OFMD

[schneefink]

D and I watched the first four episodes of Our Flag Means Death. There were some entertaining elements, but overall I didn't enjoy it very much. For me it's a combination of my embarrassment squick, the premise not working for me, and (most of) the humor being not quite my thing.

I struggled from the beginning to like Stede, a person who dreams of being a pirate but is apparently too willfully naïve to realize that this involves people being actually hurt. Though some of the interactions with his crew were indeed fun (emphasis on "some.") I almost stopped after episode 3, which was just really uncomfortable to watch. I heard it gets better after that, and in episode four some of Stede and Ed's interactions were entertaining, but overall I was mostly uncomfortable and didn't enjoy watching it.
From the spoilers I know about of the rest of the season, I would probably enjoy about a third of every episode; e.g. I watched two compilations of Lucius scenes on Youtube and loved most of it. Unfortunately I'm pretty sure I would hate another third and another third would at best be awkward, so I don't think I'll give it another try.

Comments

[nonesensed]

I usually have a huge embarrassment-squick so I thought I'd not be able to get through this show at all, but for some odd reason only a rare few scenes had me flinching. Maybe because the characters feel so cartoonish and over-the-top to me? It's a mystery. Or maybe it's because I saw it while visiting family, so watching it was kind of a silly "group activity" for us?

I definitely get not clicking with the show, it's very hit-or-miss. I think the huge fandom grew at least in part from the show being "queer but not promoted as queer" - not saying that's true, it's just the most common "why I like this show"-reasons I've seen floating around the fandom.

[schneefink]

Yeah, I think the first I noticed the show gaining a lot of traction was the reaction to the kiss, idk in which episode it happens but many people were relieved that no, this really is a gay relationship.

[nonesensed]

It's very near the end - I think the second to last episode? - so it's understandable that people assumed it could be queerbaiting, because, well, history.¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I admit I myself was pretty happy that the show turned out to actually be a romance and not just another tired "haha, two guys look like they're flirting but they're actually ~just friends~, this isn't 'that kind' of show"-situation. We're getting more and more media that says Nope to heteronormativity and it pleases my queer little heart <3