Toby Stephens
Hannah New
Luke Arnold
Jessica Parker Kennedy
Tom Hopper
Zach McGowan
Toby Schmitz
Clara Paget
Hakeem Kae-Kazim
Sean Cameron Michael
Louise Barnes

Created by:
Jonathan E. Steinberg
Robert Levine

2013-
Adventure, Drama
Starz
TV-MA

(After watching the first two episodes)

“Black Sails” starts off acceptably. Starz supposedly wants to compete with networks that have high quality offerings, so this show is an attempt to present more serious entertainment with a bigger budget than previous Starz’s shows, including “Spartacus.” Michael Bay is one of its producers, and you know what that means.

This adventure series is set in 1715 in the West Indies and is written as a prequel to “Treasure Island.” After the few glimmers of hope present in the first episode, the second episode does nothing to capitalize on its most promising bits. At this point, there’s a page that’s been stolen from a book that charts the route of a ship with lots of possible pirates’ booty. So, pirates are out to retrieve this stolen page. The second episode deals with the chase of the man who came into possession of that page. That chase is overly long and poorly written. The dialogue is off, the timing’s off, and the plot is too simple to sustain an hourlong episode. There are lots of characters, but not one of them is interesting. There are lots of knowing looks, but I don’t really care to find out what those looks are about.

I know that Starz and the producers of “Black Sails” want viewers to take this seriously, but it’s still a show about pirates. Where’s the energy? Serious doesn’t have to mean boring. For instance, by their second episodes, I liked “Spartacus” and “Da Vinci’s Demons” better than this. And they certainly aren’t great shows.

While “Black Sails” isn’t horrible, it’s not really worth your time.

Verdict: Whatever

About: (Source: blacksails)

1715. The Golden Age of Piracy. New Providence Island is a lawless territory, controlled by history’s most notorious pirate captains. The most feared is Captain Flint.

As the British Navy returns to redeem their land and exterminate Flint and his crew, another side of him emerges. Captain Flint aligns himself with Eleanor Guthrie, daughter of the local kingpin, to hunt the ultimate prize and ensure their survival.