‘Our Flag Means Death’ on HBO Max Is Almost Perfect, Until That Cliffhanger

I stand earlier than you completely satisfied that Taika Waititi is incapable of lacking any shot he takes. I’ve totally loved each single mission he has been concerned in, from What We Do in The Shadows to Thor: Ragnarok and not too long ago his function in Free Man.

The brand new HBO sequence Our Flag Means Loss of life is not any exception. This distinctive comedy holds a comedic lens to some real-life pirates from the 1700s. It is terribly sensible, endlessly humorous and deep in methods most audiences aren’t ready for. The solid and cameo checklist is principally Taika’s whole contact checklist, and the sheer irreverence is sufficient to go away you excited about all of it week regardless of the place you’re within the 10-episode span.

Till you get to the ending, anyway.

The final curiosity that’s real-life pirate Stede Bonnet has been the subject of popular culture greater than as soon as. There are a selection of spectacular articles and documentary-style YouTube movies obtainable about his life and why the so-called Gentleman Pirate stood out a lot within the grand historical past of piracy, in addition to a noteworthy look in Murderer’s Creed: Black Flag. Bonnet’s affiliation with Edward “Blackbeard” Thatch can be a really actual factor that occurred, aboard an precise ship named Revenge.

So if you sit all the way down to the primary episode of Our Flag Means Loss of life and also you’re launched to the inimitable Rhys Darby because the hilariously ineffectual Captain Stede Bonnet, it is very clear you are in for a funhouse mirror view of this very actual particular person’s life and all the misadventures contained therein. What I didn’t anticipate, two episodes in, was to care a lot about all of those characters.

Our Flag Means Loss of life begins out a really clear comedy with not numerous room for anything. Unsurprisingly it mirrors vampire comedy What We Do within the Shadows (additionally co-created by Waititi) in some methods, performing as this exceedingly foolish model of the extra intense legends in our tradition. There are even some spectacular shared jokes between the 2 sequence within the first couple of episodes to present these paying consideration one thing extra to giggle at.

However on the midway level on this sequence, there is a gradual change in tone towards one thing extra dramatic. Our Flag Means Loss of life is not only a comedy, it is a romantic comedy. And as you attain the top of the season, that tone shifts virtually fully to the romantic aspect, a lot, in truth, that it is actually extra of a dramatic comedy by the final episode I maintain complaining about.

And if you have not heard from another person, Our Flag Means Loss of life is tremendous, tremendous homosexual and introduced in a approach I’ve truthfully by no means seen earlier than. These are pirates in a time when ships have been purported to be fully composed of males as a result of ladies have been a foul omen on a ship, and these pirates have been at sea for a really very long time. As an alternative of portraying intimacy on these ships as one thing hidden or sordid, they simply exist and virtually no time is spent exploring the why or the how or what anyone else would possibly suppose. Some pirates are homosexual, most pirates do not care and truthfully extra reveals needs to be written this fashion. Waititi himself mentioned it greatest when responding to some early criticism — “It is not ‘bromantic’, it is ROMANTIC.”

To be clear, I do not dislike the final episode of Our Flag Means Loss of life, and I very a lot encourage each particular person I do know and everybody who reads this to look at the sequence anyway. The final episode is so extremely tonally completely different from the remainder of the present that it hurts. It is heavy, emotional materials even with all the glorious comedy round to buoy that depth.

What actually upset me about this season is there is not any payoff: The viewers is left with a very epic cliffhanger. The one factor worse than a cliffhanger is one with no promise of decision, which is a fear right here as a result of Our Flag Means Loss of life has not but been greenlit for season two, a topic that, as Google Developments reveals, lots of people are very inquisitive about.

Your complete season is obtainable now on HBO Max, and if you have not added Our Flag Means Loss of life to your watch checklist but, I can not advocate it sufficient. When you have added it to your watch checklist already, perhaps think about transferring it up the queue. It is a incredible present, and I do not know anybody who does not completely find it irresistible, even when the ending is totally painful with out the safety of a second season promised.