Black Sails, Season 1 (2014)

 

In 1715 West Indies, the pirates of New Providence Island threaten maritime trade in the region. The laws of every civilized nation declare them hostis humani generis, enemies of all mankind. In response, the pirates adhere to a doctrine of their own....war against the world.

One of the most feared of the pirate captains - though one whose crew is beginning to rumble with discontent after months of lean profits - is Captain Flint.  His rivals, such as the equally renowned Captain Vane, sense that he has vulnerable and look to exploit that fact.  Flint himself, however, has a method behind his seemingly erratic decisions: he has a lead on a particularly important Spanish treasure galleon.  One that, if he were to seize its contents, would provide sufficient wealth for a Pirate King to legitimise his kingdom as an independent nation.

Of course, none of his rivals are likely to let Flint just make himself their king, even if he can find the treasure galleon.  And with the latest ship he sacked, Flint took on a new crew-member who is about to complicate ... well, everyone's life quite a bit ... a callow, cowardly, but rather clever youth by the name of John Silver.

Operating as a pseudo-prequel to Treasure Island, this series tracks the exploits of pirates both real - such as Harry Vane, Jack Rackham, Anne Bonney and Blackbeard - and fictional , in the shape of Flint and the future Long John Silver.

Whereas Treasure Island is basically a story for tweens, however, Black Sails is heavily committed to being not at all family friendly.  It is filled with bad language, violence, cruelty, and sex: frequently all four at the same time.  The amount of sexual violence, actually, is something I found quite off-putting.  Do not expect to see healthy romantic relationships here, or even much in the way of mutually satisfying sex going on here.  Sex is a weapon in this show, used to exert power (of one form or another) on others.

I'm comfortable with shows that have a lot of sex and violence - I watched all of Spartacus, after all - but the constant conflation of the two in this show, as well as the unrelenting selfishness and cruelty of most of the characters, ultimately put me off.