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Matteo1130

Modern Pirate TV Series - Black Sails & Crossbones

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AXN channel will show the next month the "black sails" TV series, apparently based on a pirate theme... anyone seen it? Hope it could come somehow inspirating for MOCs!Official website | Pilot on YouTube

1715. The Golden Age of Piracy. New Providence Island is a lawless territory, controlled by history’s most notorious pirate captains. The most feared is Captain Flint.As the British Navy returns to redeem their land and exterminate Flint and his crew, another side of him emerges. Captain Flint aligns himself with Eleanor Guthrie, daughter of the local kingpin, to hunt the ultimate prize and ensure their survival.Many opponents stand in their way: rival captains, jealous of Flint's power; Eleanor's ambitious and intrusive father; and a young sailor recently recruited onto Flint's crew, John Silver, who constantly undermines his captain’s agenda.

http://youtu.be/ZFWAb5GAbzU

Edited by Mister Phes

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It's an ok film but its not really overwhelming. BTW, the pilot can be found on youtube.

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Do you mean Black Sails? Personally, I liked the series a lot. Its not nonstop action, and I know some people got annoyed because it had a few slow episodes in a row here and there, but I thought the pacing made a lot of sense. It spends more time on planning and day to day issues rather than battle (though they have that too). Plus, its already been renewed for a second season.

Edited by 2maxwell

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I see.. now I've just to wait until september.

Since we're talking about this: is there any other tv serie that worth to be watched? (The only I already know is Hornblower)

Edit: yes, the series is called "Black Sails" and not "Black Flag" (my mistake), but I can't change topic title, sorry.

Edited by Matteo1130

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I've only seen the first episode (waiting for the rest to come to Netflix or DVD), but it was quite good and a must-see for anyone with an interest in pirate fiction. It's actually a prequel to the children's novel Treasure Island--which is strange, as it has a lot of sex and violence. (Treasure Island was pretty violent, but there are no holds barred here. Not for kids by any means.) There's a really interesting take on the characters of Billy Bones and Captain Flint. There's a lot of the internal politics that come with electing pirate captains...adventure, action, intrigue... Great stuff!

The American network NBC is also running a pirate show called Crossbones...it's pretty good too; well worth checking out. It's about Blackbeard. Well, he doesn't have a black beard. But he's still Blackbeard. (Yeah, I don't get it either.)

TC

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It's free to watch on Amazon Prime, at least it is in the UK. I watched the first episode but wasn't massivly impressed, however I am willing to give it the benefit of the doubt... At least for a couple more episodes.

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I thought it was pretty good. It's a much more accurate depiction of pirate life. The producers have put in a good amount of detail from a much more historic perspective. Not the Hollywood version of people swinging from ropes, and spending all their time at sea saying arrrr. There are several episodes in a row where they are not at sea at all. There were many complaints of the lack of swashbuckling. But if you can get through those it is well worth seeing how the season ends. You won't be disappointed.

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Black Sails was also discussed in the off-topic area. I weighed in my opinion over there. I did watch the whole series, but I'm afraid only because I'm a pirate fan. I'm sorry to say it wasn't very good. It was very light on action, only maybe 2 or 3 episodes with battles. The rest of the time there's a lot of scheming, but I found the writing to be lacking. Some of the actors aren't so great either. On the plus side... pirates and beaches and sailing ships, so it can't be 100% terrible, right?

Right now my wife and I are watching Crossbones (on NBC here in the US, which is one of the core TV channels like BBC is in the UK). Crossbones is really good! Both her and I enjoy this one, whereas she couldn't sit still for Black Sails (and I don't blame her). Crossbones stars John Malkovich, and he's really good; I find the cast to be better in this one and the plot is better too. Might be a while before Crossbones makes it out to other parts of the world (Europe etc), I'm afraid. The show is still airing.

Edited by Zeya

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Black Sails was also discussed in the off-topic area. I weighed in my opinion over there. I did watch the whole series, but I'm afraid only because I'm a pirate fan. I'm sorry to say it wasn't very good. It was very light on action, only maybe 2 or 3 episodes with battles. The rest of the time there's a lot of scheming, but I found the writing to be lacking. Some of the actors aren't so great either. On the plus side... pirates and beaches and sailing ships, so it can't be 100% terrible, right?

Right now my wife and I are watching Blackbeard (on NBC here in the US, which is one of the core TV channels like BBC is in the UK). Blackbeard is really good! Both her and I enjoy this one, whereas she couldn't sit still for Black Sails (and I don't blame her). Blackbeard stars John Malkovich, and he's really good; I find the cast to be better in this one and the plot is better too. Might be a while before Blackbeard makes it out to other parts of the world (Europe etc), I'm afraid. The show is still airing.

Because of the internet and the ability to stream stuff ilegally, American stuff tends to be aired on UK TV pretty quickly these days, so hopefully it won't be long before it gets here - thanks for the tip, I will be looking out for it.

