TV reviews | ‘Black Sails’ go for gold
By SARA SMITH
The Kansas City Star
“Black Sails” is exactly like the 18th-century Caribbean pirates it brings to life: dirty, amoral and worth stomaching only when there are no women around.The Kansas City Star
Billed as a prequel tale for Robert Louis Stevenson’s classic “Treasure Island,” “Black Sails” makes landfall in the Nassau of 1715. Its concept — competing crews of bandits, minus the parrots and Johnny Depp — sounds solid.
Created by Jonathan Steinberg of “Jericho” and “Human Target,” “Sails” lists Michael Bay in its opening credits as an executive producer. And his influence peeks through: The action unfolds on sweeping vistas of turquoise sea, full-size schooners and warships, and the fully reconstructed streets of a Bahamian outpost.
Along with the ambitious production design come the jump cuts, gratuitous explosions and enough topless brothel scenes to embarrass a “Game of Thrones” camera crew.
None of this counts as shocking within the confines of Starz, home to the bloody, critically praised swordfest “Spartacus.” And like fifth-century Rome, the New World smuggling market is no place for the ladies.
The least reprehensible of the pirate captains we meet is Flint, played with verve by British stage actor and former Bond villain Toby Stephens. He’s got his heart set on one last big, game-changing score, like “Ocean’s Eleven” — on an ocean.
“I’m not just going to make you rich,” Flint tells his hungry, downtrodden crew. “I’m not just going to make you strong. I’m going to make you the princes of the New World!”
Anyone standing in Flint’s way eventually collapses into a bloody heap. On the way into port after a small heist, he picks up a new recruit, a cook named John Silver who quickly sets to skulking and scheming.
Flint’s rival for dominance at sea is Capt. Charles Vane (Zach McGowan), who is somehow obviously the bad guy here. It’s hard to tell, because everyone on screen is horrible, in varying degrees of amusing, confusing and frightening.
The female inhabitants of Nassau can expect treatment ranging from mere paternalistic condescension all the way to violent rape. “Downton Abbey” just proved that’s a predicament women can’t escape in any TV realm these days.
But “Black Sails” takes things an ugly step further, framing rape as inevitable, using it to punish those who step out of line, even playing sexual assault for laughs.
Nassau tavern owner Eleanor Guthrie (Hannah New) holds her own, sort of, among the men of New Providence Island, but she’s mostly a walking impulsive decision for them to manipulate. She gets to rip her own bodice open, but that doesn’t mean it makes any sense when she does.
The show’s other female characters of note: a bloodied prostitute, a wan secret mistress and a psychopathic assassin in a cowboy hat.
Here would be a good place to talk about the breathtaking swashbuckling and sword fights, but four episodes in, Flint and friends are still gathering supplies and intelligence for the big job, plunging the show into colonial politics while the pirates are left to scrape barnacles (which is actually really fun to watch).
Flint’s men are getting a little impatient, and audiences might, too. But “Black Sails” can take its time: Starz has already given the go-ahead for a second season.
* So Hannah New will get naked within the first four episodes.
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