Starz's BLACK SAILS (Season 4 Discussion)

Stoked on the first episode and I like the bright and well saturated cinematography. They are in the Caribbean after all. I like the pirates no need to layer them all in grime, I mean they are only at sea for a couple weeks at a time. The sex though seems forced- I liked the way it was done in Spartacus, but this feels like they took a preexisting plot and slapped some titties on it. Maybe they are just trying to use the Spartacus recipe to a T even though it is otherwise a fairly different show.
 
Update: January 27, 2014

BLACK SAILS Is Most-Watched Series Debut Yet for Starz


Starz-Black-Sails-012714-Dragonlord.jpg


That two-season renewal for Black Sails might not have been premature after all. Starz debuted the pirate drama over the weekend for its biggest series launch in network history. Grossing 3.5 million viewers over the weekend and across platforms, the premiere telecast of Black Sails averaged 850,000 viewers at 9 p.m. on Saturday night.

With the premiere, an estimated 2.6 million viewers watched the first episode over the course of the weekend -- and an additional 900,000 viewers have already been attributed to multiplatform on-demand and online sampling to drive the show to the network record. Though the premiere telecast did not set a Starz high, both the weekend haul and the Saturday gross (1.7 million) set bests.

Starz CEO Chris Albrecht spoke about his confidence in the project earlier in January. "In order to get shows back on the air 12 months after they originally air, they need time," said Albrecht. "These big serialized dramas continue to get better -- the good ones, anyway -- [but] at some point the show needs to make a case for itself, business-wise."


TV Ratings: Starz Posts Network Best With 'Black Sails' Launch
 
Just watched it. Didn't feel it was as bad as the comments would have you believe. Better than the Spartacus pilot.

What I didn't like about it:

Far too many "cool and unique" characters introduced in the episode. Too many cartoon characters. Made it feel unrealistic. One of the good things the Spartacus pilot did was introduce key characters over the course of two episodes.

The amount of accents being used, coupled with coarse and raspy pirate voices, made the dialogue hard to understand (could have just been my lowish quality stream being played on my desktop speakers, had the same problem with Liam Mcintyre).

The crowded storyline (ties in with my thoughts about all the characters introduced). We had
a ship mutiny, maneuvering of a stolen page that leads to treasure, struggling trader (blondie), blondie's love life, this Vane guy and that odd woman with the covered face, the Royal Navy captain signaling war on pirates, etc. It's too much to take in on a first viewing. Did think that the show ended with a great hook for the next episode.

Anyone else noticed how many blue/green/non-brown eyes there were? I was getting lost in all those dreamy eyes.

Overall, the problems I had will (hopefully) disappear as episodes roll on as characters settle down in their roles and the the plot fleshes out. It was also nice to see pirate cliches were non-existent. Will watch next week.

+1 for Blackbeard

i feel like you just read my mind, this is exactly what i wanted to say about it (though in better words than i would use)

the sound problem not your speakers, they had extremely poor volume control, where i had to put my tv max volume to make out what they were saying at points, but then the next scene almost blew out my ear drums. the accents and dramatic half-whispers made it a lot worse. wouldve been hard to watch if i didnt turn subtitles, hope you had them. especially with how convoluted and "crowded" the storyline got.

i have high hopes though, there is clearly a lot of thought put into the writing here, the production value is great and i have no problems with the acting
 
Anyone else find it strange that in the opening scene the cook knew to immediately take a page out of the captain's journal when the pirates were spotted? He knew exactly which page to take out. Which means he had a very intimate knowledge of the book, to the point he knew how to render it useless by taking a single page(not sure why he would be given access to the captain's private journal). Or that he was entrusted by the captain to undertake the task of concealing it, which is strange because he is a cook. Unless he isn't a cook at all.

So what was he going to do with the page? Was he simply loyal to his country/captain and trying to follow orders to protect a mysterious piece of paper? Or was he part of some bigger scheme around capturing the treasure? Either way, he's dead now. RIP mystery cook.
 
