Black Sails: Season 4

The war for Nassau and the Bahamas takes a surprising turn when a devastating trap leaves the pirate coalition in tatters and the pirate leaders scattered. Governor Woodes Rogers celebrates his triumph but knows he cannot rest easy whilst his defences remain shattered and Flint, John Silver and Blackbeard are still at large. The two factions continue to jockey for position, seeking out unlikely allies and determined to win the struggle, no matter the cost.

The secret to the success of Black Sails has been in its joyous mixture of bawdy action with intriguing politics, against a semi-historical backdrop and related through superbly-played, relatably human characters. For three seasons, the writers kept up a constantly-shifting patchwork of alliances of convenience and the balancing of short-term pragmatism against long-term ambitions, and did so with finesse and skill.

In its fourth and final season, Black Sails does nearly stumble in its last dance. We've seen so many betrayals, treacherous sneak attacks and unexpected reversals that seeing a bunch more risks becoming predictable. The real enemy is trying to undercut the pirates by making Silver and Flint turn on one another? Is it Tuesday again? Long-term strategic success is endangered by small-time villains who can't see beyond the end of the week? We've been here before, several times, and the returns are starting to diminish.

At least, this is the problem that blights the first half of the season. The second half, with the writers fully aware the end is in sight, sees them ratcheting up the tension superbly. Breaks in trust are now irrevocable, reversals can see major characters dead rather than imprisoned or wounded, and the stakes have been raised so high by both sides (with Rogers even willing to commit treason to get what he wants) that there is no possibility of quarter or forgiveness. The show even remembers its original pitch as a prequel to Robert Louis Stevenson's novel Treasure Island, as events in the back half of the season begin to converge on the opening of the book.

As usual, the cast does absolutely exceptional work. Toby Stephens has been superb throughout but reaches new levels in the buildup to the finale, whilst Luke Arnold and Tom Hopper, who started off very much in his shadow, are now his equals. Bear McCreary's soundtrack is superb, the CG teams continue to orchestrate stunning Master and Commander-beating naval battles on a far tinier budget and overall the production remains impressive.

Apart from a couple of repetitive storylines its opening episodes, the final season of Black Sails (****½) maintains the quality of the previous seasons through to the end. It has been common to compare Black Sails to Game of Thrones due to their mutual marriage of impressive action to compelling characters and intriguingly murky politics, but ultimately Black Sails overhauls its fantasy forebear by doing what it could not: sticking the landing and delivering a finale worthy of any number of mixed metaphors. The show is available to watch via Amazon Prime in the UK and in the USA via Starz.

Black Sails: Season 3

Following their betrayal in Charles Town, Flint and the crew of the Walrus have embarked on a bloody campaign of retribution against pirate-chasers and magistrates along the coast of the New World and in the islands, sparking widespread anger in England. An enterprising and ambitious British expedition to retake Nassau is launched, whilst the formidable Edward Teach - the infamous Blackbeard - returns to the island to resume his friendship with Charles Vane.

Following the bloody carnage which ended Season 2 of Black Sails, the third season opens with a much more wide-ranging and ambitious storyline, one that ranges from London to the coast of North America and back to the Bahamas, taking in events from before the show began (revolving around Teach and Hornigold) as well as pushing the story forwards more definitively.

The result is yet another extremely strong season for the show, being one that is rooted in superb character development, some remarkable action setpieces (the writers gaining confidence that the CG can deliver the epic naval battles they're asking for) and some great storytelling. In the storm sequences in the second episode, the show breaks new ground in the level of production value that can be expected from TV shows.

There are a few issues. It takes a long time for the crew of the Walrus to get involved in the action back in Nassau, part of the problem of having established Flint and Silver as such formidable protagonists that the audience would have a hard time believing they couldn't deal with any problem that emerged, but also needing them to get back in the fight quickly and having a realistic shot at dealing with overwhelming ods. The result is some wheel-spinning and convenience (the arrival of an experience pirate warship and a ready-made army of ex-slaves feels a bit too easy), which the show quickly bounces back from.

