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 absolutely remember Jerome Flynn, and we did start watching that version of Emma a few weeks ago, but we had company and there was more chatting than watching so eventually we gave up. All I remember is that I really liked the colour palette. You see, OFMD has really got me looking at the production aspects of everything else now.

I love Stede’s clothes too! I’m certain they’re anachronistic. I’m definitely not as insane as Claire Gregory whom I cannot believe has made an entire wiki/twitter/rotten tomatoes etc. for her fake pastiche show.

But I am a bit insane. I think Stede’s undergarments are in the Broderie Anglaise style of lace. I did some research and the style didn’t arrive in England until the 19th century, but was in Eastern Europe. So I made up this whole headcanon where Stede raided a Romanian pirate vessel and stole their pretty nightshirts 🤣

The bird of paradise print is so late 19th C. In fact Stede’s whole look at the start of 1.7 is Edwardian Tea Party Lady in which he’s playing ‘mother’ ☕️

Didn’t he do the theme song for the Detectorists? The most beautiful song.

Or am I thinking of someone else?

I’m re reading the eco pirates one, it’s very engaging 👀

@BillStickersIsInnocent yes, he did. The man’s a god.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Q58Gm18-IMY

S1 Lucius is just awesome, I agree. He was such a mix of brotherly-vibe worldly wise advice, (faux) confidence, flair and a lot of sass, mixed with this naive innocence. It's such a shame he lost the lighter parts of himself in S2 but it did make sense. I love early Lucius 'mending' the ship in 1.3 when they first meet Blackbeard - he's just ineffectually waving his hammer around bashing the side rail, not even looking or pretending to actually be fixing anything 🤣

@TriceratopsRocks I was watching that bit yesterday - perfect Lucius I’m too good for this shit and I don’t give a fuck energy.

Absolutely 🤣 And if course it was 1.4 not 1.3. Did Lucius ever actually do any useful 'ship' work on the Revenge, apart from scribing and spade carrying? I'm not sure I can think of any offhand.

I think not, he was absolutely outraged having to clean the barnacles off the hull!

He can count 2 hours 45 minutes or whatever it was backwards though and fetch a wet rag at the same time which is jolly impressive.

Lucius’ sweeping-with-a-broom skills are excellent also in 1.9 🤣

I’d love to have known Lucius’ backstory.

DJenks stirring the pot on X yesterday…

He certainly did 🤣

x.com/david_jenkins__/status/1823516198362861595?t=7RQwRRFyfWaDcibc60evZg&s=19

I came across this interview with DJenks. He talks about Rhys, and how he didn't actually meet Rhys at all during filming, apart from one night. Other than that night, Rhys disappeared into the role of Stede, and it was Stede who was on set every day. DJ felt that most of his interactions during filming were with Stede and not Rhys. He was just emphasising exactly how 'all in' Rhys was in regard to the role. That bit is from about 20 mins in.

awardsradar.com/2022/06/16/interview-david-jenkins/

In fairness @MrsJellybee, Izzy did whittle Lucius quite a nice shark! 🦈😺

@TriceratopsRocks

David: ‘That’s when time stops…and this is flow’.
Wow. One the best descriptions of the magic of this show. That’s it.

Thanks for sharing this. I will listen to all of it at some point. Just to note two more things. David’s Rhys’ impression is spot. on. 🤣 And David’s comments are so prescient in recognising that HBO did not understand the show they had been gifted. In hindsight, you can see the writing on the wall.

True, but it was probably meant to be a new finger 🤣

I love this fanvid (not mine). It’s so Izzy-coded.

Jolene

I mean come on he has no business looking like that.

My favourite anachronism have to be Wee John's fishtail dress, and Izzy singing La Vie en Rose.
(I believe he really did sing it).

One of my favourite moments is Ed having an attempt at relaxing before Lucius pulls him up on his behaviour (although , "you can stab me in the face now" is a fairly iconic line)

@BillStickersIsInnocent one of the many sad things about not getting season 3 is that Gypsy Taylor would’ve had to have ended up putting Rhys in a mankini. I mean, how low can you go?

I saw a great meme the other day but can’t find it now. It was OFMD in the style of WWDITS. Stede was being interviewed saying something like ‘I keep wearing these shirt necklines lower and lower in order to seduce Ed. But it’s not working’. And it simply cut to Ed saying, ‘It’s working’ 🤣

@TeabySea The show’s so shamelessly anachronistic and often operates outside of all logical coherence. I love it.

This wiki entry ‘correction’ for Foad made me laugh.

I think this might be my new favourite picture of Ed. There is no language to describe this. I am inarticulate…

It's suddenly very warm in here.

I don't have many pics on my phone, but I love this Ed pic. While I was looking for the one that's in my head, I found this one of their beach reunion, which I adore. They are so in the moment - like they are the only people who exist in the world. And because it's me, I have to include a Stede pic too. I've just picked one of the ones I have to hand 😁

Look at that… the cat that got the cream 🙂.. (well, he did later…)

@TriceratopsRocks what I love about that second beach-battle kiss is the way Ed breaks off the kiss because he can’t hold in that first ‘I love you’ any longer. He’s starting to say it in that pic, their eyes still closed from the kiss.

It just tumbles out of his soul, unstoppable. ❤️

Gargh! Cannot share treasured photo of Ed manacled to railing. But that's my favourite photo by far. It's in the thread gallery.