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 think he’s actually quite shy. He’s honed a public persona, but some days it’s tiring to keep it up.

I have more!!!

How about some Taika dancing?
www.tumblr.com/blakbonnet/733730104901058560?source=share

And similar because it includes Rhys too...😁
www.tumblr.com/mermaidstede/733727724530745344/rhys-taika-pulling-some-of-the-most-embarrassing?source=share

Plus 2 photos of fun with Madeleine Sami.

There's also a post I want to find about a day Taika spent on set (finale beach day) with a young lad who was a cancer survivor and includes 3 lovely photos of them together. It's all about how lovely and supportive he was on the day. Not sure I have time to look now though, so I'll come back to it.

And you may well be right about the RBF. There's certainly a mix of stuff on the BTS photos. I absolutely could have posted a load of grumpy looking Taika pics too, or where he'd been caught with an odd expression. But there's also plenty of joyful stuff around that shows he absolutely was having a good time 😁

This does make sense. I haven't seen the videos you mention, but some of the stuff on the Tumblr BTS thread is very much like he's been caught unawares with RBF and then there's a pause before he makes a decision about whether he wants to stick with that or smile/play for the camera.

I also wonder if he finds it hard to split between acting mode and social media mode. I find him really interesting because I think he puts himself under a lot of pressure to be massively entertaining and is probably quietly exhausted a lot of the time. Rita Ora said one of the things she really loves about him is that he's "wild" and I did find myself wondering how much longer he's really going to want to be "wild" by 30-something standards for. But there's a lot of projection here because I also do the "on"/exhausted thing and I am also reaching a point (at around the same age) where I just don't have access to the same reserves as I did in my thirties.

I will go down with this ship. 🥰

I am entirely normal about this.

Hah! You might be. I may not... 😂

@TriceratopsRocks you need my dictionary definition of ‘normal’. Decidedly not normal 🤣😍

Trailer for Time Bandits 2? 🤭🤣

https://www.tumblr.com/celluloidbroomcloset/761276049553293312/yay-thank-you?source=share

I'd just managed to talk myself out of my crush on Taika as well

Those with tickets, check your emails, guys. The rooms are up for Republic of Pirates. I can’t see much of a saving tbh. It’s £115 a night with breakfast.

The photo bookings are live too. I’m booked in for Rhys on the Saturday. 🙂

Oh, and Nathan’s confirmed!!!

You beat me to it! Oh my God, this is HAPPENING.

Are you staying both nights, Mrs J?

I’m staying three nights ☺️

I was just intending to stay the 2 nights, but to hang around as long I can on Sunday and leave as late as possible. I should be able to leave my bag somewhere once I get booted out of the room. But I'll be on school run duty on Monday morning and didn't want to be leaving by 6am to get home in time!

I’ve been accepted into the Facebook group. Sean who runs it has email confirmation from the hotel that booking through the link includes breakfast so that’s confirmed.

Kristian will be DJing Saturday night! And doing his podcast live on Sunday with us.

Awesome! I haven't been accepted yet, but I shall switch my hotel booking to the convention one. It's a measly £9 cheaper than the booking I already have, but every little helps!

How many of us have tickets so far? I can think of 4 of us offhand (me, MrsJ, Carter, DJ47) but my memory is sieve like!

This is what I'm doing

If they kick you out your rooms at 3pm, you’re welcome to get ready in mine, leave stuff etc. 🙂

Thank you MrsJ!

I'm still agonising over regular or gold ticket... I was also hesitating until finding out how much the hotel rooms are. It says on the website that hotel rooms aren't available yet - do you get a link once you've booked a ticket?

And Nathan - yaaaaayyyyyy!!

The website link still says rooms not available. It’s wrong. I joined the Facebook group, the link for rooms was available there five days ago. 😑You can find the link there. I received an email from Star Fury this afternoon with the link. So yes, you need to book a ticket then you will get the link via email at some point. Or join the FB group. Apparently there are only double rooms, no twins.

And… oh. 🥰

Hmmm…. The photo ops are all for individuals with the exception of Con and Nathan. Yet in the states there’s been two recent conventions where people have a photo with everyone. I want that one!!
On another note, I’m so tempted to do the upgrade to gold ticket. Remind me what everyone else is doing? I’ll book the hotel tomorrow - doing two nights as well 😁

If anyone does want a twin, they are still available for only £4 a night more than the conference discounted rate (with booking.com). I still have my emergency twin booked in case I didn't manage to get a discounted room. I will cancel it at some point soonish (can do so until last minute).

And Lizzie you can buy a standard ticket and then upgrade it to gold, as long as they are still available. I'm still contemplating my own upgrade 😬