(no subject)

[skygiants]

Like everyone else, we have now watched the gay pirate show Our Flag Means Death! This was a fascinating experience because by the time we were watching genarti and I had between us been unavoidably informed of most of the major plot points by the simple expedient of 'being on Twitter and Tumblr' and yet we both still found it absolutely impossible to predict what was actually going to happen between one moment and the next, which, if one is going to attempt to watch an incredibly hyped show in the narrow window between 'hearing about it enough to pique interest' and 'hearing about it too much to ever actually want to experience it', is probably one of the better possible outcomes. Anyway, I enjoyed it very much as expected, although I am still finding it a little difficult to forgive Stede Bonnet for the crime of not caring enough about the dangers of scurvy.



Assuming Season 2 happens, I am enormously curious how the tone (madcap and whiplashy as it is) will be maintained after the events of the end of S1. There's a Tumblr post that's been going around talking about how everyone in the cast is in different genres, with the crew of the Revenge representing a sort of Muppet experience full of zany action comedy where violence is played for sight gags and nobody really gets hurt. I've seen a lot of meta about how Stede provides a safe space for his crew to self-actualize, but most of the time when they're in actual physical peril as it intersects with Stede -- Lucius' infected finger, the Swede's scurvy -- it's generally a joke. Stede is not shown as concerned about the threat to their life, limbs and teeth and we-the-audience (I think) are not expected to be either.

I'm assuming Lucius is alive somehow after the events of S2 in the same way I'm assuming S2 will happen, but the murder attempt does mark a pretty severe genre shift for the crew and I am profoundly interested in the question of whether, after this, their peril will become real and emotionally consequential to Stede & Blackbeard or if genre-wise they continue to be (broadly speaking) Muppets around the protagonists and only real in their own subplots with each other -- though of course as described above trying to predict the tone of the show moment-to-moment is a fool's game in any case so truly who knows how things will play out! Really profoundly was not prepared for the Toe Chomp!

Comments

[evewithanapple]

"THAT'S the emergency? Eat an apple, for God's sake!" has to be one of my favourite line deliveries of the whole show, followed closely by ". . . doggy heaven?" and "You gotta get rid of that, babe!" "I KNOW THAT, BABE."

[skygiants]

"You gotta get rid of that, babe!"/"I KNOW THAT, BABE" is TRULY in the highest of tiers, bless Foad and Maher.

[goodbyebird]

Stede with his fucking 40 orange glaze and his private stash of marmalade!

[skygiants]

A PEOPLE POSITIVE WORKPLACE MEANS NOTHING IF YOU DON'T PRIORITIZE HEALTHCARE, STEDE

[raven]

I really, really want the tone to be maintained, I've decided. The show has this really distinctive tone and flavour as it is and I just don't want it to become a serious! prestige! drama! like I was originally afraid it was? They do such a good job of making you care about the characters even though they live in this comedy universe where the peril is almost always mild and I'm keen to see how they maintain that magic trick.

[skygiants]

I am so fascinated to see how they can keep walking that tightrope! I do not want it to be an inch more serious (or tonally predictable) than it is and also of course I want the rom-com to work itself out but also Blackbeard and Stede's sadness and struggles are so clearly and deeply Real and it concerns me when the crew's aren't ... like at this point I care about the crew so much that if Lucius getting (nearly?) murdered and the entire crew getting marooned turns out not to matter to Stede any more than Lucius losing his finger did I will have a difficult time with him because of how indignant I will be on the crew's behalf, but! also! it is still so extremely important to me that it keep on being funny! It's a very effective cliffhanger, I'm on tenterhooks to see how this will be handled.

[sophia_sol]

I feel on some level like I'm the only person on tumblr/twitter who HASN'T yet watched this show, but I continue to really enjoy knowing about it only from people's decontextualized opinions on various aspects of it!

I have no idea if I could watch this show -- I often struggle to get through comedy visual media -- but I am delighted you and genarti enjoyed it so much

[glitteryv]

Nah, not the only one. XD

In my case, I have no immediate (as in: this year) plans to watch it cuz of my ridic sensitive hype backlash.

[sophia_sol]

ah, so fair!!

[skygiants]

I have been fascinated watching people explain what their initial impressions were from twitter/tumblr/etc. because everyone I've talked to has had a different initial impression! which makes sense honestly, the show does contain MANY multitudes. (I also have no idea if you would enjoy watching it tbh!)

[glitteryv]

[...]'hearing about it too much to ever actually want to experience it'[...]

Sadly, I'm in this camp. My TL went ____@ over the show (and continues to do so) to the point that I've muted/blocked every iteration of the show and its fandom key words; have even temporarily muted some ppl cuz wow. Yays for folks finding something to be joyful about (especially in this darkest of timelines), but their enthusiasm went from 'aww, how cute' to 'super obnoxious' in a matter of days.

Maybe I'll get around watching the show? Some day in the next decade?

In any case, I'm glad you've liked it and, yeah, I do hope that the (eventual?) second season continues the fine balance in tones so that you and the rest of the show's fan can keep enjoying it.

[skygiants]

I think one more week and I probably would have hit that point with it tbh! I'm not sure I've ever seen something take over fandom quite this fast, it's genuinely like a tidal wave.

[aria]

*chinhands* becca becca THE TOE CHOMP

[skygiants]

SOMEHOW

DESPITE BEING SPOILED FOR ALMOST EVERYTHING IN THE FINALE

NOBODY HAD MENTIONED THE TOE CHOMP

[nineveh_uk]

The tone is what makes the show as fun as it is. I think it's why - as usual - fandom efforts to predict S2 will fail because you can predict broad outlines, but not the idiosyncrasies that make it what it is, but I'm also not that worried about the creative team's ability to maintain it over another 10 episode series or two (I would be over 10).

But I'm also not that worried about Luckus being chucked overboard for the same reason. Firstly because he's surely going to survive, so it won't be actual murder, and secondly because I don't really adhere to the Muppets theory. It amuses me when I've seen it about Izzy as the one human on the Muppet crew, to his inevitable distress, but really it didn't stand out to me as a thing, because it feels fairly normal for this kind of comedy drama or sitcom. The protagonists get the lion's share of the 'real' emotion and moments, though the supporting cast gets some, and it is the protagonists whose characters primarily are explored, deepen, and drive the narrative, including when distressing things happen to the supporting cast.

[skygiants]

I both think you're probably right and sort of hope you aren't, tbh; I like the crew and want to feel like they matter to the show and the protagonists! I think I probably in my heart want the show to be a little more of an ensemble piece than it actually is -- like, I would genuinely love if every character got a major backstory focus episode like Jim did, but I don't know that that's really likely to happen.

[bloodygranuaile]

I watched it as soon at it came out because I'd seen one (1) trailer and was like "Hey look, Taika Waititi is doing a pirate show, I love stupid pirate shit" so I went into it not even knowing it was gay and immediately became one of the people being like HEY FRIENDS, THE NEW PIRATE SHOW ON HBO, IT'S ACTUALLY GAY so yeah sorry to be annoying about it but like THE (EXTREMELY LIMITED) MARKETING DIDN'T SAY ANYTHING ABOUT IT BEING GAY