US: Crossbones - Pirate drama

I watched the first episode last night, thought it was very good. The acting is obviously going to be of a high standard. Not realy comparing to the starz series as this is just a notch above. The story seems a lot better as well although quite similar.

The acting is great from malkovich i just hope they have some episodes at sea and some pirate battles and not just politics on the island.
 
Don't know if anyone has watched Black Sails but the base plot is almost identical which is odd but I did enjoy this more. Malkovich rocks but he's clearly not going to be a big imposing menace on the show as they humanised that away quite quickly which is surprising.
 
Richeh said:
Don't know if anyone has watched Black Sails but the base plot is almost identical which is odd but I did enjoy this more. Malkovich rocks but he's clearly not going to be a big imposing menace on the show as they humanised that away quite quickly which is surprising.
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What do you mean one is about the hunt for a treasure ship the other is about the hunt for a chronometer?
 
Richeh said:
Don't know if anyone has watched Black Sails but the base plot is almost identical which is odd but I did enjoy this more. Malkovich rocks but he's clearly not going to be a big imposing menace on the show as they humanised that away quite quickly which is surprising.
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Black Sails was excellent if a little slow, but the acting in the clip of the OP was a bit hammy and made it look like a Black Sails wannabe and falling short, i thought it was a spoof at first
 
For me it's the other way round. Black Sails did nothing for me. Barely any characters with more than one dimension, plot that could be fully described on a single sheet of A4, acting level of ITV drama, production and execution has that kind of small time european mini series feel, like "Dr. Who" or most of BBC productions - you know, second rate "in-game footage" level special effects, rendered footage and seldom sets and props reused everywhere, story telling like it was penned by a single writer that never bounced idea in his life off anyone, more attention to gender and ethnic equality on screen than about historical accuracy.

On that level, "Crossbones" blows "Black Sails" out of water. Special effects are less plasticine, film set is much larger, acting is still patchy, but overall level is better and so is the attention to script. But having said that, after first episode I'd say it looks like a single season adventure. If this was the pitch episode, if this is what they won the contract with, then I'm sorry but there will be no pirate costume dramas next summer. Ten minutes in it becomes quite clear why Mr. Malkovich is now a small screen hiatus season star, lead cast is terribly unlikable (who else wants main guy dead?) and because most of american scribes tend to think that before Boston tea party there was only wild west and before that the world was inhabited entirely by dragons and hobbits, so they need fantasmagorical steam punk devices to keep audience interested and/or resort to far fetched mysteries and ghosts for suspension as if historical facts, privateering, fleet raiding and epic naval battles couldn't deliver enough entertainment on their own. But the simple truth is - it won't last because it costs a fortune in costumes and locations and major networks are budget vs viewing figures driven. This is shown in dead season, with largely unknown cast and on network with terrible history of costume dramas. This show simply needed AMC.
 
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The Dread Pirate said:
What do you mean one is about the hunt for a treasure ship the other is about the hunt for a chronometer?
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Starting out at sea, with pirates going after a ship, with a guy onboard with a secret, who gets killed. Other guy basically pretending to be something he's not, both memorise something to use as a tool to stop the pirates killing themselves. Some woman leading the commerce on the island, etc, etc.

it was VERY similar, the actual secret, chronograph or treasure, is finer detail. The general sequence of things happening was so hilariously copied as to be laughably stupid. Make a new pirate show, months after another new pirate show, the first in many many years, and almost have a scene for scene copy of the first episode?


AS for the quality, while Blacksails just seemed to be fairly poor cast in terms of acting ability, this seems better cast but very overly hammy. The action was poor, the ships just coming together with not much external action of the chase. Then you had the cringe worthy moments where woman jumps down, smiles/poses for the camera a few times, does the back to back thing. I thought the general action, fighting, ship action, was all terrible.

The obviousness of the flirting and the frolicking in the water at the end under the husbands watch was weird. The being shot in the shoulder then seemingly almost forgotten with a loose bandage seemingly in the wrong place with no apparent bullet wound and well, ignoring how bad being shot in the chest would be in that era.

Really weird, I'll watch another ep or two, but it seems poorly written, overly hammy and the action wasn't at all good.
 
I watched the first couple of episodes of this, but I think I made the mistake of watching Black Sails first. Watching this after felt like I was watching a reboot of BS. Im sure I would have stuck it through if I had watched this first.

I did really enjoy BS however!
 
Crossbones cancelled, Black Sails renewed. Crossbones was better and bigger budget out of the two, but ultimately, massive costs and production delays (this was supposed to be midseason series premiering before Black Sails not summer series in dead slot) vs Nielsen rating system, it just couldn't win. At least it got a proper (if a little rushed) wrap up and ending.

A lot of internet sources claimed the entire series was carried by Malkovich but I remain unconvinced, for me Malkovich was a bad choice and ultimate nail to the coffin. His constant zoolander facial expressions and where-are-my-glasses stuttering teleprompter deliveries were constant disappointment. Hiring all English cast around one star for this type of series is always bad idea, but with Game Of Thrones at all times high, every network tries to do it these days to refresh the awful "made in Canada" feel all feature series have at the moment. Yet, historically, this is the quickest way to sink the show in America. British accent in a costume drama is a villain accent, if everyone speaks with the same accent, then things get very confusing for audience in US. We can wonder if the show would still be alive if networks original choice of the lead for the series - Hugh Laurie - agreed to play Blackbeard, but ultimately this is all moot. It was better than Black Sails but not good enough to stay. It will take another decade before any main network invests this much money again in summer costume drama.
 
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