dex14

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Episodes 1 of 8

DJariya

Looking forward to it. Still have my Starz subscription.

BTW, for those unaware, this was already renewed for a 2nd season.

Osiris3657

The reviews have been mediocre. Saying it's too talky (critics have seen the first 4 episodes).

E Unit

First episode was okay. Action scenes were good, but it did get talky the second half. But hey, now we know how the name Blackbeard came about...I'll watch a few more, but I'm not feeling this one too much right now.

DJariya

I may be in the minority, but I liked it. Pretty Good start. I'd give it a solid B. I liked the look of the show, including the scenes shot around the Bahamas and the costume design. The water scenes looked gorgeous on Starz HD. I read Jeff Jensen's review on EW.com and I pretty much agree with his assessment. It was a little light on action after the 1st big action sequence, but I think this 1st episode did establish conflict, which is most important for a show like this. I'm sure alot of people were expecting a non-stop swash buckling extra extravaganza.

Neil Marshall, who directed The Descent and a few episodes of Game of Thrones did solid work with "I" IMO.

The highlight for me was Toby Stephens as Flint. Sure he may have been a little over the top at times, but he's playing a fucking Pirate. I think he has the gravitas to carry this show. That fight scene at the scene was pretty gruesome. A little surprised that Billy Bones covered for him. I liked seeing Zach McGowan (Jody from Shameless) as Vane. This part seems tailor made for him.

at Long John Silver's visit to see Blackbeard.

This is an R rated Pirate show with some edge. Takes us away from the silliness of the Pirates of the Caribbean movies.

Boondock Saint

Was honestly disappointed. I'll probably stick with it for a bit but I had the same feeling with this as I did after watching the first episode of Da Vinci's Demons, which was "meh." Hopefully with this I last longer than the second episode.

DJariya

Glad Starz already renewed it for a 2nd season to give the writer's time to develop the stories and characters. This type of show needs that extra cushion. It wouldn't have been fair to sit on the 8 episodes and then wait until the last minute to make a decision. At the very least the show will have 18 hours of story to be told. We'll see if this can break the 2 season curse on Starz on shows not called Spartacus.

GoldenJCJ

With the exception of everyone looking like they just stepped out of a daytime soap opera - especially the cute blonde business owner who looked like she had no business being in a pirate show - I really enjoyed it.

It is an 'R' rated pirate show that doesn't skimp much on the violence or nudity but also doesn't take it self so seriously that they can't inject a bit of humor and lightheartedness throughout. I'll definitely stick with it for awhile.

I like a lot of the future story lines and conflicts they have set up for the series but I'm not entirely sure where they decided that pirate ships were a democracy.

45shooter

No where near enough naked chicks. Bring back Spartacus!

Groucho

I thought the violence was pretty muted compared to similar fare.

uteotw

I really liked it: original, great production/sets, interesting characters etc. I'll definitely stick with it.

nickdawgy

I liked it, too.

DJariya

http://tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com/201...source=twitter

3.5M total viewers. Most watched new series in Starz history. Starz is counting the entire weekend and other platforms like On Demand and Starz Play.

http://m.deadline.com/2014/01/starzs...ils-debuts-ok/

1st airing Saturday got around 846k.

Bill Needle

It all came off a little too hokey for my taste. I would rather see it tell a serious and believable story without the hint of Pirates of the Caribbean silliness in it. Adding boobies doesn't equate to adult storytelling.

dex14

creekdipper

Really had high hopes for this series but am losing interest rapidly. It's not the lack of swordfights, swashbuckling, broadsides, etc. I'm just having a hard time really finding much interest in any of the characters yet. In that regard, it sort of reminds me of Camelot, which was underwhelming.

Why do screenwriters insist upon having the characters in currently-produced "period pieces" talk as if they're cast members of The Hangover? Not all do that..."Spartacus" had copious amounts of swearing, but at least they tried to introduce their own speech rhythms along with appropriate oaths such as "Jupiter's (appendage)!" And Deadwood mixed in their swearing with Shakespearean-style prose.

But the constant swearing in Black Sails just takes me out of the atmosphere. Bawdy literature and songs from that time demonstrate that a different style of swearing was employed...and, used with discretion, could add to the atmosphere (and humor of the series). Shakespeare had lots of "bawdy" (the term itself brings earlier times to mind) dialogue, but think how it would sound if one of his characters said expressions such as "WTF?" Or entered a room and casually expressed surprise by saying "SOB!" when greeting a character (not calling the character the term, mind you). Or talked about the sailors being anxious to go ashore to "get laid?" Why not invent some term such as "get your barnacles scrubbed?" or "raise the mizzen mast" or something similar? And does every other noun have to be preceded by the F-adjective?

