Black Sails is a television series set on New Providence Island that was written as a precursor to Robert Louis Stevenson’s 1883 novel Treasure Island. Jonathan E. Steinberg and Robert Levine conceived the series for Starz.
On January 18, 2014, it had its free online premiere on YouTube and other streaming platforms and video-on-demand services.
A week later, on January 25, 2014, the show debuted on cable television. Steinberg serves as executive producer alongside Michael Bay, Brad Fuller, and Andrew Form, with Michael Angeli, Doris Egan, and Levine serving as co-executive producers. The show depicts treasure-seeking pirates evading British government attempts to stop them.
Black Sails takes place during the Golden Era of Piracy in the early 18th century, nearly two decades before the events of Treasure Island. Feared Captain Flint hires a younger crew member as they struggle for New Providence Island’s existence.
This ambitious pirate story is helped immensely by going beyond the pay cable freedoms that often bog down lesser shows in boobs, blood and sex. Black Sails steers itself out of that realm after a few episodes and makes a play for bigger, more complicated stories.
The first episode said that “Pirates from New Providence Island endanger maritime trade in the West Indies in 1715. Every civilised nation’s laws declare them to be hostis humani generis, or enemies of all mankind.
In reaction, the pirates follow their own doctrine….war against the world.” Anne Bonny, Benjamin Hornigold, Jack Rackham, Charles Vane, Ned Low, Israel Hands, and Blackbeard are all fictitious pirates in the episode.
The first season’s narrative revolves around the search for the Spanish treasure galleon Urca de Lima.
At the start of the second season, the wealth from the Urca de Lima was stranded on the beaches of Florida, guarded by Spanish troops, but by the end of the season, the treasure had been stolen by Jack Rackham and his crew and carried to New Providence Island.
The second season answers the mysteries of how and why Flint—a navy officer and London gentleman—turned to piracy.
The third and fourth seasons centre on the conflict between pirates and the British Empire, as represented by Captain Woodes Rogers, for possession of New Providence.
Black Sails – Season 2 – Trailer
