In case you were wondering, in the early 1700s, Nassau in the Bahamas was dubbed “the Republic of Pirates” and pretty much was entirely self-governing. Not only is the cool fact actually true, but it is also the premise of a TV show. Because it is the plague, and my normal hobbies of happy hour and yoga have gone virtual, I was in need of something to amuse myself. Like everyone else, I decided to watch a lot of TV (goes great with puzzles). I signed up for a free Hulu trial, and as anyone who has ever signed up for a free trial knows, forgot to cancel.
But that was ok, because during my free trial I discovered this show called “Black Sails”, which originally aired on Starz from 2014-2018. It was a TV show billed as a “prequel” to Treasure Island (ex. we had Captain Flint, Long John Silver, Benjamin Gunn, Billy Bones, etc.). Also, if anyone needs a refresher for the plot of Treasure Island, I would highly recommend watching Muppet Treasure Island, which may be one of the best Treasure Island adaptions. Anyone, the powers that be who run the algorithm over at Hulu put this show in my “Recommended for you” section, and I, being a sucker for all things piratical, had to watch. And it was great! Although there are actually no black sails to be had in the show, just boring regular white ones. I was confused for the first episode, because I had gotten it mixed up with another pirate show that I had watched, Cross Bones, which has John Malkovich as Black Beard and the chick from The Crown. It took me a good episode and a half to realize that John Malkovich was not actually in this show.
Does Black Sails make sense? Not really. There’s some treasure that they spend the first season trying to find, the core group of 5 main characters keep betraying each other for reasons that don’t make a lot of sense if you stop to think about it, and there are some set pieces that never really make sense. But no matter! Anne Bonny is in it! Jack Rackham, playing a Starz-version of Jack Sparrow, is obsessed with getting an appropriately dastardly pirate flag. There’s a bisexual main character who’s secret lover got sent to Bedlam. And it’s also got a killer opening title.
Some people have spent this plague doing productive things, like learning to cross stitch and bake sourdough. I’ve watched an embarrassing amount of TV and got weirdly into puzzles. I made my way through Breaking Bad, which to be fair I started before the plague. I watched all of Mad Men, which is great and has just recently left Netflix and features the bad-ass Peggy Olson. I would also highly recommend The Great staring Elle Fanning and Nicholas Hoult, which was also one of the reasons why I signed up for Hulu in the first place. (The algorithm that runs Hulu also knows that I have a soft spot for historical costume dramas). There was also Harlots, starring Sybil Crawley from Downtown Abbey about, well, harlots in 1760s London. I would also highly recommend What We Do in the Shadows, a hilarious mockumentary about vampires living in Staten Island.
There are only so many subjects this blog talks about. Cooking. My attempt to keep a houseplant alive. Weird law school facts. Home decor. On rare occasions, travel. And TV makes a non infrequent appearance. I could tell you all about Cheer, or Scrubs, orHouse, and when I watched almost any True Crime documentary to avoid studying for Crim Pro (oh, also, I’ll Be Gone in the Dark on HBO is great!) and then when I rewatched all of Game of Thrones the month before law school happened. (I still choose to believe that the 8th season did not ever happen). I even imagined what this blog would be like as a TV show.
So, it’s not like I was a super interesting person before the end of the world, but man, this has kind of put a damper on everything else fun that I used to do. I don’t know when we’re ever going to go back to dating again, but at this point in terms of random small talk all I’ve really got is my thoughts about historical costume dramas on Hulu and some very strong feelings about puzzles. But while you’re here, should I watch Handmaid’s Tale or not? I forgot to cancel my Hulu this month again.
In Case You Were Wondering. . . 
One comment