"Black sails" (TV series): reviews of the audience

"Black sails" is a dramatic television series produced by the US, created in the genre of a thriller, a kind of prequel to the novel by R. L. Stevenson "Treasure Island".

"Treasure Island" for adults

From the famous children's franchise about the adventures of Caribbean pirates, in which the heroes, elegantly fencing, managed to throw modest jokes, "Black Sails" are characterized by an abundance of really brutal episodes. The show rating, according to IMDb version, is quite high - 8.20. In addition, the series "Black Sails" reviews viewers mostly have eulogies.

Starting with the pilot episode, the beholder finds himself immersed in the thick of events, he seems to be transferred to a ship that will soon be captured by pirates. The team is headed by Captain Flint, who is known to everyone as a literary character in the novel by Stevenson. In general, the events shown in the TV movie unfold about twenty years before those described in the book.

Smart and exciting prequel

The first season consists of 8 hour episodes. The first and third series was directed by the famous British director Neil Marshall, known to the audience for the impressive thriller "Descent", "Judgment Day" and no less brilliant project "The Game of Thrones". As a producer, Michael Bay made a speech, so even before the premiere of the series "Black Sails" the reviews deserved encouraging, because, as the resensors claimed, Bay to the bad one would not want to have a relationship.

During the preparatory process, massive decorations were erected. Director Pilot Neil Marshall calmed the hungry details of the audience and promised that the project would not be a clone of "Pirates of the Caribbean". According to his statement, the show looks like a mix of "Deadwood" and "Game of Thrones". The story is on behalf of pirates.

Clear accents

The series "Black Sails" (season 1) was filmed in the open sea, washing the coast of South Africa. Visualization is excellent, the picture looks impressive, there are no annoying scripted sagging. The story with the light hand of the creators turned out to be bloody and gloomy, and the characters - bright, memorable, understandable to the viewer. The only drawback, pointed out by critics, analyzing the television movie and posting reviews: the series "Black Sails" made Flint an unnecessarily positive character. During the viewing, the viewer will necessarily sympathize with him, since the writers have designated accents in such a way that the viewer of the other options simply does not remain. This situation is similar to the franchise "Pirates of the Caribbean", where the main "positive" hero is also a dazed pirate. At the same time, "Black Sails" is the best serial for the amateur of the action: during the narration the mass of battles on the sea and on land, fists on fists and with the use of cold weapons, shooting from guns and endless chases.

A successful script mix

As already mentioned, the storyline of "Black Sails" precedes the events of the novel by Stevenson. In the center of the narrative are the heroes who hunt for Spanish gold: Captain Flint (in the unrivaled performance of Toby Stevens), John Silver (actor Luc Arnold) and Eleanor Guthrie (the luxurious Hannah New).

By the way, the corsairs of Stevenson are mostly represented by real scoundrels or legendary shadows, in "Sails" they appear before the viewer in a completely different light. During the viewing it becomes clear that the script writers were oriented not only to the literary source, but also to the romantic pirate canons claimed in Captain Blood's Odyssey by R. Sabatini and "The Black Corsair" E. Salgari. In these works, filibusters were represented as reflecting heroes, periodically exhibiting the remnants of decent upbringing and nobility.

Notable gallery of characters

"Black sails" - a series, reviews of which, in addition to genre frills, noted a remarkable gallery of characters, most of which deserve a separate offshoot of history or even spin-off. In general, the characters can be conditionally divided into two guilds:

• The literary heroes of Stevenson: apart from Flint, this is John Silver, Billy Bones (Tom Hopper from the "Game of Thrones"), Ben Gunn (Chris Fisher), in the fourth season, they were added by Israel Hands (David Wilmot, familiar on "Tudors" and "Vikings" ");
• Real corsairs: Anne Bonnie (Clara Paget, glittering in "Fast and Furious 6"), Jack Rackham (Toby Schmitz), Edward Tich Blackbeard (Ray Stevenson), Charles Wayne (Zach McGowan, who lit in "Shameless").

This combination of fictitious and really existing pirates is indicative of serial ideology in general. The creators of the show intentionally combined fiction with the story, creating a reality that exists parallel to ours.

The series "Black Sails" (all series) is shot in a format in which historical reality and author's fiction compete, that's why he was christened a new pirate myth, in which there is no place for the Disney gloss "Pirates of the Caribbean", the romance of sails fluttering from the wind and amusing courage During the division of the prey.

One of the main treasures of modern TV

The showmakers Robert Levin and Jonathan E. Steinberg had to make a lot of efforts to surprise the viewer with the second after the end of the first season. The audience, somewhat tired of the inexorable action, lost interest in the project, and then "Sails" in the second season dramatically changed the motion vector and raised rates. The authors of the project flatly refused to shock-dramaturgy, putting in priority the complication of the characters' images and their story histories. The narrative of the second season began swiftly, the creators did not waste precious time for swinging, and immediately jerked into battle.

To the cast of the second season joined the well-known actor Ray Stevenson ("Divergent", "Thor"), which turned into a pirate nicknamed Blackbeard. The second season has 10 episodes. However, in the series "Black Sails" all seasons, except the first, consist of ten episodes.

Almost an ancient tragedy

If the second season of the show became frankly dramatic, then the third turned into a real movie tragedy, in which the guns thundered already on a different occasion. The dream of the key character is threatened by a serious danger in the face of Woods Rogers (Luke Roberts), set out to end the fishery of gentlemen of luck in the Bahamas. His supporters are Eleanor Guthrie and all the corsairs who received an amnesty, but the final battle is yet to come (the fourth season of the show "Black Sails").

The audience's view was called an almost-something-antique tragedy, since valiant brave men have already laid their heads (mainly because of women), others are going to leave for another world in the fourth season, and the few that managed to survive in twenty years will go to Treasure Island.

Completion of triumphal voyage

At the beginning of January 2017 a huge army of fans of the project was waiting for exciting news: the 4 season of the series "Black Sails" was announced by the TV channel Starz final. One of the creators of the television movie and part-time executive producer - Jonathan E. Steinberg - in an interview with the media claimed that few TV men have a chance to have as much freedom for creativity as the authors of the project had for four years. He admitted that the decision to finish the shooting process was given to the whole creative group not easily, but there is no better version of the end of the story that harmoniously led to the "Treasure Island".

Recommend to view this fascinating and very clever series is definitely. Behind the background action there is a secret meaning: "Sails" is a story about a spiritual trace, a strong power and a subtle connection that can transform into the power of one individual over another, and after one idea over all members of the pirate freemen. As the viewers say, in addition to the philosophical background, the merits of the project include a complex, combined, saturated and unpredictable offshoots, turns and culminations plot, driven by beautifully constructed characters. All the actions in the series are formed into a huge mosaic, from which a single unbelievable picture gradually emerges.