Comedy
Abbott Elementary
While Abbott Elementary’s humor will find appeal with fans of ‘The Office’ or ‘Parks and Rec,’ it won’t get a passing grade from others.
The pirate’s lifestyle must be quite desirable to have spawned so many movies and songs about it. Especially in 1717 during the “Golden Age” of piracy.
It certainly has a draw for Stede Bonnet. He left his wife, children and comfortable lifestyle (he was a wealthy landowner) behind to pursue adventure and renown on the high seas.
Except that Stede Bonnet isn’t much of a pirate. (Unless you’re coming from Larry the Cucumber’s point of view—and he sure wouldn’t be watching this show.)
Sure, the pirate’s life might be fun, but it isn’t particularly long. Your average swashbuckler has to steal to eat and kill to survive. A nasty storm could sink their ships and drown them. Not to mention competition with other pirates fighting for the same booty.
But Stede doesn’t much care for violence. In fact, he reminds his crew before a raid that “if someone returns from the raid mentally devastated, we talk it through as a crew.”
He believes it’s his duty as captain to help his crew grow as people, not pirates. So, he pays a steady wage, offers amenities (such as a tennis court) to make ship life more bearable, and reads bedtime stories to his shipmates.
Unfortunately, these pirates aren’t content with being the pirates who don’t do anything. They want to murder. They want to pillage. And they want to mutiny against their captain.
Looks like Stede’ll have to “toughen up” if he doesn’t want to die.
Our Flag Means Death is a comedic take on the life of Stede Bonnet, aka “The Gentlemen Pirate,” who actually was a real pirate from Barbados in the early 18th century.
There are jokes about violence, death and mental health. But there are also depictions of violence and death.
Bonnet gains the respect of his crew by claiming responsibility for the accidental death of a British officer (when Stede knocked the man unconscious, the man literally fell on his own sword—right through his eye socket)—which is about as mild as the violence gets. And the ghost of this man haunts Bonnet throughout the series.
Most of the buccaneers can’t even read, let alone expand their vocabulary. And therefore, we’re treated to a fair number of expletives (including uses of the f-word and abuses of God’s name).
One crew member is a woman disguised as a man (and portrayed by a non-binary performer). And in one episode, critical body parts are hidden by water when she swims.
So ye viewers be warned: Our Flag Means Death means risqué entertainment.
When Stede Bonnet abandons his family for a life of piracy, things don’t go quite as planned.
A man is stabbed through the eye with a sword (and dies) after being knocked unconscious and falling on the weapon. Some people are stabbed and shot. Two men get into a fight, and one is nearly stabbed with a pair of scissors. We hear jokes about violence and death. Several pirates complain about their low kill-counts. Some pirates teach Stede how to fight (including a castrating move). A man puts in sharp, fake teeth before battle to “chew through throats.” Pirates plot a mutiny to murder their captain. A butcher chops up a duck, splattering blood on his and his son’s faces. A man shows a scar on his shoulder from where he was stabbed.
A man says that cats are evil, witches, that they have knives for feet and that they steal children’s breath. Someone says, “What the devil?”
Bonnet is mocked by his crew and British officers. We see a flashback to his childhood where he was tied to a rowboat while other children threw rocks at him as he paddled away. We also hear he was forced to make out with a horse. As an adult, he abandoned his wife and children to prove he isn’t a coward and make a name for himself (a name that was earned rather than given). And he acts as an advocate for mental health, supporting the idea that even pirates don’t deserve to live lives of abuse.
We see men bathing and using the toilet (nothing critical is seen). We learn a woman is disguising herself as a man. Someone says that sewing is “women’s work.” People kidnap, steal, gamble and lie. People drink and talk about drinking. There are multiple uses of the f-word, as well as “a–,” “d–n” and “h—.” God’s and Christ’s names are abused, the former sometimes paired with “d–mit.”
Emily studied film and writing when she was in college. And when she isn’t being way too competitive while playing board games, she enjoys food, sleep, and geeking out with her husband indulging in their “nerdoms,” which is the collective fan cultures of everything they love, such as Star Wars, Star Trek, Stargate and Lord of the Rings.
While Abbott Elementary’s humor will find appeal with fans of ‘The Office’ or ‘Parks and Rec,’ it won’t get a passing grade from others.
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