Black Sails episode 2 is a seductive mix of sea, sand and silver.
Black Sailsmay seduce guys with the sight of two women kissing on a bed with snow-white sheets.
I was seduced by the sets in the second episode ofBlack Sails.
Great crumbling buildings, holes in the roofs and the walls growing moss and falling to bits.
Sunlit streets, fire-lit beaches, thatch and crude wooden shacks.
And more time on Flints ship, the Walrus, which is a gorgeous piece of work.
Too bad no pirate since Henry Avery ever actually owned such a ship.
But this is TV, and the ship is grand.
The plots moving, just like Id hoped it would.
Silver keeps The Page and offers protection, while Max demands payment from Rackham and Bonny.
(Probably in a bad mood because of the way Eleanor put him down earlier…
If I was a pirate and anyone talked to me like that, Id gut them.)
Flint wins, of course, and Silver does the only thing he can do to save his neck.
But what its all really about is Flints dream, which he seems to share with Eleanor.
A Nassau independent from all the countries of the world, with farmers, craftsmen.
And, yes, pirates.
Thats quite a dream, one that was shared by real-life pirates like Ben Hornigold and Henry Jennings.
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In real life, it almost came true.
And several of the pirates retained family connections in trading families.
Some New World governors were even involved.
The pirates were getting goods for free and selling them for as little as one tenth their value.
All they wanted in return was rum, gunpowder and shot.
That makes people love you, at least as long as you keep coming back with more stolen goods.
The requirements of the medium of TV also explain Maxs situation on the show.
In many ways I find her the most believable character.
Like Max, these women werent stupid.
It wasnt a bad gig.
A bullied, downtrodden whore elicits more sympathy than a woman who makes her own fortune.
But Maxs spirit and smarts ring true.
It speaks to Maxs situation, a fictional character shoehorned into a moralistic situation not of her era.
By the way, the real Max wouldnt have had a carpet bag.
Shed have just wrapped her possessions up in a piece of cloth.
Women didnt wear underwear then either.
It was commando all the way.
And there we meet the reason why he seems so tied to this island, above all others.
TS Rhodes is the author ofThe Pirate Empireseries.
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Rating:
3.5 out of 5
