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

They haven’t done Ed’s hair yet…

I assumed they were both naked - maybe just my wishful thinking

Gosh we’ll need a new thread soon @TriceratopsRocks !

On it, thank you! I'll get one up this evening

There's taking it slow, and then there's Constellationism!

I'm channelling a combination of Brooklyn 99's Boyle solving all romantic problems by taking a bath and washing each other's hair, and SATC's Samantha complaining that she and her girlfriend do nothing but take bubble baths together and talk about their feelings.

Basically, I also need them to get out of the bath now (churlish though it is to complain about an amazing story written for nothing by someone managing all sorts of other stuff in the background)

... in my defence, I'm only complaining because it's my favourite fic ever and waiting for the denouement is physically painful

I was wondering if Shearwater might be present and flushed out at the ‘Naval History Conference’ (yes, still sticking to that story!) as it were. I had visions of us sitting on her until she promised us an update but then, apart from being unkind, I remembered the lung operation earlier in the year. It’s academic now anyway as she has done it.

I’m just trying to work out a timeline if we continue with three-monthly updates:

Jan ‘25 - Ed gets his hair washed
April - They towel off
July - They have The Conversation™ - and depending on how that goes…
Oct - we might get some light fondling…?

I mean, I’m here for it. The iteration of Ed in particular is exquisite. His mind’s like a lava lamp. I bloody love him. Honestly, when these two finally get there, I’ll need to take the week off work I’ll be sobbing so much.

I cheered myself up briefly with a fic where Stede invents oral sex so if anyone's in the mood for that let me know

The conversation will definitely result in at least light fondling. I can live with this timeframe

Oh go on then 😃

That sounds fun, @CarterBeatsTheDevil ! I'm always in the mood for decent fics. I've read loads lately but the best are from authors we all already know and love, so I haven't linked them here. There's plenty of others I've enjoyed though. I seem to have been through a spate of rather bizarre ones lately where one or other of them is non-human. E.g. mermaids, strange tentacled creatures, caterpillars, moths, aliens... But I can't imagine those will be to everyone's tastes! 😆 But shout me if you fancy some weird and wonderful versions of our boys. For the human variety they've been astronauts, D&D roleplayers, on Grand Designs, and even one where every bartender in town is a different version of Ed 😂

I'll see if I can stick some links on the next thread, but I'm always up for any recommendations you guys have.

And talking of the next thread, I just put it up. See you over there!

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/telly_addicts/5202750-our-flag-means-death-thread-5-ahoy-surrender-you-have-no-chance-of-escape

(over to @MrsJellybee for those pictures you promised us. I shall be eagerly awaiting your latest selection 😁)

By popular demand, let's close out this thread with the tale of how Stede invented oral sex!

https://archiveofourown.org/works/38915679