Black Sails steps up a notch in its final episodes, not being afraid to axe major, long-running characters and ramping up the stakes and tension to a new degree. The new castmembers, particularly the mighty Ray Stevenson (Rome) as Blackbeard and Luke Roberts (a brief but memorable turn as Ser Arthur Dayne in Game of Thrones) as the British commander Woodes Rogers, are excellent and help broaden the scope of the show to its benefit.

Season 3 of Black Sails (****½) might be, by a hair, the strongest season of the show. It balances fine character work with exceptional action and politics with practicalities. The show is available to watch via Amazon Prime in the UK and in the USA via Starz.

Black Sails: Season 2

Captain Flint and the crew of the heavily-damaged Walrus have located the Spanish treasure ship Urca de Lima. Unfortunately, a heavily-armed Spanish garrison stands guard over the gold, forcing Flint to consider an alliance with other parties in Nassau to secure the prize. Meanwhile, in Nassau the town is rocked when Charles Vane and his men seize control of the fort that defends the harbour, putting Eleanor Guthrie into an uncomfortable position as she tries to navigate treacherous waters between her former lover and the welfare of the community.

The first season of Black Sails started off as Game of Thrones meets Master and Commander, mixing the character drama and sex of the former against the nautical attention to detail and striking production values of the latter, before forging its own path. The show's strength was telling a plethora of gripping storylines simultaneously, mixing politics, war, criminal enterprises and the idea of nation-building, and how even desperate criminals yearn, on some level, for civilisation.

The second season continues in much the same vein. Once again, the series focuses on Captain Flint's obsession with seizing a prize so vast it defies imagining, but finds it difficult to find allies who share in his vision, or men patient enough to forego other, shorter-term profits in favour of a larger goal. Fortunately, the series dials down the intensity of the first season a bit, where Flint was put in an almost impossible position by the end of the run. The second season rows things back to put him back in command with less risk of the crew turning mutinous every five minutes. It doesn't do this artificially and instead has a solid arc spanning the first few episodes reaffirming the crew's loyalty to Flint, which also causes John Silver to rise to the fore. Tensions over Flint's command continue, but in a more believable fashion.

Elsewhere the show continues to sprawl indolently over many storylines, some personal (the complex relationship between Jack Rackham, Anne Bonny and Max) and others political (such as the struggle for control of Nassau Fort). Most striking is a flashback story where we follow Flint's personal history, his relationship with Lord and Lady Hamilton and his descent from law-abiding naval officer to pirate.

There aren't too many problems with the second season of Black Sails (****½), although the ferocious pace of the first season (which only had eight episodes to work with) is lessened somewhat here with two more episodes to fill, but the stories and character arcs expand well enough to fill the extra time. The production values remain highly impressive, the actors are superb (Max's occasionally overworked accent being perhaps a slight flaw, but the actress is so good it's hardly an issue) and the storytelling is compulsively enjoyable. The show is available to watch via Amazon Prime in the UK and in the USA via Starz.

Black Sails: Season 1

1715, the West Indies. The feared pirate Captain Flint captures a cargo ship and recruits one of its surviving crewmembers, John Silver, as a cook. The way of life for the pirates, operating out of the port of Nassau, is threatened by British imperial ambitions in the region and the growing power of the American colonies to the north. Flint hits on an ambitious plan to enrich himself and his crew forever, and to give the governess of Nassau, Eleanor Guthrie, the means by which to give the island and the city its freedom. But his plan is dangerous and reckless, and many on both the island and his own crew plot to stop him from endangering them all.

Black Sails is a four-season show airing on the Starz network in the USA from 2014 to 2017. It was part of the post-Game of Thrones new wave of "Golden Age of Television" dramas, readily identifiable by a veritable overload of sex in the first season, although the show does calm down and starts exploring the characters and storylines in more detail and becomes a much more compelling character drama.

