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

Kristian has had to pull out of Strictly Come Dancing. I am sad as I was looking forward to it. Both to watch him dance and also to see how they coped with such a tall contestant.

I hope he can do it next year.

Same here. I'd decided I was going to watch it this year to see him, but probably won't bother now. Far too many other programs to get through (including more rewatches of our flag, of course 🤣)!

I was worried as to how he'd manage anyway though, with his back problems.

That’s sad for him and for us and his other fans. There is a new chapter of Yellow Mustard’s Free Space I think?

There is. It's wonderful. I spotted it at midnight Tuesday night, and was reading until 1.30am. I was a bit of a wreck on Wednesday! 🤣

Such a tender announcement on Kristian’s Instagram.

Oh that’s so sad to hear.

I bought myself a present. I thought Kristian was the loveliest of people when he was at Heathrow last year and the book is written with great sensitivity.
I haven’t actually watched GoT but have now delegated the task to DH who calls me when Hodor is on. I’m not surprised he hurt his back carting that not so little Bran Stark around ( always thought he was called Brian Stark which didn’t seem very rock and roll but Bran makes much more sense!)

Lovely little interview with Rhys here, where he talks about our beloved OFMD. His continued love for Stede and the show is so clear 💔

https://collider.com/our-flag-means-death-cancellation-reaction-rhys-darby/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=bluesky

Another.Chapter! A little Christmas treat.

Just a heads up that OFMD will be departing iPlayer at the end of the year.

Thank you for the reminder @CarlaH. I’m home alone today so am binge watching. I’ve just got to the rather exquisite cashmere and it as sweet and moving now as the first time.

You are very welcome.

My OH bought me a mug with 'Polite Menace' on it for Christmas. I then made him watch Rhys saying it 'live'.

Hello Carla! I'd sort of forgotten about this thread 😳. I sadly didn't get to the end of my iPlayer rewatch and still haven't got around to downloading the episodes onto my laptop. It'll be a job for this week. I will probably buy them on Amazon for easy TV viewing too. The mug sounds fun! I hope your OH enjoyed the original episode quote. I got the red bird robe from DH (well, I bought it, gave it to him and said "this is what you've got me for Christmas, it needs wrapping" 🤣). I have been wandering around the house drinking tea and pretending I'm Stede (or Ed, depending on my mood). Those sleeves are not practical, however. Using the sink is dicing with getting very wet tassels!

The robe sounds lovely. We have to make our own fun now.

I actually didn't rewatch just before the culling because it had got to the stage where I could speak the dialogue along with them. I am sad it has gone though because I am sure I would have wanted to return in due course.

I know it's available on Amazon (for a price!). I know what you mean about speaking the dialogue with them. And there's still fanfic! Out of interest, do you use any other websites to chat about our pirates?

(sorry forgot to tag youv@CarlaH)

HBO Max is coming to the uk next month. I don’t know if OFMD will be available but it’s still available with them in the US so fingers crossed! Although I MAY have an alternative viewing source 😉

Got this finished and framed, gifted at Christmas.

Oh that's absolutely gorgeous! Well done ❤️. I have some OFMD embroidery I am embarrassed to have not started after months of it sitting in my room! But I do have so much show merch now from people much more talented than me.

Thank you, was very tempted to keep it myself. Would love to see what embroidery patterns you have, searching for more OFMD goodies.

I bought the full kit of this embroidery pattern when it was available. Her Kofi has several free cross stitch patterns on it, though, if you fancied doing any more 😁

https://ko-fi.com/s/f5db802663

Thank you, I feel a purchase coming on!

Also some crew cross stitch patterns here, also downloadable for free or donation, as you like...
https://ko-fi.com/ofmdboyy/shop

Amazing, thank you.

If anybody does have any recommended fanfic I would be grateful. There’s such a lot I did just tend to look at stuff that was recommended.