Our Flag Means Death

A Delightfully Campy Pirate Traumedy

By: Kami Kendall

HBO Max’s new series, “Our Flag Means Death,” featuring the comedic genius of kiwisTaika Waititi and Rhys Darby, is the delightfully fun pirate show you didn’t know you needed. Following the historical figure of Darby’s Stede Bonnet, who reads like a pirate Michael Scott with his silly incompetence as a leader and petty insecurities about his social standing among his crew, viewers will be pleasantly surprised by this imaginative twist on the pirate lifestyle. 

Bonnet’s cushy upbringing wears on him until a mid-life crisis causes him to upend his family life in exchange for the gritty but adventure-filled pirate life at sea. The so-called “Gentleman Pirate” decides to captain his ship with the manners and comforts of his previous lifestyle, which includes bringing his entire personal library on board to read his crew to sleep, teaching the crew to talk about their feelings and sew their own flag, and pretty much upend the culture of toxic masculinity usually rampant in pirate films (and history). Instead, the show highlights the place of refuge that piracy was for various outcasts of society.

Later episodes are where the show is the strongest when Waititi’s super tough Blackbeard riffs off of Darby’s ridiculously polite Bonnet to create an adorable misfit friendship (and possibly more) that lifts both out of their lackluster lives. Of course, members of the campy queer crew shine as well, and Waititi’s trademark style of comedy as a form of coping with trauma makes each character endearing and memorable in their own way.