Our Flag Means Death’s creator says these 5 Westerns are key to his big gay pirate show
When Polygon most recently spoke toshowrunner David Jenkins about his big gay pirate show Our Flag Means Death, it was in part to talk about where season 2 of the series seems to be headed. While season 1 was about the hapless crew of the pirate ship Revenge finding their feet as pirates and finding unexpected emotional connections they often don’t know how to navigate, season 2 brings in a new sense of outside pressure against the central characters in the form of a military assault on piracy.
“I think there’s a story of this way of life coming to an end,” Jenkins told Polygon. “There are strong forces that are going to crack down on everything, and will the family survive? Is the thing they’ve built strong enough to survive?”
Much as Our Flag Means Death’s central story about “gentleman pirate” Stede Bonnet and notorious killer Edward “Blackbeard” Teach is drawn from real history, Jenkins explains that season 2’s outside threats are also part of history, from the end of the era known as the Golden Age of Piracy. But there’s another connection there that may surprise viewers: Jenkins says this season has a lot in common with the classic Western story arc.
“Every Western that’s good is that story,” Jenkins says. “‘This way of life we made is coming to an end. It can’t last. It’s a blip in time. We created this thing because we need it to exist. We’re outlaws, and we need a culture that suits us, but it’s running out of time.’”
Jenkins cited five different Westerns that follow that theme, from classic movies to a neo-Western crime thriller. All five are favorites of his that he sees as having themes in common with Our Flag Means Death’s second season, as it considers the noose tightening around its characters’ necks.
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