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Fun and Games
Our Flag Means Death: Fun and Games (2023)
Season 2, Episode 4
10/10
Intense. Con O'Neill delivers an Emmy worthy performance
16 October 2023
This episode delivers comedy, tragedy, and healing love.

Con O'Neill, as Izzy Hands, has delivered intense pathos in all the episodes up till now and this one is the culmination of his character's arc. O'Neill absolutely chews the scenery, and then brings it home with an absolutely moving scene of deep vulnerability and healing.

Meanwhile Stede (Rhys Darby) and Ed (Taika Waititi) get a dark view into what their life as a couple could be if they don't learn how to be better to each other.

As always, the show veers between comedy, tragedy and magical realism. But it always lands on this theme: Love Wins.
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Wherever You Go, There You Are
Our Flag Means Death: Wherever You Go, There You Are (2022)
Season 1, Episode 10
10/10
Heartbreaking Finale
2 October 2023
This finale is heartbreaking, violent, frightening, and brilliant. It's not for the faint of heart. Every promise that the earlier episodes have made about what these characters are capable of is delivered upon, and it HURTS. But it hurts so good.

Strong performances by Claudia O'Doherty, Con O'Neill, Taika Waititi, and Rhys Darby bring Season 1 to a thrilling close. The season lands strongly, with this episode offering an exploration of the opposition between toxic masculinity and being open to love. But either choice puts everything at risk for our main characters.

Fans screamed for the next installment in the story, but, if you are reading this, you won't have to wait long to find out what happens next, because you can just go on to Season 2.
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Act of Grace
Our Flag Means Death: Act of Grace (2022)
Season 1, Episode 9
10/10
I Cried!
2 October 2023
I'm not ashamed to say I cried. This episode is the emotional climax of the season and it is the reason I come back to this show again and again.

That said, this episode jerks the emotions around in every direction.

Strong performances from Taika Waititi, Rhys Darby, Con O'Neill, and Rory Kinnear. We see fierce love, self-sacrifice, selfishness, and madness from all of them, and it works so well.

It shouldn't be so rare to see a same-sex romance given all of the drama and all of the story beats and complexity that straight romances have always had. But it is so rare and precious, and this episode really gives us what we've been crying out for.
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We Gull Way Back
Our Flag Means Death: We Gull Way Back (2022)
Season 1, Episode 8
10/10
The music is perfect
2 October 2023
Every episode in this show ends on a great song. But the finale of this episode is the highpoint of the season. Iconic music and action sequence are so perfectly timed that they become one. You need to watch it again and again just to take in all the nuance .

This episode is full of emotions and plot twists and features excellent performances from all the cast, especially guest star Will Arnett.

Each episode of this season is more queer than the last and this one demonstrates that not only can both Stede and Lucius read, but they can READ. Wonderful scenes of jealousy, bitchiness, and all the complexities of sharing the seven seas with ex-lovers.
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This Is Happening
Our Flag Means Death: This Is Happening (2022)
Season 1, Episode 7
10/10
Excellent writers and excellent improv
2 October 2023
The writing in this show is so tight and strong, and this is the episode where we start to see the artfulness of the scriptwriters. The entire 10 episode season is actually following a very tight story-structure, where you'll see the same themes being repeatedly touched on by all the romantic pairings.

And YET, this episode also features some really excellent improvisation between Rhys Darby and Taika Waititi. Their characters' chemistry is really a product of these two actors knowing each other so well and trusting each other, and you see that in how they riff off each other. Some of the best lines in the show are in this episode.
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The Art of F**kery
Our Flag Means Death: The Art of F**kery (2022)
Season 1, Episode 6
10/10
Ridiculousness and Romance
2 October 2023
This is the episode where we really see everything the show has to offer. All the big themes and relationships start to come to maturity here.

This episode gives us comedy, social commentary, a lot of second-hand embarrassment, and, best of all, romance.

We also start to see this show is really unapologetically a queer show that centers values such as honesty in relationships, body positivity, and a refusal to take on toxic shame. The episode delivers some lovely anti-racist and anti-classist commentary as well.

Lucius slays here. This is arguably the best episode for really enjoying this character. On a ship full of LGBTQ+ pirates, he's "the gay one" and this episode is why.
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Discomfort in a Married State
Our Flag Means Death: Discomfort in a Married State (2022)
Season 1, Episode 4
10/10
Magnetic Performance by Taika Waititi
19 September 2023
Warning: Spoilers
Now we start to see Blackbeard on-screen, and Taika Waititi's take on the character is just fabulous. Having seen him now in many other roles, he's never shone like this before.

Waititi's Blackbeard is crafty, brilliant, unhinged, depressed, manic, romantic, and dangerous. Very ADHD and very genius. Absolutely a magnetic performance. I can believe that this man is the King of Pirates. He just inhabits this role in such a way as to obliterate anyone else who has been Blackbeard before. He gives us a unique and nuanced portrayal of a brilliant man on the verge of a depressive collapse, a man who is trapped in a world of self-destructive machismo, and who is saved by his relationship with The Gentleman Pirate.

This episode is where the plot of the series starts to take off. The stakes get higher and suddenly this isn't "just" a comedy about pirates anymore. It's a full-on romantic adventure, and an exploration of how masculinity is performed and the toll that this performance can take on self-knowledge and on relationships.

In this episode Stede and Blackbeard get to know each other, and find that they have an amazing chemistry that makes both of them better. We get some of Stede's backstory, and we have our first joint adventure with the two of them working together.
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A Gentleman Pirate
Our Flag Means Death: A Gentleman Pirate (2022)
Season 1, Episode 3
9/10
Now things get real
19 September 2023
Warning: Spoilers
This episode introduces some new characters, and they are all a complete hoot!

Leslie Jones absolutely shines here. As do Con O'Neill and Fred Armisen. For a show with such an ensemble cast, it's amazing how they give everyone a moment in the spotlight.

We start to see the plot arc for our characters come into view. The show stays funny, but we start layering in interpersonal conflicts, danger, and romance. This is the episode that really feels like it launches the season. Everything after this one becomes so addictive and involving, and it's all set up by this episode.

As usual, there's plenty of fish-out-of-water type comedy and ever-more queerness. But the writing team on this show is very queer and very diverse, so the jokes never punch down.
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Pilot
Our Flag Means Death: Pilot (2022)
Season 1, Episode 1
8/10
You have to binge this show to appreciate Ep 1
19 September 2023
Episode 1 gets off to a slow start. It's funny, it's cute, but it is really only the launching point for what will become an incredibly deep and rich experience. First episode almost feels like this show is going to be a light work-place comedy.

But what the show becomes is a devastatingly impactful exploration of toxic masculinity, queer love, and what it means to be true to oneself when struggling against societal and family expectations.

The show keeps the humor from Ep 1, and every little "throw-away" moment in Ep 1 ends up paying out in a dramatic way in this incredibly well-scripted show.

Binge it. It's meant to be binged.
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