OUR FLAG MEANS DEATH ends the first season!

Avast, pals! OUR FLAG MEANS DEATH from HBOMax, presented by creator David Jenkins ("People of Earth" from TBS), has just finished its first season on the streaming platform and it's evolved into a pretty wild ride throughout its run. of 10 episodes. I finished the show late last night and after sleeping on it and talking to everyone available who would listen I realized I am compelled to write a little review/reaction to the show and my hopes for a season two. When I took to Twitter to see if anyone else was still talking about the show like me, I came across a very active and adoring fan art community that I had to share with you.

First off, if you're unfamiliar with the show or its premise, here's the official trailer:

To say I was interested in the series is an understatement. From the appearance of Rhys Darby (WHAT WE DO IN THE SHADOWS, YES MAN) and Taika Waititi (JOJO RABBIT, "The Mandalorian") I was already hooked. Then seeing Fred Armisen (who is arguably the busiest person in Hollywood; the guy is in EVERYTHING), Leslie Jones, Will Arnett, Nat Faxon, Claudia O'Doherty, Rory Kinnear, Matthew Maher, Kristian Nairn and Samson Kayo really blew me away Once on board I discovered the amazing Noel Fry, Nathan Foad, Con O'Neill, Vico Ortiz, Samba Schutte and Ewen Bremner and marveled at how everyone edge (pun intended) did such a great job on this show.

The show goes where I didn't expect it to go and it does so without fanfare (again, pun intended). He doesn't take himself too seriously although he manages to do a lot of work. When I started watching it, I immediately wanted to like it and I didn't. The reason behind this was Rhys Darby's character, Stede Bonnet. Stede is presented as a bored wealthy aristocrat trapped in a loveless marriage with two children in a mundane life. With too much money and not enough adventure, he orders a ship to be built and when finished slips away into the night with a hired crew, leaving his wife and children with no apparent warning or remorse. Once at sea, he floats aimlessly in search of "adventure" without really knowing what it might entail or how to navigate it once within. He is shy, retiring and prone to indecision. The character needs at least two passes with each effort. It's not that he doesn't always get it right the first time, it's that he's so lost in his fantasy that the reality or the truth or the permanence of his actions and decisions don't really sink into his mind. awareness at first sight. It's an annoying trait that unfortunately causes lasting, healing damage to those affected by his insistence on another take. It's a stark departure from the characters he's played in the past, as I've always found him extremely likable and able to steal every scene he's in. In this particular case, Stede Bonnet may be the show's least compelling character, but the hurricane of her presence allows those around her to really shine in their own personalities. He is the lightning that reveals the souls of those who are in his wake, the fire of Plato's cave that projects against the wall the shadows of the Ids of the secondary character. But for all he offers the show in terms of bringing out the fruit of others, his weakness, indecisiveness, and failure to recognize the devastating impact of his half measures make him immensely unsympathetic. I hate Stede Bonnet.

Stede manages to screw up the lives of everyone he meets, and no more than that of Edward Teach, aka Blackbeard. Once the most fearsome pirate in the sea, he's drawn to Bonnet's childlike pursuit of whatever floats before him, and it reawakens the call to adventure that once drew Ed to the sea in the first place. He is so enamored with Bonnet's inconsequential existence that he becomes enamored with the man, himself, eventually falling in love with him. Stede, to his credit, entertains the idea that he might like Ed, but once again he has to pull back to see the truth through second eyes, which has a heartbreaking effect on Ed. Teach, believing that the man he just confessed to loving has abandoned him, returns to the sea and resurrects his Blackbeard persona, now emboldened by heartache in an even meaner, leaner and more ruthless version of the pirate cold-blooded knowledge. At the end of the first season, Blackbeard is now captain of Stede's ship, with a broken heart added to his fearsome flag, heading out to sea after abandoning most of the original crew on a small island to starve and die in the unre...