled for you! 🥰

That looks brilliant!

Also, for those who enjoyed Does The Body Good, this looks promising.

Fantastic! I’ve been to that museum many times…this would improve the experience considerably for me 😂

I'm not on Tumblr and don't really want to be so, pretty please, can you tell me what's going on in Falmouth.

@CarlaH the maritime museum is holding a pirate exhibition until Jan 2025 and apparently there’s a lot of LGBTQ+ rep including mention of OFMD. And look who greets you at the door…

Oh that's lovely.

Is anyone else reading Nomadsland’s ‘Is Chicago, Is Not Chicago’? (Incomplete) 🥺

https://archiveofourown.org/works/57364063/chapters/145929784

Not yet. It's on my 'marked for later' list because I'm usually too impatient for unfinished fics, but I don't want to forget about them (I have made exceptions for YellowMustard and Shearwater. Those two I read every word, as soon as it's pubished😁)

Would you recommend it so far?

@TriceratopsRocks yes. It’s very good. But my heart is a little bruised after today’s update. I would wait until it’s complete. Just be aware it’s fast-burn sexually like the neurologist one, followed by slow-burn relationship. Initial sexual contact is rather sub/dom Stede/Ed, but that dynamic changes quickly. I like Nomadland’s writing so kept going. She has tagged it will end happily. Some POV chapters from Stede’s kids which are very poignant.

OK thank you - I will wait for now :)

In case anyone else is after more fics, here are some on the first page of my bookmards that I don't remember seeing mentioned on here. I might well be wrong about that though, so apologies if I'm duplicating existing recs. Most are short:

Love in the Place of Cholera: Ed's a steam train conductor. Stede and kids take a ride. Possibly the only fic of Nomadland's where I understand and like the title!

More of the Gravy Basket than of the Grave: Parallel universe. They are sort of paranormal investigators

Gay On Past Morning: Stede is a former child star who meets Ed in a bar

Provenance: Stede visits a marine antiques shop. Past lives/supernatural

Done Deal: Ed is a glassblower. Stede buys stuff (but is still married to Mary).

Something timeless going on: They keep meeting up, from age 20, at times when Ed is back from the sea.

If We Only Die Once: Stede is a sort of ghost who needs to be reunited with his body (modern AU)

Laundry Service: Ed's an engineer. Their laundry is mixed up. Fast burn then LDR.

Once upon a time, in another life, I read books… ‘improving’ ones sometimes ….

🤣 I’m currently reading ‘The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue’ alongside the fanfic. I can thoroughly recommend it if anyone is trying to maintain a balance. But the struggle is real.

@TriceratopsRocks thanks for the further fic recommendations!

@MrsBruin Me too, especially if we're including the earlier works of Jilly Cooper. I feel sad for younger us that we didn't know this cornucopia of wonders was waiting for us to discover it

@MrsJellybee Where do you find the time for proper books? I'm seriously impressed

I have been, but I am reading so many now that I am ashamed to admit that I can't remember which one that is.

I... I may have a problem.

@CarterBeatsTheDevil I belong to a book club so there’s peer pressure involved.

The fanfic you want involves two guys called Stede and Ed. They have a lot of hot sex. Some angst. Does that help? 🤣

Quite often I've started a 'new' fic to find I've already read it but hadn't recognised it from the description. I suppose my habit of deleting fics I'm not keen on from my history doesn't help this issue 😁. It also doesn't help that I tend not to pay attention to titles! But apart from the 2 ongoing ones from Shearwater and YellowMustard I do only read one fic at a time.

Ooh I'm getting excited. It was the first of the Edinburgh shows this evening.

vm.tiktok.com/ZGe7t1uCf/

Doesn't he look yummy 😍

I might have read that one 🤣

Thank you @BillStickersIsInnocent and @MrsJellybee Only six minutes! 😧It's just as well I love him for his mind rather than his looks.

Yes, although I didn't remember whether I'd read it before until I got to Alma's mention of Harriet the Spy. I stopped before after a couple of chapters as I'd rather wait until it's complete. I wasn't keen on the dynamic in the first chapter either, so good to hear that changes later on. I love Nomadsland's writing though - Throat GOAT is still my favourite of all the fanfic I've read so far, and I loved Old Bae Season too.

Well, inspired by @MrsJellybee,I've resolved to take a break from OFMD fanfic and try to read a proper book which is also not about pirates, the sea, or a middle-aged man's late discovery that he likes men. I'm not taking a break from this thread, though - that's too much to ask.

I think my favourites are still Work Experience and Constellationism, if they ever get out of that bathtub, but I did also really enjoy Throat GOAT.

I don't quite know why Throat GOAT got me the way it did. I read Constellationism at the same time and it's so wonderful and I'm loving the updates, but I think not being able to get caught up in reading it all from beginning to end makes a difference, whereas with Throat GOAT you can have the whole emotional rollercoaster in one go. There's also something about that Ed and that Stede that just moves me - I think Nomadsland does a brilliant job of showing how Ed's love makes Stede (as she says when they do the duet) soar.

@lizziesaurusx Throat Goat is one of my favourites too. I particularly like Stede in that one. I really like Nomad’s writing. The neurologist one (old Bae season, is it? 🤷🏻‍♀️) I think got to me even more. The ‘Ed doesn’t reply’ motif and The Long Winter told from Ed’s perspective. I am a sucker for angst and painful yearning. Chp 6 of the Chicago fic updated yesterday broke me a little though. Luckily the writer updates quite quickly, and I’m going to need some healing words.

I’m a little concerned about the inevitable angst and separation we will have with Shearwater at some point…