January Meme: My Favourite Black Sails Things
Let's start with a frivolous observation: I haven't read the Percy Jackson books, nor have I watched the two movies (though I osmosed the book fandom hated them, by and large), but I do follow the tv daption currently being shown at Disney +, and last week's episode - which belatedly also told me two of the producers were the Black Sails PTB (i.e. Jonathan Steinberg and Robert Levine) - made me sit up and gurgle in delight when I saw whom they had cast as Poseidon. Why? Because more than one Black Sails fanfic I'd come across actually had gone with a similar idea.
And that's all I have to say on that casting, she observes mysteriiously. :)
Okay, more seriously now. It's been a while since my last rewatch, but Black Sails is still a show I adore. Do I have some nitpicks? Sure. But not nearly enough to lessen the fannish love. I love the way how almost every character, whether minor or major, is interesting to me, regardless as to whether or not I like them. I love how 99% - okay, 98% - another shows would not have brought a character like Charlotte again afterAnne kills her in her big existential crisis. If Anne were a male character, you could have made - at the time - a case for this being a variation of fridging - Charlotte's death has nothing to do with her and all with Anne, it's random, it simply happens to illustrate how desperate and out of control and conditioned to violence Anne in her big identity crisis is.) But in this show, not only does Idelle get to make a point to Max at the time about how this death makes all the other women in the brothel feel unsafe that's sound and doesn't get ignored by the overall narrative - while Max also gets to make a point about why she's protecting Anne in response - , but we get a call back to Charlotte and her death by Idelle to Anne directly in season 4, two years in later, which isn't random but important to to Anne's and Max' storylines.This respect for its minor characters as more than canon fodder, this remembering people not in the credits are no less human, is one of Black Sails' best qualities.
Mind you: if I didn't love the major characters, said respect wouldn't be enough to make me love the show, either. But I do love (most of) them. Not everyone in the same degree, or even always in the same way, but I do, and I love how without going overboard with the meta at the expense of the characters Black Sails is among other things brilliant meta about storytelling - and story tellers.
And the tasty, tasty character development. I love how the show kept surprising me in a good way with that. For example: Max' relationship with Eleanor. In the first three episodes of season 1, when they're lovers, all the need for presentation in the world wouldnl't have made me ship them, because it seemed too uneven to me, in every sense - uneven social standing, uneven emotional investment by both parties, you name it, it's there. At the time, I did think Max/Eleanor was there because for the hot lesbian scene factor for the viewerhip of a new show. Readers, I would have been very wrong. Because while Max/Eleanor might not compel me as lovers, they have an absolutely fascinating relationship as exes, and it would not be as intriguing and layered if they did not have that backstory. By the time Max says "That fucking chair!" to Eleanor in season 3, I couldn't wait for them to share another scene again, all their scenes were fabulous.
Let's see, what else: how in this show, you could be absolutely furious at a character without being less fond of them. Jack in season 3 being a case in point. I think I spent a good third of the season inwardly going grrrrrrrr at him, but all he did was entirely ic, and it didn't lessen his endearing qualities. (Just as a point of contrast: Ed in s4 of Fall All Mankind. My positive emotions about Ed were definitely very much lessened by his behavior in that season.)
And: how many of the relationships - both romantic and not - are just so interestingly complicated, and that unfolds as we follow the story, with the show having the patience to not give us all the answers at once, but just enough to keep us hooked, and a good pay-off. (Flint and my early seasons fave Miranda being a case in point.)
And lastly: this is a show (with canon m/m and f/f and m/f/f and m/f/m along with the traditional m/f) which values its non-sexual relationships (note that I don't say "non-romantic", because there are relationships you could argue are romantic while being entirely platonic - later Flint and Silver being a case in point) and its sexual relationships alike, you never get the sense one is played out against the other. In conclusion, it's the pirate show of my heart, and thus it shall ever be.
The other days
And that's all I have to say on that casting, she observes mysteriiously. :)
Okay, more seriously now. It's been a while since my last rewatch, but Black Sails is still a show I adore. Do I have some nitpicks? Sure. But not nearly enough to lessen the fannish love. I love the way how almost every character, whether minor or major, is interesting to me, regardless as to whether or not I like them. I love how 99% - okay, 98% - another shows would not have brought a character like Charlotte again afterAnne kills her in her big existential crisis. If Anne were a male character, you could have made - at the time - a case for this being a variation of fridging - Charlotte's death has nothing to do with her and all with Anne, it's random, it simply happens to illustrate how desperate and out of control and conditioned to violence Anne in her big identity crisis is.) But in this show, not only does Idelle get to make a point to Max at the time about how this death makes all the other women in the brothel feel unsafe that's sound and doesn't get ignored by the overall narrative - while Max also gets to make a point about why she's protecting Anne in response - , but we get a call back to Charlotte and her death by Idelle to Anne directly in season 4, two years in later, which isn't random but important to to Anne's and Max' storylines.This respect for its minor characters as more than canon fodder, this remembering people not in the credits are no less human, is one of Black Sails' best qualities.
Mind you: if I didn't love the major characters, said respect wouldn't be enough to make me love the show, either. But I do love (most of) them. Not everyone in the same degree, or even always in the same way, but I do, and I love how without going overboard with the meta at the expense of the characters Black Sails is among other things brilliant meta about storytelling - and story tellers.
And the tasty, tasty character development. I love how the show kept surprising me in a good way with that. For example: Max' relationship with Eleanor. In the first three episodes of season 1, when they're lovers, all the need for presentation in the world wouldnl't have made me ship them, because it seemed too uneven to me, in every sense - uneven social standing, uneven emotional investment by both parties, you name it, it's there. At the time, I did think Max/Eleanor was there because for the hot lesbian scene factor for the viewerhip of a new show. Readers, I would have been very wrong. Because while Max/Eleanor might not compel me as lovers, they have an absolutely fascinating relationship as exes, and it would not be as intriguing and layered if they did not have that backstory. By the time Max says "That fucking chair!" to Eleanor in season 3, I couldn't wait for them to share another scene again, all their scenes were fabulous.
Let's see, what else: how in this show, you could be absolutely furious at a character without being less fond of them. Jack in season 3 being a case in point. I think I spent a good third of the season inwardly going grrrrrrrr at him, but all he did was entirely ic, and it didn't lessen his endearing qualities. (Just as a point of contrast: Ed in s4 of Fall All Mankind. My positive emotions about Ed were definitely very much lessened by his behavior in that season.)
And: how many of the relationships - both romantic and not - are just so interestingly complicated, and that unfolds as we follow the story, with the show having the patience to not give us all the answers at once, but just enough to keep us hooked, and a good pay-off. (Flint and my early seasons fave Miranda being a case in point.)
And lastly: this is a show (with canon m/m and f/f and m/f/f and m/f/m along with the traditional m/f) which values its non-sexual relationships (note that I don't say "non-romantic", because there are relationships you could argue are romantic while being entirely platonic - later Flint and Silver being a case in point) and its sexual relationships alike, you never get the sense one is played out against the other. In conclusion, it's the pirate show of my heart, and thus it shall ever be.
The other days