Our Flag Means Death Is A Celebration

I am a HUGE Taika Waititi fan, like...have a tattoo in honor of one of his films, big fan. I enjoy his work and think he's a witty, wonderful and absolutely wild in the best ways. I have a rabbit in a cage tattoo, taken from art from his film JoJo Rabbit because the film hit me on so many levels. It created an emotional tornado in me that helped me get out some seriously built up tears. Taika can also make me laugh until I cry, so I often turn to his work when I need to feel. Be it feel good and giggly or feel the full spectrum of my emotions. I believe there's a reason Thor: Ragnarok is the best Thor film (so far) and it's Taika's magic.

So of course, when I heard he was attached to a new show...about pirates... my curiously was definitely piqued. Throw in a bunch of amazing actors and an outstanding crew including Rhys Darby, Rory Kinnear, Leslie Jones & created by David Jenkins. The more folks added to the roster, the most I was in, including Kristian Nairn who I absolutely adored in Game of Thrones as Hodor. When I saw the first trailer for Our Flag Means Death, I was more than excited, but I didn't expect how seen I was about to feel.

I grew up watching all sorts of adventure media with my Dad. He absolutely loved characters like Indiana Jones and he was in the Navy, so I always felt like pirates were some kind of perfect intersection for him. Maybe pirates didn't have the best reputation, BUT they were adventurers of sorts looking for their own treasures, kinda like Indiana. I remember watching all sorts of pirate movies with him as a kid, from Captain Blood (1935) to Treasure Island (1950) to Black Beard the Pirate (1952) to a modern classic, Hook. I even have a line from Hook tattooed in honor of my father. We even watched Cutthroat Island together in theaters, but never got to watch the Pirates of the Caribbean films together sadly. As you can see though, a love of pirates wasn't something new.

Our Flag Means Death started March 3rd on HBO. It is based on the story of a true life gentleman turned pirate, Stede Bonnet. My wife and I found time to start the show this weekend, and finished it in a matter of hours. We just couldn't stop watching. We giggled at the jokes, and found ourselves getting more and more attached to the characters. There is a character especially, I couldn't help but root for. Vico Ortiz plays Jim, one of Stede Bonnet's crew. Once known as Bonafacia, Jim dresses masculine to hide their identity from another pirate searching for them. Even after they are exposed as being Bonafacia, their crew continues to love and embrace them as Jim, never forcing them to return to their dead name or binarized gender. It was the first time in my life, I truly felt like I could be a pirate myself and didn't have to pretend to be anything I wasn't. I could be a pirate too. Not only that, there are several queer relationships on the show, including between the two leads of Rhys Darby's Stede Bonnet and Taika Waititi, my king himself, as Blackbeard. My father, who lived a closeted life, and never got to truly be free in his sexuality...would feel represented in a place where he would have never dreamed. I didn't expect to cry in a comedy about pirates, but I did. By the finale, I had cried several times and could see myself as part of this crew, finding myself in their arguments, their friendships and love that was forbidden in a time of pirates. It never seems forced, it all seems so natural that now I wonder how many queer pirate stories were actually out there, and erased by a homphobic history. Who knows, Our Flag Means Death may be a fictional take on pirate lore and famous pirates of our past, but it doesn't mean it couldn't have happened in some way or another. Maybe in a past life, I was a Jim of my own. Maybe in a past life, my wife was a pirate too. Maybe on a ship like The Revenge, we found out own high seas sort of love. Our Flag Means Death makes it seem like it could have very well been a distant reality, and I'm so happy this show exists.

The finale to the first season of Our Flag Means Death was on March 24th, you can stream the entire first season now on HBO Max!