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

https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/1610566577/limited-ed-and-stede-vintage-t-shirt?click_key=96f823977fefeb685009876f70276557e5a03ecf%3A1610566577&click_sum=dc352f5d&external=1&ref=landingpage_similar_listing_top-1&pro=1&sts=1

oh. 😍

I know what you mean 🤣. I love the Ed and Stede one btw. You have to be unashamedly confident to pull off that style of shirt!

I did buy a Heathrow ticket btw. I got standard, but I expect my finger will be hovering around that upgrade button for the next month or so. That meet and greet is very tempting 😁

As I say to my daughter, one person cuts and the other chooses. If you're doing the rota, Rhys's other wives get to choose.

@TriceratopsRocks I’m simply thrilled to hear you’ll be there. 🥰

I’m not familiar with those rules…

I couldn't possibly miss it! Especially when several of you lovely lot will be there too. Can't wait to meet you guys 😁

Right. One Gold Ticket purchased. I am officially in, though I reserve the right to panic and hide under the table when the celebs turn up.

Woohoo!! 🙌🙌🙌

My finger is hovering over the purchase button. I feel slightly deranged - I'd never even heard of this show six months ago. I could be spending the money on a cultural city break but instead I'll be working out how to accessorise with a nod to 18th century piracy.

Do it! Do it!

But how will I tell my family and friends that my choice for a much anticipated weekend away on my own (finally!) is going to a pirate convention in Heathrow? I'm not sure whether the choice of activity or the location will be more baffling. I might just pretend I'm going to Bruges instead.

Personally I would be tempted to leave out the Heathrow bit as that was the part that made my DH laugh 😂

It's the bit that tips it over into ridiculousness. If he looks up the photos of the 'runway view' hotel rooms he'll be laughing even more. I might have to stop faffing around looking at t shirts and order some heavy duty earplugs instead.

Oh, thank God. I was picturing myself sitting with some very cool, alternative under 25s and being asked if I’m their mother!

We can hide under the table together. C’mon, guys. We need to start a Mumsnet table. There’s approx 10 spaces.

I don’t even recognise myself anymore. Nothing about any of this is me. I think this is the point in previous centuries we women would all have been locked up for hysteria and lunacy.

Now they give us pirate conventions 😁🏴‍☠️

I like to think that Rhys would sit under the table with us

@CarterBeatsTheDevil we can always ask 🤷🏻‍♀️

@MrsJellybee I don’t even recognise myself anymore. Nothing about any of this is me.

It's quite me to get really into something, but never to this extent, or with something that has a convention to go to and a gang of fellow obsessives egging me on. Fandom and fan fiction are totally new to me.

I think this is the point in previous centuries we women would all have been locked up for hysteria and lunacy.

We would certainly tick quite a few of these boxes...

Golly those reasons! I'd certainly be done for. It seems extremely easy to bundle any inconvenient woman into an asylum for basically any/no reason at all. @lizziesaurusx I did find that image quite hard to read so I grabbed the original and am going to try and repost. This one is much clearer on my PC - hope it is for others too. Here is the article it came from: https://www.valmcbeath.com/victorian-era-england-1837-1901/victorian-era-lunatic-asylums/

And because I've now gone totally off topic, I'm going to tenuously link it back to the show with Evelyn - who I think is totally awesome, but who some men might call a difficult woman and want to bundle away!

It's quite me to get really into something, but never to this extent, or with something that has a convention to go to and a gang of fellow obsessives egging me on. Fandom and fan fiction are totally new to me.

@lizziesaurusx I'm exactly the same. Fandom/fan fic is totally new to me, but there are previous shows I have watched multiple times. Nothing like this though. There were conventions, but it would never have crossed my mind to go to one - I'd have thought it a young persons game. Now I don't care in the slightest! Fandom is absolutely for anyone who loves the show, whoever they are. We know how friendly everyone was in Edinburgh. Our shared insanity brought us together! I used to play an online PC game quite obsessively - that's probably my closest comparison. But this show has totally taken over so many of my waking thoughts. And sometimes the sleeping ones too 😂. Almost anything is a reference that makes me think of some scene or other. The fact that I'm even considering a tattoo - my family would think I was totally nuts!

@lizziesaurusx @TriceratopsRocks
I love this list. I’ve seen it before. ‘Novel reading’ gets me every time. I’d have been locked up before age 12.

Also ‘Time of Life’ 🤣 It’s what I blame for all of this.

I am loving this time of life! I spent a lot of time today telling people "Yes, I know that" when previously I would have smiled through gritted teeth. Hurray!

Do we think "obsessive fanfic reading" comes under "venereal excesses"?

‘Sexual derangement’