Our Flag Means Death
Apr. 1st, 2022 05:55 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
wembleyI wish I had more to say about Our Flag Means Death! I really enjoyed it. I was all set to become fannish about it, but it's gotten so huge so fast and big fandoms tend to be too overwhelming for me. :( (I'm surprised I've been able to handle Critical Role, which is massive, but my fannish activity there tends to be... idk, discussing it over text with a handful of people (separately, not together), scrolling through Twitter for live-tweets once in a while while the stream is live (never looking at Twitch chat, though), going on Reddit once in a while, looking at lots of pretty fanart, and going on AO3, saving a lot of fic for later, and then never actually reading it even when it seems really good. Which, writing it all out, seems like a lot, but it feels pretty solitary and low-key; I'm not creating anything, I'm only rarely talking a lot about it with a group, any of that stuff.
(And even in CR, like... I was all excited about Caleb/Essek and then... oh god. It's too much. That subfandom is too big. That's too much fanfic. That's too much everything. So instead I'm the one that's like, "Three Scanlan/Grog fics, really, guys, really?" Even though that's clearly exactly what I want out of a fandom, size-wise. (that was not a pun))
What was I talking about? Pirates?
Anyway, I liked the show a lot. It kind of gave me everything I need so I don't really feel the need to seek fanfic out... or maybe because the fandom is so large, I know I would be overwhelmed by the amount of fanfic, so that made me feel like I don't need it. I love Rhys Darby, I love Taika Waititi. I love Lucius. I didn't like Black Pete but then when [SPOILER] happened I thought that was very cute. Izzy Hands is great.
I've seen it described by a few folks as a "light romantic comedy" and... hmm. I guess my description would be more "strangely cute"? On a scale of Schitt's Creek to It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia, I'd place it squarely in the middle. I mean, guys, ffs, [SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER] Blackbeard cuts off Izzy's toe and forces him to eat it. That's a scoche more intense than the pranks Jim played on Dwight in The Office. People get stabbed through the eye and set on fire. It's not Notting Hill, lol.
But it is funny! And weirdly cute! If you don't know what it's about but have seen it all over your dash/tl/whatever, it's about a fancy rich dude in the ye olde pirate days who decides to become a pirate, but he's very modern/anachronistic about it and is trying to make his crew more progressive/gentle. Around halfway through, he meets a famous, allegedly bloodthirsty pirate and it becomes about their relationship -- Fancy Dude trying to learn to be more ruthless (sort of) in order to survive and Famous Pirate learning to be more fancy (sort of). They get to know each other, things happen. The first three episodes are more episodic and the rest are a little more serialized, though still self-contained. If you liked Flight of the Conchords, you'd probably like it (it stars Murray!) and I hear that if you liked What We Do In The Shadows (movie or tv), you'll like it. (I wasn't into the movie (I mean, it was fine, it just didn't really do it for me) and haven't tried the show.)
Anyway.
Pirates!
(And even in CR, like... I was all excited about Caleb/Essek and then... oh god. It's too much. That subfandom is too big. That's too much fanfic. That's too much everything. So instead I'm the one that's like, "Three Scanlan/Grog fics, really, guys, really?" Even though that's clearly exactly what I want out of a fandom, size-wise. (that was not a pun))
What was I talking about? Pirates?
Anyway, I liked the show a lot. It kind of gave me everything I need so I don't really feel the need to seek fanfic out... or maybe because the fandom is so large, I know I would be overwhelmed by the amount of fanfic, so that made me feel like I don't need it. I love Rhys Darby, I love Taika Waititi. I love Lucius. I didn't like Black Pete but then when [SPOILER] happened I thought that was very cute. Izzy Hands is great.
I've seen it described by a few folks as a "light romantic comedy" and... hmm. I guess my description would be more "strangely cute"? On a scale of Schitt's Creek to It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia, I'd place it squarely in the middle. I mean, guys, ffs, [SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER] Blackbeard cuts off Izzy's toe and forces him to eat it. That's a scoche more intense than the pranks Jim played on Dwight in The Office. People get stabbed through the eye and set on fire. It's not Notting Hill, lol.
But it is funny! And weirdly cute! If you don't know what it's about but have seen it all over your dash/tl/whatever, it's about a fancy rich dude in the ye olde pirate days who decides to become a pirate, but he's very modern/anachronistic about it and is trying to make his crew more progressive/gentle. Around halfway through, he meets a famous, allegedly bloodthirsty pirate and it becomes about their relationship -- Fancy Dude trying to learn to be more ruthless (sort of) in order to survive and Famous Pirate learning to be more fancy (sort of). They get to know each other, things happen. The first three episodes are more episodic and the rest are a little more serialized, though still self-contained. If you liked Flight of the Conchords, you'd probably like it (it stars Murray!) and I hear that if you liked What We Do In The Shadows (movie or tv), you'll like it. (I wasn't into the movie (I mean, it was fine, it just didn't really do it for me) and haven't tried the show.)
Anyway.
Pirates!
no subject
Date: 2022-04-04 07:47 pm (UTC)It's a rom-com but it's also melancholy right from the beginning, when Stede is thinking about deserting his wife and children.
no subject
Date: 2022-04-08 08:50 pm (UTC)And yeah, I agree, it's definitely a blend of tones.
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Date: 2022-05-01 06:04 pm (UTC)Really enjoyed Our Flag Means Death, especially the way it was set up as a romance in the same way soooo many series and movies before it have set up "bromances", but I too feel pretty satisfied with what I've seen, so I've only looked at fanart here and there, not really engaged with fic or meta. That said, I might do that if we don't get a season 2 (though if we don't get one, I'll start wondering why HBO doesn't want to make money).
no subject
Date: 2022-09-12 07:06 am (UTC)I love the phrase "making fandom small for myself"!
And yes, I also loved the way they set up the romance in a way that we didn't think they'd go there... and then they did, surprise! :D
no subject
Date: 2022-09-12 06:19 pm (UTC)I love the phrase "making fandom small for myself"!
Thank you, I'm pretty happy with that phrasing :D <3 I've realized, as I've gotten old(er), that there's no way I can keep up with Everyone who likes the same things as I do, even the ones I completely sync with, so I find it best to instead invest energy in those people and things I can make time for :)
I'm still amused by how confused the showrunner seemed at first that the audience were doubting there would be a romance XD Poor man had no clear idea of how many times the world has been queerbaited before. So glad for the happy surprise of an actual romance!