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I've never seen an episode, but this sounds like a prequel to the book "Treasure Island," judging from the characters and storyline.

EDIT: In fact, just checked IMDB, I was right, it is. pirate_laugh_new.gif

Edited by ManInATopHat

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Crossbones has just finished in the US and I, for one, enjoyed it. For sure John Malkovich was hammier than a packet of bacon and his accent/intonation infuriating (watch it and you'll un---derst----ahhhhnnned), but it was a well written, tense with high production values.

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I enjoyed Black Sails when it was on and can't wait for the next season. Yeah, parts of it are slow but it's only what, 10 or so episodes and while they should have picked up steam earlier, I usually give a show like this a season to get good or I quit and a show with 20+ episodes (regular season here in the states) about 3/4 of the season. The second season should have a lot more oomph to it and the acting is very good. Surprisingly, it's also a Michael Bay production, although he just produces it.

Though I may be somewhat biased as I was still making my way through AC4 at the time.

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Crossbones has just finished in the US and I, for one, enjoyed it. For sure John Malkovich was hammier than a packet of bacon and his accent/intonation infuriating (watch it and you'll un---derst----ahhhhnnned), but it was a well written, tense with high production values.

This could not be a problem outside US/UK, because of the others languages version. By the way we loose all the peculiarity and accents wich says "I'm from that place and ,you know, my peaple used to be like this and/or we are part of that subculture".

To the "crossbones" series, I can't wait to see her too, hungry for pirates theme pirate_wink.gif

Hope a couple TV Series and rumors about POTC V will make TLG thinking about releasing new sets, or according with EB the production of the "haven guard" project!! I'm definitively interested in little pirates sets..

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Isn't that TV series actually called "Crossbones"?

Yes, sorry. It's "Crossbones".

I've never seen an episode, but this sounds like a prequel to the book "Treasure Island," judging from the characters and storyline.

EDIT: In fact, just checked IMDB, I was right, it is. :pir-laugh:

Yes, it's a prequel to Treasure Island. Incidentally, I started to watch a relatively recent miniseries of Treasure Island and it seemed pretty good. (Got interrupted partway through, need to start again...) Had Donald Sutherland in it. Here it is:

http://www.imdb.com/...3/?ref_=nv_sr_1

Was on Netflix or Hulu maybe, iirc.

For sure John Malkovich was hammier than a packet of bacon and his accent/intonation infuriating (watch it and you'll un---derst----ahhhhnnned)

Ahahaha! I... TO-TALLY UN-DER-STAND. Lol. My wife and I do that accent now. It's like he's channeling Christopher Walken or something.

Though I may be somewhat biased as I was still making my way through AC4 at the time.

I had just finished Assassin's Creed 4 as well when I watched Black Sails. Such a good game. The ship battles and ship upgrades stayed quite entertaining for a long time.

Edited by Zeya

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I don't see any LEGO here.

Then quickly buld a MOC inspired by either of these television series and post it in this thread... pirate_laugh2.gif

But on a more serious note, let's infuse this topic with some LEGO discussion.

Do these TV series actually provide any inspiration for LEGO Pirate MOCing? Are there any note worthy ships or locations?

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Do these TV series actually provide any inspiration for LEGO Pirate MOCing? Are there any note worthy ships or locations?

Black Sails is basically the prequel of the Treasure Island novel, which is the mother of every modern-day pirate conception with peg-leg, parrot on the shoulder, and an "X" that marks the buried treasure. So eventually the existence of Pirate theme is result of Treasure Island.

I don't want to make any spoilers and this part will be unfolded of the 2nd season, but it is likely that we will know why on Earth would pirates bury the treasure instead of spending that fortune for a pool of rum or something.

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I miht have been misunderstood in my last post. What I meant is that in a few months tv screens in the world shown two different pirates themed series from two different producers and a major group is working on another film of a succes branded pirates theme. This means the public strongly loves pirates thesedays and hopefully TLG may ride this trend. It would be great some re-release or support of current projects such as the haven guard or so.

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What I meant is that in a few months tv screens in the world shown two different pirates themed series from two different producers and a major group is working on another film of a succes branded pirates theme.

That's very promising! But unfortunately Crossbones has already been cancelled.

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But on a more serious note, let's infuse this topic with some LEGO discussion.

Do these TV series actually provide any inspiration for LEGO Pirate MOCing? Are there any note worthy ships or locations?

I can't remember what it's called when they pull a wooden ship onto shore and tip it on one side to scrape the barnacles off - but there was a cool scene based around that in Black Sails that would be an interesting, if difficult, MOC to make.

The boats and township were kind of standard though, they weren't designed with the visual appeal of the props in Pirates of the Carribean. The Title sequence, however, was very piratically artistic and may inspire some MOCing:

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For what I've seen the Walrus (Flint's ship) has an old fashion look, half frigate and half galleon. This is a moc I woul really like to see!

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