TV Review: Our Flag Means Death Gets Gushy In S2
Our Flag Means Death is one of my fave shows. It exudes love at it purest form, which is inspirational. Love is supposed to make you feel that you can be better, and that every pain you ever suffered or caused can make to the love that can happen for or via you. Such romanticism is not easy to find in tv or film. With Season 2´s return, OFMD surprises with how much softer it gets.
When you have such a cult following, right out of the gate, it can feel hard to continue the story. People feel they own your characters, and can pretty much fictionalize, on their own, every potential plot you throw at them. Take Waititi surprises by giving a season that for all its typical raucous, bombastic laughs and uptick in action, feels oddly quieter, simpler, and focused on what it has been its heart all along: the love story of Stede and Blackbeard.
Between mental breakdowns, redemption arcs, and an eventual epiphany that their relationship speed might be the very thing blocking their individual dreams: Stede and Blackbeard feel like an actual couple. They are giving Moulin Rouge levels of love and fabulosity, all while serving the genuine existentialism of finding the greatest love of your life and for yourself when your older. While most people praise the MAX show for its depiction of LGBTQ+ relationships, it is its view of older romances that really wins us all.
You do not see love stories or people in their 40s and 50s discussing their dreams. Usually, those aged characters are the parents of a 19 year old and are just raring to make sure THEY make it. There is feeling of like like has posed, and Rhys Darby makes Stede such a lovable charm because he is the essence of a dreamer, which is aimless. He embodies the inner, eternal call to be extraordinary, even that means being a little lost and crazy. He has unwavering hope, and it is enough so to make Blackbeard, a deadly pirate, reconsider his life and want to open an inn.
I think the sweetness of love is how it make you want peace. It makes a simple, good day feel like gold, and seeing Stede have his pirate dreams while Waititi´s Blackbeard is ready to retire will bring you both joy and tears. In fact the season is headed for a lot of both. With so much love in the air, so comes tension and the real struggle on what it means to become the most powerful version of you, if it has to be done alone. Out on Max Now.
