Our Flag Means Death - Thread 5: Ahoy! Surrender! You have no chance of escape!

[TriceratopsRocks]

Hi all!! Roll up for thread 5 and join our chat about our favourite show, its cast, its music, fan edits, fan fiction and more than a little obsessing over our fabulous leads - pictures extremely welcome! It’s utterly brilliant, and some of us are still in the grips of obsession many months after the last episode aired (the last for now, that is… We live in hope🙏)

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. 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, two 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 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, and in episode 4 (the start of Act 1) the tone changes and the main story begins. You need to give it at least that long. It gets better and better and 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. If you like Good Omens, What We Do in the Shadows, Ghosts or even Bridgerton, this might 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
Thread 4:
https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/telly_addicts/5136377-our-flag-means-death-thread-4-roll-up-roll-up-come-join-us-for-more-pirate-obsession?reply=139560831

I wish they would actually show it again on proper telly before losing it on iPlayer. Then I could record it on to my PVR and have it for ever.

At last I found Bageriet, where the boys bought Princess Cake and other delicacies and delights for tea at Stede’s bookshop, in Constellationism. I must have walked by this little lane quite close to Covent Garden so many times.

Top work @mrsbruin

Absolutely! But now I need to post this picture too, to show where I was yesterday...! By a stroke of luck we got seats inside and I did actually have the princess cake - it was yummy! I brought home a beautiful apple and cinnamon pastry and some wonderful treacle biscuits that I'm trying not to polish off today. It's such a shame we were there a day apart, @MrsBruin . It would have been incredible to have bumped into each other.

If anyone is interested in tickets to the New Uni-con (the fan convention happening at the end of June) tickets are now on sale.

www.siren-events.co.uk/the-new-uni-con

I definitely want to go but need to get our summer holiday booked first before I can commit. Basically because I need to see how much I end up spending on that, first. Hopefully this should be sorted this week.

Is anyone else also considering it?

Considering it but it’s dependant on who’s announced really. As much as I love the 5 we’ve already met, a different line up would be clincher for me. (Although I wouldn’t say no to Nathan again!)

First guest announced is Rubio, so there's at least one change from last time. I think we can guarantee Con, but apart from him I don't know if any others will be the same.

Edited to add: I should have said probably guarantee Con. I actually have no idea and am totally making assumptions!

Oh, rude words! I have a wedding that weekend!

Surely the bride and groom will understand 😄

Rhys did a livestream last night in conversation with comedy writer DJ Javerbaum (I think he does the Tweets of God thing). It was on paid substack. Lots of really interesting discussion, but two things to share.

Rhys said he doesn’t rehearse his physical comedy. He just goes with it in the moment. So all that rope ladder stuff in episode one is just Rhys going, right how might this go… mind-blowing.

The other thing that got me was he could see the numbers of people who had joined the livestream and he went ‘Oh, wow… 22 people have tuned in.’ And Javerbaum said, ‘No, it’s 222.’ Rhys replied that he thought it was 22 + 2, as in the two hosts, and freaked out a bit that ‘so many’ people had tuned in. The numbers went up all the time so probably 300 by the end. His wife Rosie was in the chat interacting with us and she said ‘Taking him to the opticians in the morning’ 🤣

They were late starting because Rhys couldn’t work the livestream and Rosie had to intervene. Then she was standing behind him for a bit like his mum making sure he was okay.

He’s so humble though. 22 people want to listen to me!

This is one of the reasons he has such devoted supporters, I expect.
In case you did not see already, Taika’s film ‘Jo Jo Rabbit’ is on Channel 4 late tonight.
Note to self - it is NEVER acceptable to have inappropriate thoughts about someone representing Hitler.
Having them about someone representing a blood-thirsty pirate is perfectly OK though and I share my favourite picture for your enjoyment.

In case anyone has missed the chaos on Bluesky today.

Oh, no. They’ve put my image under review.🤣

The fact that someone had added it to the list of Blackbeard’s crimes cracked me up! 🤣

Oops- mine is also currently under review 👀

My image was reviewed too and it just showed a fully clothed rather beautiful man! Perhaps they’re having a quiet day in the office!
(I thought you would appreciate it, Carter and D!)

The admin must have put additional controls on picture uploads after the site was attacked last weekend by someone posting child abuse images on random threads.

I am here for ALL photos of Ed 🥰

Me too 😉

In that case, it is my pleasure to oblige, ladies...

Ok, the photos didn't post, but I didn't get a message either to say that they weren't going to post (I'm trying the new beta android app atm). I suppose they are still sorting the site out. I shall try again later when I'm at my PC rather than on my phone.

Oh, and if any of you want to watch Rhys' being wonderful as always in that interview @MrsJellybeetalked about, it is for all of his Patreon subscribers, not just paying ones. So you can all gaze adoringly at the delightful Mr Darby to your hearts content.

Edited to add: Ok they did post. Awesome. Oddly, I couldn't post any photos at all on the standard android app, which is why I thought I'd try the new beta which I've been running alongside the old one for a few weeks now.

They have posted and he remains insanely beautiful 🥰

He does indeed 😁. In case you are interested (and because you got me looking back at my phone pics) have some bonus pics of what I think of as "modern AU Ed". Aka Taika...

The fic author The Rose Recovered (I think that's right) has a lovely pic of him with natural curly shoulder length hair. I'll try to find it.

Here is the beautiful Taika getting his much-deserved PGA Norman Lear Award