Born in Barbados in 1688, Stede Bonnet was known as “The Gentleman Pirate.” Riding the waves in the early 18th century, history distinguished him because he owned land and had been born into a wealthy family before giving it all up to become a pillager and a plunderer. He reportedly even met and sailed with the notorious Blackbeard. David Jenkins (“People of Earth”), Taika Waititi, and Rhys Darby (“Flight of the Conchords”) take this bizarre chapter of history about an aristocrat-turned-pirate to comedic extremes in HBO Max’s “Our Flag Means Death,” delivering a farce with some amusing bits and guest stars surrounded by some inert pacing, lack of ambition, and flat joke delivery.
Regular Waititi collaborator, Darby, takes the role of Bonnet, a pirate who’s prouder of his on-ship library than any of his conquests (despite the relative idiocy of having a lot of paper books on a rocking vessel lit by candles). Darby plays Bonnet as something of a man-child as flashbacks to his childhood and failed marriage portray him as someone running from a landlocked reality that didn’t satisfy him. He’s not a pirate because he loves the high seas as much as he’s a pirate because he had nowhere else to go, and he may have underestimated his ability to handle the violence on the high seas. Directed by Waititi, in the pilot, and the great Nacho Vigalondo (“Colossal”), in the next couple of episodes, Darby leans into Bonnet’s awkwardness, playing him as a perpetually frightened and uncertain soul. Darby has ace comic timing, but Bonnet never feels like an actual character as much as a collection of tics that take the narrative from one device to the next. There’s a much richer version of “Our Flag Means Death” that actually takes Stede Bonnet seriously instead of just making him a caricature in a farce.
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The farcical approach doesn’t just hold Darby back. “Our Flag Means Death” is constantly raising interesting ideas and then zipping onto the next joke. It’s a show that feels hesitant to really dig into privilege, violence, or even—wait for it—toxic masculinity, despite giving all of these ideas lip service. Of course, there’s nothing wrong with refusing to take the concept of a Gentleman Pirate seriously, but the problems arise from a show that flirts with doing so only to sail in the other direction. Either be goofy, offensive, and broad in your humor or don’t. But a show like this can’t really have it both ways, and “Our Flag is Death” tries to reflect modern sensibilities in a way that doesn’t really suit its subject matter but in a way that never really gets its hand dirty. It should have gotten gritty, bloody, and gross right along with its pirate crew.
Having said that, the truly goofy comedy around Bonnet produces the show’s biggest laughs. The shipmates on Bonnet’s vessel consist of comically self-aware pirates who basically know they’re going to die if they get into any actual high-seas conflict. The best parts of the early episodes have the energy of Aardman’s clever “The Pirates! A Band of Misfits,” such as when the crew each design handmade flags for their ship or the consistently funny Joel Fry singing a little shanty about how they’re all going to die. Ewen Bremner, Kristian Nairn, Nat Faxon, and other familiar faces walk the deck while episodes offer space for guest stars like Fred Armisen, Leslie Jones, Nick Kroll, and Kristen Schaal, among talented others. People clearly wanted to work with Waititi and Darby.
“Our Flag Means Death” really feels like it’s becoming itself when its executive producer and pilot director prowls his way onto the show as Blackbeard himself, offering a counterpart to Bonnet’s aristocracy. There’s been an interesting development in Waititi’s style post-“Jojo Rabbit” wherein he seems to fancy himself something of a rock star instead of the awkward comedian of projects like “What We Do in the Shadows.” This performance is closer to his loud, abrasive one in “Free Guy,” but at least that kind of bravado fits a legendary pirate more here than it did in that misguided performance.
It helps to have a balance in Darby’s more nebbish style. The show’s smartest material comes when these two longtime collaborators are allowed to riff off each other with the Oscar-winning director finding some funny vulnerability in the infamous pirate. If Bonnet always wanted to be a pirate, what if Blackbeard always wanted to be an aristocrat? It’s a clever idea and a shame that HBO Max couldn’t send the final two episodes to press because it feels like “Our Flag Means Death” is really just finding its voice in chapters four and five, the final ones sent for review.
Although it could be another fake-out. Every time “Our Flag Means Death” threatens in its first five episodes to really find its voice, it feels like a kid distracted by a new, different two in the next chapter. Ultimately, it’s got enough amusing moments and talented performers to offer some comedic escapism once a week, but anyone looking for another “Shadows” or “Flight of the Conchords,” should sail to other waters. [C+]
“Our Flag Means Death” debuts on HBO Max on March 3.