Black Sails

Black Sails is a great surprise for me. I’ve always been interested in pirate-themed stuff and this series presents it in a really interesting way. It’s not always about frantic action. Quite the opposite, the plot is full of intrigue and politics, and it works very well. Plus, Captain Flint is played by Toby Stephens, which is another reason for me to be satisfied. I’m not so familiar with the rest of the cast, but I have to give credit to them. They are not trying to act, but really acting, so I have nothing to complain about. I’m just a bit baffled by how suspiciously short John Silver is. On the other hand, he does match the book in terms of sneakiness. This is my review of the first two seasons, I will add the rest of my reviews separately. (06.08.2016)

Very mixed feelings. I'm only reviewing after the first season. The look of the pirates is only average and I'm not too keen on the plot itself, which is a bit of a bummer for a series. The action scenes are okay and pleasantly R-rated, although there were only two major action scenes in the first season, and the sex is also somewhat lacking. We'll see if I'll eventually give the second season a go, but the first one left a bit of a bad taste in my mouth. (22.04.2016)

The villain makes the story. The villain makes the story. And there are a lot of those. That´s for sure. The most rodokaps series far and wide or a dark version of Hornblower's / Aubrey's adventures in the form of a treasure island prequel free of any signs of gentlemen. Yes, at first it does not go smoothly, not even remotely because it is inadvertently ridiculous, due to the fact that the creators do not seem to know whether to follow the path of obvious violence, cheap controversy and wannabe roughness, where dialogs serve purely as an excuse to show goats, lewdness, blood and adultery where the only strength seems to be a magnificent theme music. Fortunately, the creators soon realize that this road leads to hell (the second half of the first season has already been itself in terms of style) and as soon it picks up speed compared to the second season, creators learns from their mistakes, give the characters the necessary depth (especially motivation which was so absent in the first season), so the intoxicating smell of Caribbean rum, the crackling of the spars or the of the roaring of the rising waves suddenly emanates from it. One succumbs to it and doesn't even know how. In any case, the heart of every fan of O'Brian, Forester, Stevenson and, of course, historic sailboats and sails get over-excited. Then it is a joy to jump on a boat full of intrigue, fights, dirt, treasures and power struggles, where everyone tries to outsmart each other (literally) and put knives in each other´s back (literally), thinking of nothing but a free way of life and of course some gold to have a better life. And so one of the most stylish Golden Age series of this format emerged from the ugly duckling, which was initially a parody of itself. No, this despite the charismatic cast (especially Luke Arnold is such a talent that you wonder how come he did not become a movie star much earlier), a great set design, fantastic music or even surprisingly solid dialogs, even in the most foolish respect. It is not quality TV, but still just and only a patchwork of history and legends in the form of a pulp style movie about killing pirates. However, it is such an orthodox pure pirate tabloid movie with all the pros and cons of it that it is impossible not to succumb in a way children. As an adult who read plenty of those adventure novels as a child. And thanks a lot for that.| S1: 4/5 | S2: 5/5 | S3: 4/5 | (24.07.2017)