by OL » Mon Mar 10, 2014 2:30 pm
I really want to like this show Black Sails. By all accounts, it ought to be exactly the kind of show I would love; it's all about the pirates operating out of Nassau. And, in a lot of ways, it's actually really well-put-together. The settings and costumes and all that stuff is great and, outside of the ridiculously "modern" makeup that every girls seems to be wearing, it all makes for a good aesthetic atmosphere. And most of the actors have a pretty good screen presence and all that.
But it falls into the same trappings that seemingly all other shows on the Stars channel do; it's needlessly vulgar. Despite being based in the 1700s, of course they just had to put the word "fuck" into every other line of dialogue. That shit is always distracting to me when I watch a period piece. If you're aiming for any sense of authenticity, making the characters speak like they grew up watching Tarantino movies makes no sense whatsoever.
And worst of all is that when they get to a sex scene, they go out of their way to make it as dirty as possible.
Honestly, if it's important to establish that two character have sex, being that it's a part of the plot and all, then sure, show them heading into it for a half minute or whatever, but then move on to other things. Seeing the girl lick her hand and stick it between her legs before the guy gets up in there is not necessary in the slightest, and it serves nothing but to make the show feel cheap. I mean, seriously, you look at something like that from a filmmaking perspective, and how must that have played out on set? The director telling the girl to stick her spit-covered hand between her legs before the guy starts grinding into her is, let's face it, nothing short of porn. Not to mention the obligatory titty closeups that do absolutely nothing for the show other than to scream "yay tits!" Shit like this just craps all over the otherwise good production values and likable actors and makes the whole show feel like an exploitative piece of shite.
It's a fucking shame. I really wanted to like this show.
Oh, and the writers really didn't help things when, it the first or second episode, they have a captain giving a big speech about this Spanish ship he wants to take, and has him describe its worth as being "more than five million dollars."
Dollars, really? They honestly couldn't speak in terms of reales, for fear that the audience was too stupid to understand anything other than a dollar?
I mean, sure, the term "dollar" existed back then, but it very likely wouldn't be the word a pirate in Nassau would jump to when talking money with someone he needs help from.
It just comes off as silly in the scene, like the modernizing of the dialogue just got out of hand.
I still go back and forth to the show when I'm just flipping through channels, but it just feels too cheap for me to bother seriously watching it anymore. Such a wasted effort.