Through this type of dialogue, about every five minutes in this show, someone opens their mouth and loudly proclaims, "This is a pirate show being produced on cable in 2014!" I'm not saying to remove all the swearing (and it goes beyond the swearing...benign dialogue often just sounds like a conversation one would overhear in a Starbucks.

Is this just laziness, lack of creativity, or an attempt to appeal to the same audiences that watch cable shows set in modern-day settings? Anyone else notice that and have a negative reaction?

Josh-da-man

This really wants to be Deadwood with pirates.

DJariya

http://insidetv.ew.com/2014/02/03/downton-abbey/

2.3M viewers watched episode 2 this past weekend. Keep in mind again, premium cable doesn't just care about the 1st airing like network and basic. They care about re-airs, on demand etc. They retained 93% of it's previous weekend audience.

Episode 1 has now been watched by over 6M.

I was busy this past weekend, will try to watch this later tonight.

sven

Watched the first two eps today before work and really enjoyed them.

DJariya

I enjoyed episode 2. I think they're doing a good job developing the characters, including Flint and Vane. I think Vane is becoming an interesting adversary to Flint. People are already questioning his leadership and the missing page thing from episode 1 was a big part of this story.

I'm a little confused though about Long John Silver. What is he up to? I could have done without the whole Eleanor-Max, let's run off together, I love you stuff.

The language isn't a deterrent to me as creekdipper said in his very long-winded post. The Producers of this show aren't trying to create a historical bio series on this time period for History channel. I look at it as an edgier re-telling of this tale for adult audiences.

starseed1981

I thought this episode was just as solid as the first. Maybe a bit heavier on the character development but considering it's on premium cable I know they don't have the budget to go out to sea every week.

And yeah, I totally fine if this becomes Deadwood with pirates.

MikahC

5 Paragraphs (versus your 3). It was longer than 160 characters, true, but a post that actually provides context to a reaction based on the overall content of the show seems to me to fall into the informative category and is somewhat more useful than endless posts marveling at how great someone's boobs are or the normal, "I didn't like it." Unnecessary pot shot.

uteotw

Yeah, I appreciated creek's comments. The language seems jarring to me too sometimes, though I have no idea how they talked in the 1700's.
I'm in for the duration, and I'm glad with the story progress in this ep.

Bill Needle

So after two episodes I can see this is no masterpiece, or even genre defining series (much as Spartacus broke trail and lent voice to gladiator tongue). But it seems harmless and entertaining enough, and it might even get better.

creekdipper

Just wanted to say thanks to both you guys since I was beginning to think that I had totally given everyone the wrong impression. I actually started a follow-up post to try to clarify, but it seemed too much like I was trying to pick a fight with him (and I can get long-winded, so I didn't take offense). Also, it seemed too much like Everybody has a right to his/her own opinion. Djaria isn't distracted by the dialogue; I am...seemed best just to leave it at that. And, besides, he didn't just blow me off by saying, "If you don't like it, change the channel."

Just a comment about 1700's speech: Flint & Silver sound about right. If you ever read books like Tom Jones, you'll see that they did swear (and one would expect pirates to do more than the average), but it's not like modern swearing. Some people questioned the same thing with Deadwood (especially Swearengen's and Wu's favorite word), but my problem is with the modern cadences of the speech with some characters. In all of the promos for BS, the producers & actors kept bragging about how "authentic" the show was (costumes, sets, scenery, etc.). Why spoil it with modern-day slang? That works for Blazing Saddles, but that's the point...it gets in the way of suspension of disbelief. I'd say most of us here could come up with some creative alternatives to the dialogue...which, by the way, just makes the screenwriters look lazy and unoriginal.

Ep. II mentioned 'condoms'; while I know that they had sheepskin prophylactics (didn't Casanova help popularize them), it seems a stretch (no pun) to think that safe sex ranked high on the pirate priority list. It's that sort of thing that we found puzzling. What's next...the first mate fretting over income taxes?

The thing is, I like the show to a large extent and would like to see it succeed. We'll keep giving it a chance to see if it picks up. I just don't see how speaking in modern dialects makes the show "edgy"...I'd think that original plot lines and characters do that. I'd like to see more of the Anne Bonney character since she's based on a real pirate.

Sorry to be long-winded again...tried to keep it as short as possible while still giving examples of what I was talking about.