If you subscribe to Netflix and are looking for a great historical fiction show to watch, you have lots of options. For instance, The Last Kingdom dramatizes the Danish invasions of England during the 9th and 10th centuries, and Bridgerton gives us romance and intrigue in a reimagined version of Britain’s Regency era. But one show has both of those series beat: Black Sails, which originally aired on Starz before coming to Netflix.
Set far from England, Black Sails takes place mainly in the pirate port of Nassau on the island of New Providence in the Bahamas. We’re in the early 18th century, the Golden Age of Piracy. Black Sails blends fact and fiction into an unforgettable TV experience.
Is Black Sails even really historical fiction?
Yes, mostly
Black Sails has an ensemble cast, but the first among equals is Captain Flint (Toby Stephens), a Lieutenant in the British Royal Navy who turned to piracy after a cruel betrayal. He now pushes back against the corrupt influence of civilization with the help of crew members like Billy Bones (Tom Hopper) and Long John Silver (Luke Arnold). You might recognize those names from the classic adventure book Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson, a work of total fiction. You’re right: Black Sails is a prequel to Treasure Island, but it brings it real historical events to give the story some verisimilitude.
For instance, a key plot point early in the show involves the Spanish ship the Urca de Lima, which really did sink in 1715; it was loaded with treasure, which gives the show an explanation for how Flint got his hands on the gold that would go on to be such a big plot point in Treasure Island. The show covers the attempt by the English crown to get control over Nassau, which was a real place, by appointing Woodes Rogers (Luke Roberts) as Royal Governor of the Bahamas.
A lot of the characters are drawn directly from history, including real-life pirates like Charles Vane (Zach McGowan), Jack Rackham (Toby Schmitz), Anne Bonny (Clara Paget), Benjamin Hornigold (Patrick Lyster), Ned Low (Tadhg Murphy), and Blackbeard (Ray Stevenson). They even do some blending at the edges, as with the character of Israel Hands (David Wilmot), who was both a fictional character in Treasure Island and an actual pirate in Blackbeard’s crew.
There are other fun details, like Jack Rackham designing the traditional pirate flag known as the Jolly Roger, which really did happen. A lot of what goes down on Black Sails isn’t strictly true, but the show pays such close attention to detail that it fools us into believing it anyway, and that’s more than half the battle.
Get on board with Black Sails
One Piece meets Game of Thrones
And speaking of battles, Black Sails gives us some memorable ones, especially once the second season starts and the budget balloons a bit. It’s true that the first season of Black Sails is held back a little by the budget and the fact that a lot of the storylines haven’t built themselves up yet, but from the second season onward, the show catches the wind and never looks back. It’s one of the few shows where it’s worth pushing through a couple of boring parts at the beginning to get to the best stuff.
That said, Black Sails doesn’t need action to make itself interesting. There’s a lot of drama baked into a show about what is effectively a group of criminals trying to bring order (but not too much order) to a community made up of people who have rejected the idea of living within the law. Pirates tend to do what they want, and characters like Eleanor Guthrie (Hannah New) have a devil of a time trying to get them to come together and work against the specter of British control, to try and legitimize them just enough that they can survive, and maybe even thrive.
The pirates on Black Sails are morally grey, sometimes violent, pragmatic, and contradictory; there’s something heroic about them trying to carve out space for themselves in a world that would rather they not exist, but they’re not cut-and-dried heroes like the pirates on, say, One Piece. Black Sails is closer in spirit to a show like Game of Thrones, where it’s less about who’s good and bad and more about who can get and hold onto power. And like on Game of Thrones, the stakes on Black Sails are real. Important characters can and will die, so viewers can never get too comfortable.
Black Sails is great from start to finish
If you don’t have a good ending, you don’t have much of anything
But unlike Game of Thrones, which ended in a way that infuriated fans, the ending of Black Sails is widely celebrated, wrapping up the show’s various storylines in a way that honors both actual history and the events of Treasure Island. It’s bittersweet, sad, hopeful, and melancholy, and will leave you with the feeling that you just watched something spectacular.
Black Sails runs for four seasons and a total of 38 episodes, which means it’s a long enough series to sink your teeth into but not so long that it’ll take you an interminable amount of time to finish. It’s the perfect tightly packed drama, and it’s streaming on Netflix right now.
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Historical fiction addiction
Historical fiction is a dependable genre. Basing a story in actual fact gives it a good foundation, but there will always be holes writers can fill with drama, comedy, and intrigue. You don’t have to make up the whole apparatus, just the fun stuff.
And Netflix has a ton of great historical fiction to sample, including The Crown, Peaky Blinders, Vikings: Valhalla, and more. Black Sails fits right in with the best of them.
- Release Date
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2014 – 2017
- Network
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Starz
- Showrunner
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Jonathan E. Steinberg
- Directors
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Alik Sakharov, Steve Boyum, Lukas Ettlin, Stefan Schwartz, Clark Johnson, Marc Munden, Neil Marshall, Sam Miller, T.J. Scott, Michael Nankin, Rob Bailey, Roel Reiné, Uta Briesewitz
- Writers
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Dan Shotz, Lisa Schultz Boyd, Heather Bellson, Doris Egan, Michael Angeli, Michael S. Chernuchin, Peter Ocko, Josh Rothenberger
