It might even have become a cultural touchstone. Under different circumstances, the show would likely have won more than just the few technical Emmys it picked up in its first season. As a fast-paced tale of double-crossing pirates, sweeping sea battles, heaving bosoms and high production values, Black Sails offers all the sex, violence, intrigue, and moral ambiguity you can squeeze into a corset, or a prestige scripted drama. Then I’ll show you why the main character of Captain Flint (played by Toby Stephens) is one of the best-written characters on any TV series this century.īlack Sails is often compared to Game of Thrones and Vikings in the niche genre of costume action-dramas. Let’s take a quick look at how Black Sails came to be. Perhaps the most impressive aspect of the way Black Sails navigates consequences is that every character’s end point feels logically, emotionally, and thematically appropriate.

How to Fix the Storytelling Flaws in Marvel’s Defenders And when a show’s plot is as tightly wound as Black Sails is, the ultimate result of all those consequences feels inevitable. That’s because, just like pirates themselves, consequences are are unpredictable and uncontrollable. But in Black Sails, even seemingly incidental choices often have massive ripple effects that affect every character on the show. If those choices don’t have consequences, then the plot won’t have real stakes. This is especially crucial in a story about pirates, where each character is torn between doing what’s “right” and doing what they can get away with in pursuit of their deeper desires. I have A Lot of Thoughts About This Show, which I’ll likely cover in several different posts - like this one, which analyzes the show’s various character arcs.īut today, I want to discuss what is (for me) the show’s defining trait: Black Sails is a perfect example of how to use consequences drive a plot relentlessly forward. I recently watched all four seasons of Black Sails, the pirate soap opera series that announced Starz‘s entry into prestige TV.

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