I.

The first episode of Black Sails needs to introduce a lot of characters and we are unsure as to who to root for. Black Sails has action in the 18th century high seas and a setting in New Providence, a port in the Bahamas. It was actually run by pirates, where they dropped off their stolen loot and traded their cargo for gunpowder and rum. Once that was done it was off to the whorehouse.

Captain Flint (Toby Stephens) leads the Walrus, whose captaincy is in danger as pickings have been slim but he is looking for the big one. A Spanish galleon with 5 million dollars of treasure, it is just that a page of the map is missing.

The episode opens with action as the Walrus attacks another ship, the sailors try to bravely withstand the pirates but some of them are happy to become pirates, the conditions can be better than with their existing captain. We see John Silver (Luke Arnold) hiding from the action below decks, he notices that the ship's cook is hiding a parchment and kills him for it. The parchment is a map, John Silver pretends to be the cook as he joins the pirate of the Walrus. Silver is a man of mysterious motivations in the first episode.

Being a Starz series and with an eye on the Game of Thrones audience, there is sex, nudity, some lesbian action and profanities. It is grimy but also rather clunky in the way it introduces the characters in the first episode. I doubt we are going to see much naval action, for a start it is expensive to stage but I figure there will be a lot of soap opera style storylines.

it's a good start to the series . i liked it the sea , ships and pirates .

if you like pirates and chases you will enjoy the show .

first episode is exciting and you will enjoy watching it . can't wait to see the next episode to know what will happen .

rating 8.5/10 .

I have no idea what I've just seen. The story opens immediately to scenes of battle and slowly introduces the viewers to a whole myriad of characters. I can not make up my mind who is bad, who should I back and who should I despise. What a packed first episode. I am really excited to see what Starz has created here.. I can already tell I am in for some really exciting television. The back story, a messy plot, secret agendas, and this was just the first episode!! Cant wait to see whats in store for us as this progresses!

For a pirate show this isn't as entertaining as it should be. That probably isn't helped by the fact that it looks like it was written using a checklist of features a show like this should have, maybe, uh, borrowed by Game of Thrones: the violence, the prostitutes, the lesbian sex scene (because of course there has to be a lesbian sex scene), the political intrigue, a lack of "safe" characters and the duel. Other elements are directly borrowed from the pirate tropes checklist. It does feel like the writers were sticking to a checklist as this pilot episode comes across as too mechanical, using well-worn tropes without putting its own spin on them. The duel, for example. It has some tension as it feels like either dueller could genuinely die. But it's a barebones duel. Nothing is done to make it more memorable than any standard duel we've seen on TV. Compare it to the duel on Game of Thrones between the mountain and the viper and it's clear which one's better, which one's more exciting.

The characters are a mixed bag. Captain Flint is one of the better ones, with sufficient depth to make him someone to care about. John Silver is the opposite of that, the handsome pirate who the show clearly wants us to root for without giving us a reason why. Eleanor Guthrie is the token Strong Female Character whose speech is peppered with as many f words as possible, because hey there's nothing stronger than a female character who swears all the time. Oh and she openly talks about masturbating, the true sign of a confident, liberated woman. Sigh.

The main plot isn't actually half-bad. I mean it's not Game of Thrones, but despite my initial doubts, by the end of the episode I was intrigued. It has to do with a missing page and Bones's final test of loyalty involving it proved this show can do character development. If in future it can focus on the deeper characters it could be great. If John Silver becomes the main character without being fleshed out more that'll be a shame.

One thing I was surprised about was that for a pirate show it didn't do a huge amount to make a pirate's life appear exciting. Hopefully it'll do so in future episodes because I was disappointed not to find it thrilling. The visuals were pretty, although that's kind of expected these days.

For a pilot, it could be better. But maybe it takes some time for Black Sails to find its footing.

This was not a masterpiece. But there are high hopes for future episodes. In my opinion, the writers' purpose in the first episode was to explain the story, the characters, and Captain Flint's motivation to the audience. They could have done these better, but as I said, there is serious hope for future episodes, also I hope we see more action scenes. Actually, I'm not an action enthusiast, but if I'm going to watch a pirate series, the most important thing I look for is action, and there was very little action compared to the first episode. Finally, I want to say that Captain Flint seems like a really good character.