Anyone else find it strange that in the opening scene the cook knew to immediately take a page out of the captain's journal when the pirates were spotted? He knew exactly which page to take out. Which means he had a very intimate knowledge of the book, to the point he knew how to render it useless by taking a single page(not sure why he would be given access to the captain's private journal). Or that he was entrusted by the captain to undertake the task of concealing it, which is strange because he is a cook. Unless he isn't a cook at all.

So what was he going to do with the page? Was he simply loyal to his country/captain and trying to follow orders to protect a mysterious piece of paper? Or was he part of some bigger scheme around capturing the treasure? Either way, he's dead now. RIP mystery cook.

theoretically he couldve just been tasked by the captain. was not the only "fragile" story device. like how they let people live, only if they agree to be pirates. then let them go around freely on shore by themselves, not afraid anyone will run and/or tell the authorities, or how the captain got the rich guy out of a house swarming with slaves and guards.

theres more but theyre all explainable and dont really bother me
 
Anyone else find it strange that in the opening scene the cook knew to immediately take a page out of the captain's journal when the pirates were spotted? He knew exactly which page to take out. Which means he had a very intimate knowledge of the book, to the point he knew how to render it useless by taking a single page(not sure why he would be given access to the captain's private journal). Or that he was entrusted by the captain to undertake the task of concealing it, which is strange because he is a cook. Unless he isn't a cook at all.

So what was he going to do with the page? Was he simply loyal to his country/captain and trying to follow orders to protect a mysterious piece of paper? Or was he part of some bigger scheme around capturing the treasure? Either way, he's dead now. RIP mystery cook.

I got the impression that the fat cook was working secretly against the Captain. That's why the cook got violent to John Silver when he threatened to tell the Captain about his secret scroll.
 
I liked it. But my sister watched it and said it was terrible. She didnt like the acting or the story.

Didnt bother me. It has action and boobs. Its no Game of Thrones. But it was entertaining.
 
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really tried to give this a chance but it was so abysmally bad as to make
it unwatchable for me.
 
Second episode improved on the first one. The threads of the story came together and no new characters were introduced. Made it much more coherent.

Did anyone catch why Captain Vane and Captain Flint knew to go to the rocky area with those bums/degenerates to seek out John Silver?

theoretically he couldve just been tasked by the captain. was not the only "fragile" story device. like how they let people live, only if they agree to be pirates. then let them go around freely on shore by themselves, not afraid anyone will run and/or tell the authorities, or how the captain got the rich guy out of a house swarming with slaves and guards.

theres more but theyre all explainable and dont really bother me

I agree with what you're saying. but for the examples you used: Nassau was a pirate port, there were no authorities for them to go to. Also, that rich guy had just been arrested by a naval commander, he didn't need to be smuggled by Flint out of his own home. He was still conscious at that point and had to disappear.
 
I'm into ep2 now. I'm a sucked for pirate lore. The tits and action don't hurt it one bit. Also the story isn't half bad. I don't understand people w/ the assertion that the acting is terrible. The acting isn't the best I've ever seen, but it's certainly not terrible.
 
I'm enjoying this series.


The whole 'New world' is coming theme is in line with One Piece and i like that as well.
 
Did anyone catch why Captain Vane and Captain Flint knew to go to the rocky area with those bums/degenerates to seek out John Silver?
Vane and Rackham knew to be there because it was the prearranged location they
 
TTT. First three episodes are showing some promise.
 
I was kind of hoping for a Ranger/Walrus boat team up. I want Vayne to tag along with Flint and have angry pirate adventures!
 
hmm might have to check it out now. im a sucker for pirate stuff.
 
I want to like this show. I'm staying w/ it. They really need to get to the point though. Get on a boat and go pirating. They're 3 eps in and they can't figure out how to script these guys onto a damn boat and get them treasure hunting.
 
I want to like this show. I'm staying w/ it. They really need to get to the point though. Get on a boat and go pirating. They're 3 eps in and they can't figure out how to script these guys onto a damn boat and get them treasure hunting.

I agree. Though I enjoy the scheming and planning (especially from John Silver), they need to find some balance and present some action.
 
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