Black Sails popped up on our Hulu and my wife and I needed something new to watch. She loves almost everything to do with pirates, so it wasn’t hard to convince her to watch it. Starz made this several years back, I think to compete with Game of Thrones. While it somewhat appears to be original, it truthfully serves as a prequel to Treasure Island.

The show is set during the golden age of piracy. We mainly see the crew of Captain James Flint, who is not a universally loved captain. He is constantly battling mutinies, but he hears of a Spanish ship he could plunder that has millions of gold coins.

He has a new crew member, John Silver who lied his way into being the new cook. He takes a page of information about the Spanish ship which sets off a huge scandal of lies and pirate politics.

They spend most of their dry time in Nassau (The Bahamas) which is pretty much ruled de facto by pirates and their business partners. Surprisingly it’s all mostly run by a young woman named Eleanor Guthrie.

But there are many pirates and crews to worry about, like Charles Vane. He had previously been a romantic item with Miss Guthrie. But the idea of a massive fortune will cause a lot of bad choices and plenty of deaths.

Honestly Black Sails is a pretty good show. Not Game of Thrones good, but very entertaining nevertheless. My wife and I have already started season two.