One Piece: Best Pirate Series To Watch Before Waiting For One Piece
One Piece is about to land on Netflix this month. There are not so many pirate series, a phrase that has a strong aftertaste of nonsense given the resounding popularity this figure has enjoyed in the last decade in particular. Not that before or after it wasn’t fashionable anyway, the pirate remains one of the most fascinating staples of popular culture, but the explosion it underwent about 10 years ago was massive, even resulting in video games – just remember an Assassin’s Creed: Black Flag came out at pretty much the perfect time. Yet all this has not led to an explosion of serial content on the subject, moreover.
The Pirate Series To Watch Before Waiting For One Piece
Is it perhaps a question of budget? In most cases, a series focused on the pirate microcosm requires a huge production effort, between reconstructions of the sets and intense naval battles. One thing is certain: live-action One Piece is coming our way, something Netflix absolutely must not get One Piece wrong, and regardless of its quality we could be heading towards a renewed golden age for pirates. Is it the right time to find ourselves submerged in boarding raids, treasure hunts, legendary and charismatic characters, and a fantastic overdose of explorations? Posterity will judge. While waiting for One Piece, however, there are at least 4 TV series about pirates that we think shouldn’t be missing in your trunk.
Black Sails
We could not start with the most obvious, most famous, and in all likelihood most acclaimed series on the subject and, to tell the truth, unfortunately not so common, absolutely deserving of all these praises. Indeed, we will tell you more, the truth is that in our opinion Black Sails has never received the media attention it deserved, both during its broadcast and in the following years. And the reason actually could also be very trivial: the first season starts and ends great, but in the middle, it’s a bit confusing.
The rest, however, is a pure pleasure that wonderfully explores the imagination created by Stevenson in his famous novel Treasure Island to propose the best and most profound dissection of the pirate to date, portrayed not as a simple criminal with an insatiable thirst for gold but like a figure with precise values of freedom and equality against unjust, oppressive, tyrannical societies. Is the only way to make such a utopia a reality by declaring war on the whole world? Then you have to use any means available, even become the worst version of yourself. Black Sailsit is cruel, incredibly dramatic, majestic, and diverse in the subjects it touches, and its Captain Flint (a magnetic Toby Stephens) is sure to win a special place in your imagination.
Treasure Island (2012)
Again, an obvious choice. We are discussing the pirate series, and do you think one of the countless versions of Stevenson’s novel could ever be missing? Not even for a dream and, therefore, after having only touched it through Black Sails – which constitutes a subspecies of non-canonical prequel – the time has come to face it head-on, so we have chosen one of the most recent transpositions, by Sky. All in all, it is a linear two-part miniseries which, to be honest, when it came out, sparked several controversies, primarily aimed at the changes made to Stevenson’s work.
We have never considered them so radical and exaggerated and we prefer instead to focus on how much good this version manages to bring to the screen, namely the characters, the beating heart of Treasure Island: the naive youth of Jim Hawkins, the eternally fascinating hero/villain duality of Long John Silver (excellent proof of Eddie Izzard), the eccentric bizarreness of Ben Gunn, the ghostly almost mythical fame of Flint; it is all present and all played out with the right amount of detail and the right amount of virtuosity. Sure, it won’t be – and deep down we’re convinced it doesn’t even want to be – the most philologically correct forerunner to one of the novels that have cemented the figure of the pirate in popular culture, but it remains something to see both for Stevenson’s avid fans and for who has not yet had the pleasure of visiting it.
Our Flag Means Death
And for those who want a successful version of the pirates in a comedic key, last year HBO graced us with the delicious Our Flag Means Death. Now, let’s get our hands on it right away: those who think of starting the series created by David Jenkins and finding themselves in the presence of a historically accurate production will unfortunately have to look elsewhere as well as those looking for a raw and bloody pirate imagery. Our Flag Means Death, despite such an evocative (and at the same time exquisitely ironic) title, aims at very different objectives, a very different tone, a very different public who ardently desired – given also the enormous success – a comedy with decisive points of romance in a very different setting than usual.
In a nutshell, it is yet another product that follows in the footsteps of the extraordinary Apple TV+ Dickinson, where contemporary humor is brought to other historical contexts and surprisingly the quality is not dissimilar, giving life to a perfect evening pastime made up of absurd scenarios, pirates too self-aware and hilarious unlikely relationships, however excellently edited and gutted. It may not be the series that will change your life or convince you to try something that is not exactly right for you, but this does not detract from the value of Our Flag Means Death.
The Lost Pirate Kingdom
For those looking for a more real and historically credible experience, Netflix comes to your aid with the unexpected The Secret World of Pirates, a docuseries that narrates the rise and inevitable fall of the Nassau Pirate Republic. Definitely the darkest vision – although some arches of Black Sails give it a hard time – and apocalyptic of the theme as well as full of historical figures who over the centuries have entered into legend, from Blackbeard to Charles Vane, from Jack Rackham to inimitable Anne Bonny. However, there is a huge but attached to this series: as is often the case in Netflix-produced docuseries, not enough basic support is ever given to the viewer as omnipresent is the short-sighted belief that anyone who sees something like this already knows the subject.
And it’s really a sad leitmotif for a distribution platform of this size. Once this obstacle has been overcome, The Lost Pirate Kingdom proves to be a production of rare competence and capable of arousing sincere interest in what it tells. It won’t have the completeness and inspiration of a Black Sails or the almost surreal courage of Our Flag Means Death, but if an audiovisual product should also be judged by how it reaches the goal it has set for itself, then The Lost Pirate Kingdom becomes easily way among the best series of the genre by covering a specific audience niche.
