Ahoy me hearties!
It's time to set sail for a second time as we follow the adventures of the Gentleman Pirate Stede Bonnet, Blackbeard, Spanish Jackie et al.
After a delightful first season streamed in the US in 2022 and the UK in 2023, HBO Max's handsome 'Blackadder' style pirate sitcom 'Our Flag Means Death' has returned.
But can David Jenkins' nautical sitcom maintain the magic?
(SPOILER ALERT!!)
Having returned to his wife Mary and then left her again by mutual agreement, season Two find Rhys Darby's Stede back at sea desperate to rekindle the love he has for Taika Waititi's Ed 'Blackbeard' Teach.
However a heartbroken Ed has returned to his monstrous pirate ways on Stede's old vessel The Revenge and behaves like a tyrant towards his crew who include his longtime first mate, Con O'Neill's Izzy Hands, David Fane's highly emotional Fang and two of Stede's old crewmates Joel Fry's Frenchie and Vico Ortiz's Jim.
The rest of Stede's crew - Samson Kayo's Oluwande Boodhari, Matthew Maher's Black Pete, Samba Schutte's cook Roach, Kristian Nairn's Wee John, Nat Faxon's The Swede and Ewen Bremner's spacey Scotsman Buttons - have wound up stranded having been turfed off their ship by Ed.
Charting a course for the Republic of Pirates on a rowing boat, Stede is reunited with them and they end up working for Leslie Jones' Spanish Jackie in her tavern, hoping to earn money to buy a new ship.
While the former crew of The Revenge waits tables, Spanish Jackie takes a particular shine to The Swede and ends up taking him as her 20th husband.
Stede and his crewmates attract an admirer, a minor noble and Prince, Erroll Shand's Richard Baines who tries to curry their favour by revealing that Spanish Jackie has a chest at the foot of her bed that contains something of great value.
While The Swede enjoys being her 20th husband, he agrees to help Stede, Richard and the crew steal the chest which they are disappointed to discover doesn't contain gold.
However they are caught in the act, with Spanish Jackie cutting off Richard's nose and putting it with all the other noses she collects in her nose jar.
Sparing The Swede, she is about to punish Stede and his crew when a benefactor arrives in the form of a former soup vendor previously known as Susan who has reinvented herself as Ruibo Quan's Pirate Queen, Zheng Yi Sao, conqueror of China.
Hugely wealthy, she buys Stede and his crew and also the chest and soon they set sail on her ship, The Red Flag.
With discontent fermenting in Ed's crew despite being incredibly successful plundering other ships, Izzy advises him he needs to discuss with them their feelings.
Ed reacts badly and lashes out when Izzy suggests his angry demeanour is a result of his break-up with Stede.
He shoots his first mate in the leg and demotes him, with a reluctant Frenchie thrust into the role of first mate and tasked with killing Izzy.
Frenchie and the crew instead hide Izzy on board The Revenge but his wounded leg festers until it has to be chopped off.
With Oluwande no longer on the scene, Jim starts to develop romantic feelings for a crewmate, Madeleine Sami's Archie but Ed attempts to pitch them against each other in mortal combat, driving a further wedge between him and the crew.
On The Red Flag, Black Pete is reunited with his boyfriend, Nathan Foad's Lucius Spriggs who was thrown overboard by Ed and has earned the monicker Ratboy.
Lucius has been traumatised by his experiences on other vessels.
Meanwhile Zheng Yi Sao explores her romantic feelings for Oluwande who is conflicted because of his previous relationship with Jim.
Zheng Yi Sao's first mate, Anapela Polataivao's Auntie is suspicious of Oluwande and Stede's crew and constantly voices her suspicions to the pirate queen.
When The Red Flag stumbles upon The Revenge and its traumatised crew, they discover Izzy minus a leg and that Ed is nowhere to be seen.
Old loyalties, however, come to the fore.
But will Stede, Oluwande and the gang betray Zheng Yi Sao?
Will they discover what has happened to Ed?
Can Stede rekindle his romance with Ed and improve as a pirate captain?
Will Buttons achieve his ambition to turn into a bird?
And why should they all be worried about the reappearance of Richard Baines in a British Naval uniform sporting a nose mask?
Season two sees David Jenkins, Alyssa Lane, Alex Sherman, Adam Stein, Eliza Jimenez Cosio, John Mahone, Simone Nathan and Zayre Ferrer back on screenwriting duties where they joined by Jes Thom and Natalie Torres.
Jenkins, Andrew De Young and Fernando Frias return to directorial duties as well.
This ensures the show retains its quirky Pythonesque humour and vibrant visual aesthetic.
Everyone involved seems very comfortable with what they are doing but are they just a little too comfortable?
While Season Two has a lot to recommend it, the show takes a few episodes to really hit its comic marks as Ed, in particular, undergoes something of an existential crisis.
As with Season One, Darby remains the show's strongest card as the inept and almost always optimistic Stede.
An episode where Stede basks in the glory of folklore that has built up in the Pirate Republic around his first kill is a real joy.
The show is also bolstered by O'Neill, Kayo, Jones, Ortiz, Maher, Fry, Foad, Nairn, Schutte, Faxon, Fane, Quan and Bremner's nicely judged supporting performances, with each cast member getting their chance to raise laughs.
Waititi's performance, though, is uneven - benefitting from the gentler moments when he doesn't have to be larger than life as Blackbeard.
Indeed, his best moments come when he shares the screen with Darby.
Sami and Polataivao are good additions to the cast, while Shand amuses as Baines.
Minnie Driver is a lot of fun when she pops up alongside Rachel House as two former pirates, Anne Bonny and Mary Read who have become antique dealers and have a love hate relationship with each other.
Bronson Pinchot is enjoyable as an insecure, sadistic pirate Ned Low who resents Blackbeard taking his record for most raids at sea, with Josie Whittlesey amuses as his torturer in chief Hellkat Maggie.
However you can't help thinking for much of Season Two that the show should be landing more gags.
Season Two really comes good, though, in its final two episodes but this cannot mask some worrying signs that as its central characters fret about their purpose in life the show is becoming a bit too rambling.
A little less introspection and a bit more charming ineptitude might be the way forward.
What's clear though is that they need to rekindle the magic.
Otherwise the show is at risk of running aground.
(Season Two of HBO Max's 'Our Flag Means Death' was broadcast on BBC2 between February 5-March 30 2024)
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