Season 1 sets up the basic premise: the series is based on the island of New Providence in the Bahamas. The port of Nassau stands as a base of operations for multiple pirate crews, most notably the Walrus under Captain Flint and the Ranger under Captain Charles Vane. The pirates' way of life is profitable but fragile; Nassau was a British colony that's descended into lawlessness and the pirates fear the return of the British in force. Eleanor Guthrie rules Nassau as governess, but her authority is fragile and reliant on the cooperation of the crews, something that has been less certain since she broke off a relationship with Captain Vane. Captain Flint proposes a grand endeavour, the capture of the largest Spanish treasure galleon afloat with enough money to make every crewmember in the attempt rich and to help secure Nassau's future independence. However, Flint's methods of maintaining secrecy (including killing those whom he believes are security risks) alienates several key members of his crew, who plot a mutiny, whilst Eleanor's authority is tested by both her father (who helps sell the pirates ill-gotten gains in the American colonies, where fewer questions are asked) and various interlopers.

The first season tells a multitude of stories simultaneously: Flint's efforts to seize the Spanish galleon and keep his command (and head); John Silver ingratiating himself with the crew of the Walrus; William "Billy Bones" Manderly fighting a battle between his personal loyalty to Flint and his responsibility to the Walrus crew; Vane's attempts to win back Eleanor and build himself a power base; Eleanor's attempts to maintain order and her authority in Nassau; Jack Rackham's attempts to secure himself and his lover a future on the island when their initial fortunes turn sour; the fortunes of a prostitute named Max as she attempts to win herself greater power and authority; and the attempts by former slave turned freeman Mr. Scott to protect his employer Eleanor, sometimes from her own worst instincts. There's a lot going on in the first season of Black Sails and this works to the show's benefit.The writing is good enough to balance the different storylines and characters out and allows the stories to all move forwards at a fair old clip. Even in this Era of Binge, Black Sails is more bingeable than most shows, delivering a plethora of splendid character stories, larger geo-political concerns and occasional soap opera-ish elements that makes it a compelling drama.

The cast is exceptional, especially Toby Stephens as the determined but perhaps overly-paranoid Captain Flint and Luke Arnold as the young and callow "Long" John Silver (whom we know is destined for infamy, but at this point is an overconfident and callow youth). Also superb as Tom Hopper as Billy Bones, Jessica Parker Kennedy as Max and Hannah New as Eleanor Guthrie, with Zach McGowan putting in an appropriately steely performance as Charles Vane and Hakeem Kae-Kazim providing substantial gravitas as Mr. Scott. There isn't a weak link in the cast.

In terms of the history, the show isn't trying to be a docudrama but it does illustrate and complicate some of the cliches about the Golden Age of Piracy. It shows captains ruling their crews mostly through agreement, with votes being held on key decisions. The depiction of pirate captains as tyrants is illogical (since crews would simply kill a tyrannical captain or leave the ship the next time they hit port) and the show does a great job of showing the tricky balancing act captains had in maintaining their authority. There's also a good depiction of how a complex balance of power exists between Britain, France, Spain, Portugal and their colonies in the New World, with the pirates caught in the middle and only existing because these powers have not been able to divert enough resources to stamp them out altogether. The show delves into a number of other themes, like the role of women in pirate society (including the depiction of real historical figures like Anne Bonny) and the transatlantic slave trade (with the last couple of episodes of the first season going into the issue in some detail).

Black Sails does have a few weaknesses in its first season. There's a few under-explored character beats which makes understanding the motivations of key characters a bit more difficult than it should be, particularly of Flint (extensive flashbacks in Season 2 do resolve these issues, however). Budgetary considerations means a lot more action happens on land then perhaps you'd expect in a pirate drama, although when the shot does start flying and the cutlasses clashing, no expense is spared. The CGI used for major sea battles can be a bit variable (players of Empire: Total War may experience some flashbacks) but for the most part is very impressive. Some may also find the prevalence of female nudity a bit tiresome, but as the show retreats from its initial "Game of Thrones meets Master and Commander" setup (favouring the latter more than the former, admirably) and forges its own identity, that also becomes less of a problem.

Season 1 of Black Sails (****½) hits a few minor problems on its way out of drydock, but otherwise is an excellent, enjoyable and addictive drama. It is available to watch in the UK via Amazon Prime and in the USA via Starz.