Black Sails is a series about pirates. If you like pirate movies you will like this series =) It's full of action and fighting. Most of the scenes are on a boat or of the sea but there is also some land diplomacy to attend to.
This ambitious pirate story is helped immensely by going beyond the pay cable freedoms that often bog down lesser shows in boobs, blood and sex. But of course it has all of that too ;D Black Sails steers itself out of that realm after a few episodes and makes a play for bigger, more complicated stories. Solid acting patches up weaker spots. A series worth a look.
Resume: It starts a little bit soft, you can't judge it from the first 4 episodes. More into the 6th episode it gets much better and in the last and beginning of the second season even more so. This new Michael Bay pirate series, set in 1715, during the "Golden Age of piracy." Here's a genre series that's got a lot of what you'd expect from Starz, gratuitous nudity, bloodshed and mayhem, but it also has a complicated story to spin.
Co-created and co-written by Jonathan E. Steinberg and Robert Levine, Black Sails tells the story of Capt. Flint (Toby Stephens), who runs the Walrus ship and is the most feared captain of all those docking in lawless New Providence Island. His crew includes the quartermaster, Gates (Mark Ryan), and first mate Billy Bones (Tom Hopper), who is next in line.
I'm watching this series second to Crossbones maybe that's why I just like Crossbones more, but my boyfriend says it's better and a bunch of US reviewers the same. It also has promises to continue as the third season is on it's way. I would say take a look at both and judge them your selves and then come here and leave me your opinion on it =)
I would give it a 7/10. It's a great series to see before going to bed =)
Crossbones is a series based on a life of a pirate - Blackbeard. As you can already tell it's a pirates series =D and like all pirate series/movie you love it or hate it.
Most pirate stories are clichés because nobody is thinking about how to redefine them. They are only thinking about how to work within the parameters of swords, blood-thirsty men, remote islands and billowing cotton clothes. They are working in a swashbuckling genre when they ought to be fleeing from it, or turning it on its head. As you watch Crossbones, you might realise something. It looks like fun. It looks like a bunch of actors who like to play dress up and to be someone different than themselves, are having a wonderful time being pirates. The sets are kind of silly. The costumes are kind of silly. The acting is definitely silly. The sword play is like a kind of actor’s recess. You get the sense that Cross and a whole bunch of actors and production people are putting on a play with someone else’s money and having a grand old time of it. =D
By many reviewers in the US, Black Sails is a much better series than Crossbones but I beg the differ. I love Crossbones much more maybe because I saw it first or maybe because of John Malkovich =) Love his acting it's really unique. But just in case and if you like pirates movies take a view at the first 4-6 episodes of each series and leave me your opinion in the comments.
I'm seeing both and I'm loving them. I would give Crossbones a 8/10.
