Taika Waititi’s queer pirate rom-com is the perfect antidote to modern unhappiness

From the very first moment of Our Flag Means Death, the new historical pirate comedy starring Taika Waititi and Rhys Darby, you get a clear idea of the humour the show is trying to nail with the absurd story of a polite, effete, mostly pacifistic lord who decides to be a pirate. The comedy comes from his bumbling cosplay of a vicious scourge of the sea, and the rogue gallery of idiots and fools who form his crew.

Rhys Darby plays Stede Bonnet in the pirate rom-com Our Flag Means Death.Credit: HBO/Binge

It’s an understated humour, which fans of shows like What We Do in the Shadows would be familiar with (Waititi stars in and executive produced both), where the situation is so wacky and absurd, that sometimes the funniest thing to do is underplay the joke. One perfect example is the painfully polite wannabe pirate captain Stede Bonnet asking, “Did you mean to do that?” after being brutally stabbed in the stomach.

Our Flag Means Death is the story of Stede (played by Darby), a wealthy landowner who absconds from his wife, kids, money and comfortable life to become a “gentleman” pirate. If that sounds strange it’s because it is – but fascinatingly, it’s based on a real story. The real Stede met, and ended up committing various acts of piracy with, the infamous Blackbeard (played by Waititi in the show), eventually losing his ship and crew to the more successful privateer.

Where the show takes some liberties is with the characterisation of Stede and his crew as good-natured idiots, rather than the violent thugs and murderers real pirates most likely were. It also turns the relationship between Stede and Blackbeard into a queer rom-com, complete with all the tropes of the genre.

The latter we can only really guess at: perhaps the two pirates truly did fall in love in real life. Regardless, the show is getting a lot of praise for finally bucking the “queerbaiting” accusation that many modern narratives get, where same-sex attractions are teased but never realised. This gay pirate love story is sweetly explored among the many absurdities of life on the high seas, and is very satisfying for anyone who has ever wanted to kiss Waititi while he’s dressed in leather and flowing blouses.

The entire show is quite matter-of-factly progressive, without the feeling of a trite after-school special. Along with the queer love story at its heart, we also follow the story of Jim, whose arc starts off as a classic pirate trope of someone “pretending to be a man” replete with fake beard and prosthetic nose, but ends up cleverly examining non-binary identity. In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Vico Ortiz, who plays Jim and who identifies as non-binary and uses they/them pronouns, explained that Jim’s story feels authentic because there’s non-binary representation off-camera, too, with three non-binary writers in the writer’s room helping craft Jim’s story.

It’s a lovely little rom-com, a thrilling tale of unlikely love on the high seas, which provides a soul to the show that helps anchor it among a relatively chaotic story, which leaps from one misadventure to another. But even more than that, the show’s meditation on unhappiness makes both the romance and the pirate madness more profound, and more enjoyable.

It would be easy to gloss over Stede’s motivation to become a gentleman pirate as little more than a wacky premise – Our Flag Means Death has a dubious relationship with reality already, so this choice doesn’t need to make that much sense. But through multiple flashbacks, we learn about Stede’s former life, his wife Mary (played by Australian actor Claudia O’Doherty) and his children.

We learn he has immense guilt about leaving them and, at first, he’s painted in an unflattering light, making him at worst negligent and at best a ridiculous coward. However, as we continue, we start to see the deep unhappiness and boredom the pair shared in their loveless, arranged marriage.

Taika Waititi plays Captain Blackbeard in Our Flag Means Death.Credit: HBO MAX / Binge

Throwing it all in to become a pirate isn’t necessarily a sensible or an ethical decision, but the show makes it make sense. In fact, it’s a situation that reminds me of moments of completely non-urgent desperation I’ve found myself in, moments of such profound unhappiness with my situation that I’ve spontaneously moved cities within a week.

It seems a modern-day malady, to find yourself trapped in a job you hate, a relationship in which love and passion has cooled and stagnated, or even just a city or town which feels claustrophobic. As more people have moments of clarity from the pandemic, quitting their underpaid, stressful jobs as part of the “great resignation”, perhaps the story of Stede Bonnet is something the audience will empathise with: taking the chance to leave unhappiness behind.

Stede is not the only unhappy person in the show – so is Mary, who after being left behind with the kids (and Stede’s great wealth as mollification), actually thrives outside of her marriage. Blackbeard, in comparison to Stede, feels stifled by the life of a pirate, having reached a kind of pinnacle of his career. His own infamy takes away the excitement he once enjoyed, and he too dreams of leaving it all behind.

It’s the terror of the unknown that Our Flag Means Death becomes a metaphor for. The ridiculous adventures of a well-meaning pirate are silly, but also serve as a good analogy for the experience of burning down your old comfortable life and trying something new. There is terror, there are mistakes, and there is the horrifying and ever-present feeling that you’re in over your head.

But at the same time, there is the lure, like a siren’s song, that among all this fear and doubt, you will find happiness, purpose, adventure. Stede, who careens from one disaster to another might not have found his career as a pirate, but in that opportunity, in seizing life, he finds adventure and friendship and love. It might be silly and anachronistic, but it’s lovely to watch.

Our Flag Means Death is streaming on Binge.

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