Black Sails is infantile; don't believe the hype
Wow, I see that a lot of Black Sails fanboys are invading this board, insisting that everyone watch their show. Well, before you rush out and believe that Black Sails is some kind of masterpiece, prepare to be disappointed.
Make no mistake, Crossbones has its flaws. I'd rate it a 6/10. But just because it's not brilliant, it doesn't mean that Black Sails is a masterpiece. It's not. It's a juvenile, laughable borefest. If Crossbones is a 6/10, than Black Sails is a 4/10. In spite of boobs and bums, sweaty, lesbian sex, swarthy hunks dropping trou, and profanity being dropped with the frequency of a Tourette's Syndrome suffer, you'll be bored senseless by the pilot's glacial pacing and pretentious attempts at trying to come across as "sophisticated" and "intelligent."
Ironically, in spite of being more "mature", Black Sails feels even less authentic than Crossbones. Crossbones screws around with history a lot, but at least most everyone sounds and looks like people from the 18th century. On Black Sails you've got grown adults swearing like 14 year old mallrats, like "*beep* you!" and "Go *beep* yourself!" Wow, now there's some Emmy-award writing right there. This sure sounds like how people talked back in the 1700s, doesn't it?
The biggest joke of Black Sails, however, is that this is supposed to be a prequel to a CHILDREN'S BOOK. Can you imagine a prequel to, say, Pippi Longstocking filled with profanity and sex? Or The Wizard of Oz? I mean, seriously. But go figure, in this prequel, we've got people banging each other and people swearing like cursing is going out of style. And boobies. Lots and lots o' bouncing lesbian boobies.
Puhleeease!