I.

When this aired, I was into Game of Thrones Penny Dreadful and The Expanse. I always wanted to try Black Sails and finally did last night. What a letdown. Is it 1715 or 2015? 1715 was the Golden Age of piracy. What is this? Typical 21st century showrunners forcing their misplaced wishlist in a period where it doesn't belong. A feisty blonde is the boss on land and orders around a bunch of unruly violent pirate men. A cartoonish-tough brunette wears a captain hook-like hat low over an eye to look dark and menacing as she runs with some bad, bad pirates. A scheming hooker with a distracting accent outsmarts pirates. Her acting is so terrible - you can't ignore it. Captain Flint's buff right-hand man (Tom Hopper) and the new curly-haired "cook" exchange longing glances so cue the man-on-man loving. If not these two, it'll be in the show, I bet. Too much forced women-on-women action with all the hot horny men running around. There's a side plot about a hidden book page (schedule?) and a duel for King Captain. Pirates are lawless seamen who conquer, pillage, trade, and rape. Why are they chilling at this Nassau joint, letting a pretty blonde keep them in line? There's no intriguing storyline. None of it felt like 1715 or authentic pirate life. Besides the opening scene, I was bored and fought off sleep.

(Shortened summary in the bottom of the review)

Fun, deadly and gritty start to what i would call maybe the first good pirate show on the small screen, with great cast and compelling story already getting me hooked within the first 5 minutes.

The show does also not look afraid to do what it wants, giving us some wild adults scene here there, while also not being afraid to show the merciless side of the Pirates of the Caribbean, what of all that is not to like? I mean really... its just so great already and so thought provoking, that i cant wait to get started on the next episode.

(7/10) Definitely binging this show!!

Shortened summary: (Black Sails) starts quickly out with lots of action already in the first few minutes and then going on to slowly give a really interesting story and cast to like and follow throughout this great pilot episode.

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.

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.

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!