Black Sails

In this, the last 10 episodes, the drama detonates long-standing alliances and brings to the fore grudges with lethal consequences. ... The premiere Sunday features three set pieces that are brilliant and terrifying.

Four episodes in, Black Sails is actually spinning a cleverly-crafted tale of intrigue, secrets and deceit surrounding a race for an enormous cache of gold in a Spanish galleon.

A winsome opportunist (Luke Arnold), a ruthless captain (Toby Stephens) and a tough-talking tavern owner (Hannah New) are just a few of the colorful characters involved in a brutal power grab in the 18th century Bahamas.

Steinberg promises that Black Sails, with no parrots and no peg legs, will be pirate-cliché free. Unfortunately, the female characters don’t escape sexist stereotypes. And that keeps Black Sails from being as much fun as it might have been.

Black Sails opens promisingly enough with a sea battle, followed by threats of violent upheaval aboard the Walrus, captained by the arrogant, aloof Flint (Toby Stephens). Too soon, though, the action moves onto land. And while Starz staples like graphic sex and savagery are hardly uncommon occurrences in the bustling debauchery of New Providence Island, Sails becomes stubbornly becalmed by its landlocked third and fourth hours, as tiresome wheeling and dealing triggers a bout of Restless Sea Legs Syndrome in the impatient viewer.

At times Black Sails feels like it wants to be taken seriously as a complicated, premium cable drama (a la “Game of Thrones”). At other times, it feels more like cheesier, more niche material (a la “Spartacus”).

What's mystifying is why Starz and the creators of Black Sails seem to think that, given the expanding array of options available to consumers, any content creators can get away with peddling fare that can't even manage to be consistently mediocre.

Fantastic absolutely loved it, great plot twists, action and historical accuracy. I praise this series to anyone who will listen. Genuinely upset when I finished it.

Tedious writing, too much navel gazing and monologging, tiresome characters and repetitive conflicts. If I were any one of the characters, I would have killed all the others long before S4 ended.

Season One was **** could forgive it as it was attempting to find its footing. It laid out some good characters we only come to know later, or perhaps not. Scenes for the sake of scenes weren't bad, at least they had given the show its identity. Season 2 was the best of the four, using ship battles and sword fights. Deceit, world and character building. John Rackham quickly becomes the most likeable character. Although, now everyone looks like breaking bad characters aside from him and Vayne. Season 3 is bad. Nothing makes sense, aside from Rackham and John Silver's character arcs. The British and most all the girls become strongly unlikeable. There is no salvaging this. Currently on Season 4. I do not like a majority of the "good guys" in this. Could be a better story, with writing that makes sense!

I just created this account to say this is my new favorite show. It has everything I love: gorepresentation, badass women, and gay pirates! What else could I ask for?

C’est une série qui coule à pic, prétentieuse et creuse, une série très ramollie sur les pirates avec des navires en carton sur une mer en mousse, des acteurs mauvais et des décors en faux bois : bois, carton-pâte, mousse, on a fait le tour, moussaillon !L’histoire pue la choucroute avariée et se révèle en fait pleine de blabla à n’en plus finir. C’est d’une mollesse incroyable (avec un peu de fesse, certes mais ça ne suffit pas), c’est aussi bien mal écrit et d’un intérêt global égal à zéro. La série manque décidément cruellement de moyens et cela se ressent durement au visionnage. La seule particularité de cette série de merde, c’est l’ennui profond qui s’en dégage. En bref, une méga daube à saborder d’urgence !