Our Flag Means Death - Thread 4: Roll up, roll up! Come join us for more pirate obsession!

[TriceratopsRocks]

Ahoy again mateys! Can you believe we are now aboard thread 4? Stick around for chat about this brilliant show, its cast, its music, fan edits, fan fiction and more than 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 and join us 😀

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, three 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 be aware that it's a show that needs time. It’s structured like a theatre production, with a prologue and 3 acts. The 2nd lead arrives (briefly) in episode 3. Episode 4 is the start of Act 1, where the tone changes and the main story begins. You need to give it at least 4 episodes, and from there it just gets better and better. 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. And again. And again! If you like Good Omens, What We Do in the Shadows, Ghosts or even Bridgerton, this might well 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
Thread 3: https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/telly_addicts/5101662-our-flag-means-death-thread-3-its-still-utterly-brilliant-we-are-still-obsessed?reply=137315706

I'm still checking both threads just in case the ultimate fanfic turns up

Evening all! Some of you may remember that @lizziesaurusx and I had tickets to see the filming of a Cryptid Factor podcast in Edinburgh. Well, that was last night. We had a wonderful evening, we both got an autograph or three, and we actually got to talk to Rhys for a minute or two 🤯 Well, Lizzie did most of the talking as I tried to stop my brain from exploding at the fact that I was standing there having a conversation with Rhys Darby 😍. It was both surreal and really special to tell him what Our Flag meant to all of us on here, how inspirational we found it - and personally, that it had given me the confidence to make some changes in my life. He was lovely in response and seemed to appreciate it. He and the other two podcast hosts hung around and chatted to the fans for probably an hour afterwards. We met some lovely people who I can only describe as OFMD/Cryptid super fans, probably more obsessed than any of us! (yes, I know, that's saying something 🤣). It was a wonderful evening and I had the absolute best day 😁. Oh, and because I'm on crutches atm we got centre front row seats! Here is our view of the show...

@TriceratopsRocks @lizziesaurus I’m so blimmin’ happy for you both. I cannot find the right emoji to express this. I’ll send a range 🥹🤪🤩🥲😭😍
And you told Rhys about the Mumsnet Massive!🤯

That sounds like a great day out, you two!

I had been wondering how it went in Edinburgh. I wouldn't be able to cope at all with meeting Rhys and would just have been a quivering wreck.

So glad you had a fantastic time.

There was so much I loved about it and that I keep remembering. Rhys liked my t-shirt and asked where I bought it (Amazon 🫣)! As did Buttons, who wanted a selfie with me 🤣. But just meeting so many creative people who loved the show, with show related things they had made. It was a really special evening. It makes me even more keen for Heathrow now.

I'm going to introduce a note of blatant resentful envy here, @TriceratopsRocks. I want to be you from yesterday! Lovely of them all to take the time to chat.

I'm going to stop talking about it now and get back to the show 😁 Look at them!

Oh I’m so glad you were brave enough to share what a profound and positive impact their work has had on ours and so many other lives. Delighted you both had such a glorious time. X

Credit for that goes to @lizziesaurusx . I just joined in!

Have another pic! We haven't had the elbow touch yet on this thread 😁

Rhys liked my t-shirt and asked where I bought it

🤪

@TriceratopsRocks did it go something like this?

Rhys: I like that shirt
Tri: What? This new thing?
Rhys: You wear fine things well…

🌖

🌊
👩‍❤️‍💋‍👨

Argh where is Shearwater’s update?

I know I sound ungrateful

Well I can report that the Maritime Museum in Falmouth was a couple of hours well spent! Photos aren’t much different to what’s already been posted ( my selfie with Ed involved me standing under the cut out!) All the flags of the renowned pirates were a nice touch, but they weren’t labelled whose was whose and I’m ashamed to say I couldn’t remember which was Stede’s ( though I don’t believe it’s shown in the show). The interactive timeline of the life and notoriety of each pirate was interesting - could have done without the artist impressionof Stede being hung! Blackbeard was stabbed 20 times, shot 5 times and beheaded…. Thank goodness DJenks wasn’t going for their real life story conclusion….. cos I live in hope for the S3 story to be told some day! My fave AO3 S3 story covers the siege of Charlestown and links to RL events much more closely than I realised 🥰🏴‍☠️
Sorry - forgot we’d moved onto a new thread- reposted from thread 3!
Loving the Edinburgh feedback btw! Do we have any more announcements re Heathrow guests??

It sounds a great day out though, DJ47. But if they have a life sized Ed cut out, you'd think they would stretch to a Stede as well. And Anne, Mary and Jack, but that might be a little greedy 😁. I believe I know the AO3 story you mean, and if I remember rightly the author did research the RL events and tie them in quite closely. It was one of the things I liked about that fic. This one by Joannabobanna is the one I'm thinking of:
archiveofourown.org/works/53598247/chapters/135675664

And if DJ had incorporated RL, it had to have been part of a fuckery. I absolutely refuse to believe that he would have done anything other than leave them enjoying a long and happy life together.

@TriceratopsRocks the fanfiction you linked was indeed the one. And I agree, no (lasting) harm would have been done to our favourite pirates in S3. 🥰

You know, it's taken me all this time of referring to David Jenkins as DJ to realise you are also called DJ. How long have we been speaking now? I've said I can be slow sometimes 🤣 Is there anything you want to tell us? 😁 Can we rely on your conviction that nothing bad would have happened to them. I'm looking for insider knowledge here!

@DJ47 Apparently the real Stede Bonnet escaped from prison dressed in women’s clothing. I would love to have seen DJenks include that in season three. I can’t even begin to imagine the fun Rhys Darby would’ve had with that scene and it also fits the show’s vibe.

I love how this obsession fan hobby is sending folks across the UK from Falmouth to Edinburgh!

No, you sound supportive and eager to read excellent writing that has touched all of our hearts. We all feel the same.

Oh that would be EPIC

Hahaha….. unfortunately not! I’m just a very 1970’s Deborah Jayne!

Oh if only 😂😂😂