From Starz, creators Jonathan E. Steinberg and Robert Levine alongside producer Michael Bay comes the hit pirate drama series Black Sails. This series stars Toby Stephens, Luke Arnold, Tom Hopper, Jessica Parker Kennedy, Hannah New, Clara Paget, Toby Schmitz, Luke Roberts and Ray Stevenson. The fourth and final season has concluded.
A prequel to the classic Robert Louis Stevenson novel “Treasure Island,” “Black Sails” is a pirate adventure that centers on the tales of Captain Flint, who has a reputation throughout the West Indies as being the most brilliant, most feared of all the Golden Age pirates. It’s 1715, and as Flint fights for the survival of New Providence Island — a debauched paradise teeming with pirates, prostitutes, thieves and fortune seekers — in the wake of threats from British and Spanish forces, he aligns himself with Eleanor Guthrie, daughter of the local kingpin, to hunt the ultimate prize and ensure his people’s survival. But standing in the way are rival captains, Eleanor’s intrusive father, and perhaps the bigger obstacle of all: John Silver, a young, fast-talking, authority-flouting sailor recently added to Flint’s crew.
The best pirate show there ever was and ever will be – has come to a perfect close and all we have left to do now is pick up a dusty old copy of Treasure Island and remember the good ol’ days when we had a series like Black Sails on the air. I felt the same energy watching this epic show come to it’s perfect ending, as I did when Spartacus was wrapping up after only a short few seasons – we won’t get another Black Sails – this was a perfect tale and I’m happy I was there to watch it unfold live with the rest of the fans.
Season four was an exhilarating spectacle that challenged TV audiences to rethink their plans about going to the movies and instead stay home and get something even bigger, better and far more bad-ass – all in the comfort of their own home. From the opening episodes which featured epic battles on the water and land, to the emotional and action-packed string of climactic episodes which saw our anti-heroes finally make their way to the iconic Skeleton Island (aka TREASURE ISLAND DUDE), this final season was by far the best and most dramatic yet.
After a ferocious battle which ignited Flint’s war at the end of season 3, we find our pirate army attempting to take back Nassau from Woodes Rogers who is absolutely relentless this go around…. The lengths he goes to this season to hunt down the pirate opposition was truly staggering and disturbing… I won’t ruin it for you, but he kills a main character in what is quite possibly the most brutal and bloodiest of ways I’ve ever seen on-screen. Who knew a boat could do that…. Gross… Luke Roberts did an incredible job as the villain these past couple seasons and he did more than justice to history’s most infamous pirate hunter.
I had always assumed Captain Flint was our main character in Black Sails but this year Long John Silver kind of took over that mantle (or in the very least became the co-lead of this tale), which really created something special seeing these two brothers and co-captains work as a team to take on the British Empire. They’ve always had this shaky relationship, one always plotting or keeping secrets from the other, never quite sure of where true alliances or motives lie, but in this final season their relationship will finally reveal the truth behind that partnership. Luke Arnold and Toby Stephens are one of the strongest on-screen duos in the history of television.
I’ve never seen such a dynamic, emotional and captivating friendship such as theirs – and especially this year in the final season. Those final two episodes especially – I just wanted those two to be friends but my god… The drama… I got chills in the series finale when I finally saw what Silver had been planning all along and by the end of the episode it could not have ended any better for both of these men. You could say that about any of our main characters really, because every single supporting person had their moment to shine and their own glorious ending, whether that be death or living out the rest of their days getting exactly what they’ve earned.
The action was fierce, the stunt-work exhilarating and the production value insane as they pulled out all the stops in making this final season chalk full of shocking character death, epic sea warfare and perfectly written and executed lines of dialog. If you thought Game of Thrones was alone when it came to epic speeches then get the hell out and take a look back at some of the performances and writing this year on Black Sails. It’s like every single performer was gunning hard for an Emmy – and I know it’s damn near impossible for a badass show such as this to get any nods aside from Tech categories, but the actors and actresses poured their heart and souls into these characters and delivered one of the finest ensemble bodies of work since The Wire, Deadwood or Sopranos. I will miss this show greatly but I will look back fondly at the greatest 40-plus hour pirate movie of all time and smile knowing that it couldn’t have wrapped up any better than this. Perfect.
Rating: [star rating=”5″]