Is Our Flag Means Death on Neon?

So in 1717 Stede Bonnet (Rhys Darby), like many others, set out in search of adventure and fame on the high seas. However, things did not go as planned for the wealthy landowner.

This is the backdrop to Taika Waititi’s latest production Our flag means death (available now to stream on Neon and free-to-air on Prime on Thursday nights from March 17th).

The Kiwi content creation phenomenon also directs some of the 10 episodes and plays the nefarious Blackbeard in an 18th-century work comedy that’s pretty much the baby of people of the earthis David Jenkins.

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When watching Our Flag Means Death, you can’t help but compare it to Aardman Animation’s similar antics in 2012’s The Pirates! In an adventure with scientists.

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Darby’s Bonnet, based on a real Barbadian known as the ‘gentleman pirate’, is the definition of ‘all talk and no pants’. More dandy than pirate captain, he’s struggled to win over his seedy crew.

Though he eschews the traditional shipboard culture of abuse (as much as Boba Fett does from him) and ensures his men are well taken care of by paying them a salary and furnishing the boat with a recreation room and a state-of-the-art, full library (though only one of them can read), there is always a danger of mutiny in the air. Especially when they’ve done precious little looting under Bonnet’s supervision.

“I wouldn’t take it personally, but they don’t like you – or your methods,” advises his first mate. “They see you as weak, soft-bellied,” he adds, citing his “notes” after boarding and a regular desire to discuss any issues as a group.

Bonnet is the real-life inspiration of Waititi and Rhys Darby's new comedy series Our Flag Means Death, which is now streaming on Neon and begins screening on Prime later this month. Darby stars as the well-to-do Bonnet, giving the character a boyish sense of adventure and wide-eyed enthusiasm for his fanciful notion of what pirate life is.

Bonnet's story is remarkable thus far but by jolly roger does it gets better. Shortly after his abrupt career change Bonnet struck up an unlikely friendship with the notorious pirate Blackbeard leading to the pair sailing together. In Our Flag Means Death Waititi plays Blackbeard as a grizzled man disenchanted with success.

"He's a very tortured middle-aged man who is questioning everything he's done in his life," Waititi says. "I can relate."

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As well as being very funny the show is also very much about dealing with mid-life malaise as both characters try to escape their respective funks, albeit in very different ways.

"I don't know if you ever get out of that funk. Every couple of days I question, 'Why am I here? Am I following my true path?' " Waititi muses. "And then I go jump in my swimming pool and I think 'I'm all right'."

He laughs and then continues.

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"But I think a lot of people do get that feeling and a lot of the show is about that. I don't think anyone's brave enough to do what Stede did and upend their entire life and go out seeking adventure. Very few people make a giant change like that. I think for a lot of people the truth of what's actually out there and what you're sacrificing is pretty brutal."

"The big things are never one thing," Darby adds. "It's way more complex than that."

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"Yeah, with Stede it's his childhood and who he became," agrees Waititi. "It all stems from what you see in the first episode; who he was told he was by his father, 'You'll be nothing but a stinking little rich kid'."

"And he never chose that. He didn't get to choose anything," continues Darby. "In those days, especially for the aristocracy, it was all, 'you're gonna do this'. He never made a decision in his life so he decided to make one decision. It was one hell of a decision, saying, 'I'm leaving all of this! I want adventure. I want to feel alive,' and then doing it. You've got to take your hat off to that. If you strip everything else away, just that human soul deciding to break free."

Having drifted into interesting waters I decide to sail into the wind and ask what fanciful notion or folly would it take for the pair to follow Stede's lead and leave it all behind.

"Leave my life?" Darby asks, surprised. "Well, I've been breaking free from the beginning. I decided not to stay where I was, not to follow anyone else's rules and to just make up my own world. I did it because I felt right from the beginning that I shouldn't even be here. I was a mistake and Dad didn't want me so I was like, 'well, I don't want this'. I decided I was going to reach for whatever I could and along the way make as many friends as I could and make as many people laugh as I could because that's the one thing I was good at. So I just hit the road and ran with it."

"I felt very independent since I was very, very young in the sense that I didn't trust grown-ups," Waititi says, following on. "I didn't trust that they were very good at either looking after you or leading you along the right path in life. I felt sometimes you're just better off looking after yourself. I had something to prove. I wanted to prove to the adults that I was worthwhile and that I could do something with myself. And I've been doing that ever since."

Quietly, he adds, "I'm still hung up on grown-ups telling me what to do. I hate grown-ups."

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For a moment the mood is still and their words hang in the air like a pirate flag without a breeze. Perhaps sensing dark clouds on the horizon Darby breaks the silence with a cheery gust of his characteristic boyish perk.

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