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

Hoping... I mean who could resist this sweet face?

@lizziesaurusx all three are lovely to me in very different ways.

Been a bit peaky today so blanket-forting. This dropped in my in-box. It’s 1/3. I think it’s completed. Updates promised Weds and Friday this week.

Anyway it’s cute.

https://archiveofourown.org/bookmarks/1832912143

(and yes, god save us all from Adrian Chiles’ editorial titles 🙈)

I just can’t anymore with this man… 😍

I hope the blanket fort/fanfic day is doing the trick. That fic looks very tempting, though I'd never have suspected Adrian Chiles would provide the inspiration for an OFMD fic. Isn't veeagainst the Mile High writer? I loved that.

I think that’s the same writer. Stede’s a newspaper editor. His titles are Chiles-cheesy 🤣. It’s not so much Chiles as inspiration as a recent Guardian piece about middle-aged crushes which inspired the fic. The writers link to it.

I mean, we’re all suffering from middle-aged crushes here, I think 😁

I just had a quick look at the real Guardian piece you mentioned and the author describes a midlife crush as 'rare' - certainly plenty of them round here!!

I have, to my surprise, developed a bit of a thing for Taskmaster’s Greg Davies too…. initial research suggests I am not alone. I suggest that the Guardian article author is misguided!

I know! It seems mad to describe middle aged crushes as rare. Has the journalist met any middle aged people? I mean, mid life crises are famous, right? And I'm sure footage going back to Elvis and the Beatles shows middle aged women flinging themselves at the stars. Crushes rare, bah!!!

And yes to veeagainst being the Mile High author. They have 36 OFMD fics and I have bookmarked several as favourites (I subscribe to their fics). I'm not starting any unfinished fics at the moment though. I have quite a few in my 'marked for later' list where I am keeping a close eye on the chapter count, waiting until they are complete.

@MrsBruin I suggest that the Guardian article author is misguided!

Misguided or more like missing out. though I could do with all the time and brainspace back, sometimes it's exhausting.

@TriceratopsRocks Has the journalist met any middle aged people?

She certainly hasn't met our pirates!

I was thinking about this last night as we’re half way through our umpteenth rewatch of Lord of the Rings, requested by my younger son. Other than our show, it’s probably the closest I’ve ever got in terms of fandom – read all the books as a teenager, was so excited to hear the films were being made, adore the films, plus a crush on Aragorn in both the books and the films, though nothing like the extent of my crush on Ed. It was also the start of an enduring crush on New Zealand, which I still haven’t managed to visit. When the films came out I found as many clips, interviews etc as I could but the internet was younger then and I don’t think youtube or AO3 existed, and I wasn’t at stage in my life when I could’ve gone to conventions anyway. But comparing the two made me feel that my emotional reaction to this show is of a different intensity and I wonder whether that’s partly being in midlife, because it seems to resonate so much? Or that there’s just more content around compared to when LOTR came out so we can constantly feed our obsession?

@lizziesaurusx I think there’s definitely a feedback loop / echo chamber effect with modern fandoms which increases their intensity. I mean, being part of the OFMD fandom could be a full-time unpaid job. I think it is for some folk. It wouldn’t have been possible to be so excessively involved to this degree 15-20 years ago. Social media definitely allows for a continued dopamine high. Coupled with peri/menopause…

Absolutely social media and 24 hour connectivity has changed a lot of things. It was years after getting into Buffy that I discovered fan fiction was even a thing. Now we have a constant drip drip drip feeding our addictions, whatever they are. There are fic writers who post lots of stories and are also active every day on Tumblr/X. I just don't see how it's possible for some of them to have a paid job as well. But I suppose it's different if you are young and don't have family responsibilities - your evenings are entirely your own. And us middle aged lot are perhaps just getting our own lives back after raising families. There's no way I could have engaged with the show like this even just a couple of years ago. But after 20+ years run ragged looking after kids, focussing almost entirely on others, it's perhaps not surprising that the first real obsession I've been in a position to indulge is with a show that has a whole message of it never being too late to follow your own dreams and to find and the person you want to be.

