Black Sails - The best show since Game of Thrones?

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I recently finished watching Black Sails and was really surprised how much I liked this show. Granted there aren't many pirate themed shows out there to compete with it.

Black Sails is a four season show designed to act as a prequel to the famous Treasure Island book written in 1882 by Robert Louis Stevenson. I liked the show so much I read Treasure Island over the next two or three days after finishing season 4.

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At first I admit I didn't think I would like the show, it looked interesting but seems like they were just showing off sex and action for shits and giggles. Once the story started to build though, I was hooked, pun intended.

The show is mostly about Captain Flint, a famous pirate spoken of as legend in Treasure Island but the primarily focus of the Black Sails show. In my opinion, the show was more about John Silver (aka Long John Silver) than Captain Flint.

Like Game of Thrones, Black Sails had a massive $100 million budget to produce Hollywood box office movie quality in a weekly TV show. It wasn't long the budget was increased to $175 million dollars.

I love the story behind Black Sails, it is dark, gritty, and unexpected, something you rarely see these days. Characters have amazing detailed character arcs and you will grow attached to them over the course of the four seasons, many of which you will regretfully see come to a premature end.

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Of all the sex, action, and swashbuckling, my favorite moments of the show were between Captain Flint and John Silver. Their moments of humanity was by far the most interesting and exciting moments of the show. I loved their story and how it unfolded right before your eyes.

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I especially loved the entrance of the legendary pirate Blackbeard and his presence on the show was nothing short of spectactular. Many of the characters on the show are representatives of historic pirates, something I didn't really recognize until Blackbeard was mentioned. I later did some research and found a few key characters have a historic significance.

Some of the characters on the show I immediately disliked although they quickly became my favorite characters on the show. Something I only remember happening once before with Prince Oberyn from Game of Thrones.

If you haven't seen Black Sails, I highly recommend it. It will take around 1 day and 17 hours to watch every episode of Black Sails, and something I really suggest you do. Once you have, I recommend reading the book Treasure Island no long after as many characters from the show are in the book.

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I will say one thing though, the ship battles are epic and absolutely breathtaking. Seeing 42 pounders rip through the hull of a man of war is something to behold. Starz did a fantastic job filming these spectactular sea battles.

In fact, the show gave me a lot of inspiration for a game I would like to develop. Something on the scale of Splinterlands with a lot of complexity. It is a massive undertaking and I am not 100% committed to doing it, but I am actively planning the logistics and dynamics of the game. The more I think it over, the most ideas I have that feel exciting and interesting. A project of this size though would take a lot of time and development as well as responsibility to maintain.

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Until then, watch Black Sails!

All images are from the show Black Sails produced by Starz



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26 comments
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Black sails is old buddy! But its fking amazing! I have seen it all :D

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(Edited)

It was on the air 2014 to 2018 I believe, so yeah pretty old but I am so far behind with shows since I went full time into Crypto. I have a list of shows I want to watch that will keep me busy for the next 10 years. Sadly I will never see many of them.

You read Treasure Island?

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Ye, but its still good! :D

Ohh ye I can imagine you dont have a lot of time :D

I just buy netflix every 6 months or so and commit to a brench month :p

But no I haven't read it

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(Edited)

I hate Netflix ever since they jacked up the price and pushed away from the DVDs. The streaming service is mostly 1970's movies and shit no one gives a damn about. Their originals is where they putting all their money and they usually are meh, but occassional there is a good show or movie like Old Guard that results from it.

Luckily, my cable company pays for my Netflix subscription, so I have it and occassionally use it but it's mostly desperately hunting for something actually worth watching.

Definitely read Treasure Island while the show is fresh in your mind. It's a hard read as I found I understood what was going on but the details were hard to understand due to the way it is written.

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They push the prices up? Its only like 10 bucks or something right?
Well. Netflix is way more convient than DVDs :P

I agree, hunting for new and exciting things all the time is not possible which is why I only come back once every 6 months and I cancel my sub right away.

Definitely read Treasure Island while the show is fresh in your mind. It's a hard read as I found I understood what was going on but the details were hard to understand due to the way it is written.

Properly going to be even harder for me then. English isn't my first language :/

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It used to be a set price, then they separated the pricing for one pricing for streaming and one for dvds (which got phased out eventually). When they did this, they drastically raised the price.

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Ohh. I didn't know that xD
I have only known the 10 bucks price tag :D

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Oh interesting... I remember watching a couple of episodes years ago, and didn't mind it but didn't really stick with it... but it definitely sounds like it's worth another attempt. That second last photo with the smoke looks amazing!

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It gets much better when the real action starts.

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I really liked it too and was also surprised by how much.

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I’m sold. Will be starting this coming weekend. Never heard of Black Sails until this post. Thanks for the recommendation.

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Captain Flint is fucking badass and one of the best developed character on a T.V. show. I've seen Black Sails a couple of times already. One of my favs. Highly recommend watching Westworld and Fargo. Cheers!

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I think that is one I should watch! Thanks for pointing it out!

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My name is Ibrahim, I'm a German living in Belarus. I would be glad if you visit my profile, I'm trying to write a blog about my medical study in belarus.

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Thanks, I need something epic, really miss the thrill of GoT!

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very good description I will have to encourage myself to see it

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I was really surprised by this show and after I watched it I was even more surprised by the fact that it doesn't have the attention it deserves. Maybe it's just in my social circle but I just don't hear people talk about it (not even when it originally aired)

I think it got a little lost at the end but overall it's a pretty solid show and it was a very grateful surprise. One like I didn't have in a while!

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I watched a few episodes of this, but fell off at some point. I need something to watch right now. I'll give it another go.

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This looks like my kind of show.. something I'd enjoy watching

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to be honest after the horrible season 8 of GOT it's not that difficult to produce a better show

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Filmed in Cape Town and along the coast. the set you can see from the airport with two big sailing ships on stands that they use. One of my friends brothers or half brother as he is a Moulton is in the show playing the Doctor. Moulton-Black is his surname. The set is still up so there should be more coming.

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