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://x.com/sambaschutte/status/1850589123175964738

Taika…!

@MrsJellybee I just came to post this! Aww.

Sorry to steal your thunder. Weeping hard over here. I need this edit.

@MrsJellybee ah sorry I meant aww as in sweet not aww as in annoyed 😂

I’m very glad you posted it

🤣🤣🤣🤣 oh, I thought so.

I love Stede Bonnet. Have I ever mentioned that? 🤣🥰

@MrsJellybee I can’t recall, maybe refresh my memory with some lovely pics??

i need to save the rest for a new thread… 😉🥰

Oh thank you for these! I love seeing their reactions. And I need to go to that beach!! It's wonderful that we are still getting new BTS content like this. Samba is amazing. I'll be wearing my Crew for Life even more proudly now 😁

And I love Stede's 'thing' 🫠

https://www.tumblr.com/sherlockig/765307961442779136?source=share

Im away currently and checking in as much as possible. So just leaving this here 🥰

In case any of you are thinking of cosplaying, here are the themes for each night. I’m intrigued by Saturday night!

Oh blimey! Part of me would love to, but I wouldn't have a clue where to start. Not to do it cheaply anyway, as I can't believe an outfit for Blackbeard's Ball would be something I could wear again 😂I'm going to have to think about this one!

I’m just going for ‘nods’. So Blackbeard’s ball purple top and shiny black leggings. Possibly some butterfly accessories. I’m not carting loads of fancy dress to London. And like you say @TriceratopsRocks I won’t wear it again so…

I'm guessing Saturday night might be different characters Taika has played? If so, that might give rise to some...interesting choices 🤣

A lot of vampires, I reckon.

As my aristocratic French wig will still be at the dry-cleaners, I think I might go with some red silk for The Best Revenge… something easy.

I'm not sure how much of Sunday evening I'll make, as I'm not staying over. I'll be doing the school run on Monday morning so haven't booked accommodation for the Sunday night.... ☹️

Gosh, that's a lot of food for thought! Nods seem sensible rather than full-on cosplay

This will be me then… dancing on my own 🤣

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=CcNo07Xp8aQ

Hah, no you won't. Just find some random friendly looking group and say hi. You'll make new friends for the night easily. I'm hoping to hang around for a bit of Sunday night anyway. Depends how tired I am. It's about a 2 hour drive back so if I'm lucky I might be able to hang around until about 9.30pm. That may not actually happen though, depending on how well I sleep on Saturday night!

Honestly, I’ll probably be so knackered by Sunday night I’ll be in bed by 9.30 🤣

I had my first anxiety dream about this last night (me in a much loved but low key crew for life tshirt; everyone else in head to toe leather or satin) and that was before I even saw that there are actual themes. It's like World Book Day all over again. It's the kind of thing I'd love to do if someone else designed and made my costume, but I have zero crafty creative skills.

It also looks like the themes have been changed a bit - a shame as Viago was the only character I might have been able to muster up a recognisable costume for.

Still very excited, despite costume anxiety!

Wow. They changed that last minute. It was definitely the other version yesterday afternoon. Calypso’s birthday? @TriceratopsRocks you can wear your green shirt.

@lizziesaurusx I also have zero craft skills. No anxiety dreams, please. I will most likely be in trousers and themed t shirts with the odd hair accessory or scarf.

Well, DD has a fake leather jacket that she's offered to me for the Blackbeard's Ball night. She's telling me I have to dress up 😱. And somewhere in the loft, in a box, I have a long satiny skirt in a red wine sort of colour that I only ever wore once at a wedding, over 20 years ago. If it still fits it might match the 'Ball' theme. I just don't do skirts/dresses nowadays so I probably won't though. I never wear make up either, but I feel like that look needs lots of black to work, so I'll probably end up in Crew for Life too. Actually, crew for life would match the satin skirt colour, for a totally random and bizarre combination! 🤣

Honestly, I'll probably end up being quite boring.

Exciting change of plan. I'm now staying over on Sunday night too, so I'll be able to see all the exciting World of Waititi costumes that some people are bound to conjure up. Woohoo!! 😁 Those costumed people won't include me though, I'm pretty certain. I think going with @MrsJellybee 's nods to the theme is the best bet. I don't have the brainpower or energy at the moment to make a proper attempt at cosplay, so I'm therefore expecting to be in my show t-shirts most of the weekend. It's good not to be adding to my to-do list!

Thank goodness you ladies are all on the same page! I too am a non make-up, non crafty, jeans or leggings kind of girl. I do have a purple dress but it is wool, and I’m constantly worrying about whether I will be too hot when out and about (the answer is always yes!) 😂 As such, I have just ordered a hibiscus hair clip as my nod to calypso’s birthday. And I’ve seen some lovely butterfly clips on eBay too. I’ll leave proper cosplay to the youngsters/talented crafters 😉