On a totally different topic, I don't know if anyone else has been playing the Taika 2048 game? If so, this is the fic that inspired me to try it. I have seen all the Taika pics now, and a high score I should probably be ashamed of 🤣.

archiveofourown.org/works/56385268/chapters/143267560

@MrsJellybee @TriceratopsRocks You’re both so right – the dopamine high from fan fiction, clips, fan vids etc is available 24/7 and it’s so hard to switch off when we can have a constant and seemingly endless supply to keep it topped up. That level of intensity and the sheer quantity (30,000+ OFMD fanfics is just mindboggling) wasn’t an option 15/20 years ago, and personally I wouldn’t have had the time to engage at any level. Plus for many of us peri/menopausal hormones definitely raise the emotional intensity of everything now.

I’ve just looked up LOTR on AO3 to see what I’ve been missing, but don’t feel drawn to exploring Middle Earth that way. Out of curiosity though I looked up my childhood obsession (The Dark is Rising sequence by Susan Cooper – not much overlap with OFMD but utterly wonderful nonetheless). I’m amazed to see there are 328 fictions! I always wanted to know what could’ve happen after that story ended and now I finally can find out.

@TriceratopsRocks It's perhaps not surprising that the first real obsession I've been in a position to indulge is with a show that has a whole message of it never being too late to follow your own dreams and to find and the person you want to be.

Beautifully put. This show about not being frightened to try to be true to yourself has come along at just the right time – I’m so grateful.

I don't want to distract from OFMD, but this is actually a very sweet, non-smutty Good Omens fic that I really enjoyed reading

archiveofourown.org/works/23380195/chapters/78923071#workskin

Thank you Carter, I'll definitely take a look at that. I have so far only read OFMD fan fic, but am happy to branch out just a little 😀. DD caught me reading some yesterday. All I can say is, thank goodness I'd just moved to the next chapter... 🥵 Luckily she didn't see anything she shouldn't! But she did want to see some so I sent her a few links. She's not normally into lovey dovey romance stuff, so I'm sure she'll hate it!!! 🤣

I’ve read an actual book recently, The Citadel by AJ Cronin, which was the inspiration for the founding of the NHS according to the cover. It was a bit like All Creatures Great and Small but less bucolic.
it was a real struggle not to go to bed with our boys, so to speak and I returned to fanfic with Foxtails’ fire watchers stories which smacked me right in the solar plexus.
As a result I felt the need to buy a ticket for a conference on 18th century naval history. A perfectly normal later life interest and the reason any visitors to London get steered towards the Maritime Museum in Greenwich. The conference will be a very learned affair with formal dress possibly required and will take place at The Renaissance Hotel in Heathrow in late November.

Woohoohoo!!! That's wonderful MrsB. That makes 6 of us now. See you there 😀

And well done for reading an actual book! Were you channelling your inner Stede as you did so?

https://www.tumblr.com/ofmd-ann/762813492864630784?source=share

David has been catching up with one of the other executive producers….. another hint of things to come?! 👀🙏 (Hope the link works! 😉)

I found it!

Actually I’d given up, and the Twitter gods delivered it to me this morning.

@MrsBruin So glad you’re coming to Heathrow! Mumsnet invasion 🙂

@BillStickersIsInnocent I saw that for the first time yesterday. What a pic! 🥵🥰

@DJ47 Oh, I just can’t anymore with this… it’s the hope that kills you. Stop toying with us, David. 🦄

@BillStickersIsInnocent that is truly a wonderful picture. I adore it. Now downloaded 😁

And @DJ47 I'm really trying but all these possible hints have me convinced that it's only a matter of time. I know that's absolutely a recipe for disappointment, but I can't help feeling positive!

Soooo, my theory….. the show was trending on the anniversary of the S2 trailer dropping. The anniversary of S2 coming out will be 5th October. Place your bets on what’s gonna happen?! 🤡🏴‍☠️😏

I love that theory! He can't be toying with us, surely?! Three clear hints would just be cruel 🏴‍☠️🍊And what's up with Samba and the roaches?

Hah! I'm not betting. That seems like setting myself up for disappointment! But I can manage cautiously optimistic for some point in the future, as yet totally unspecified 😁