so many shows at some point seem like the creators don’t even know what is actually good about them and here he can articulate so much if that, and does!

YES.

I finally convinced Ethan to give the show another chance (he'd seen the first two or three eps ages ago via the press screeners) so we're rewatching from the beginning, and knowing where it ends up puts the awkwardness of those first few eps in such a better context. I love watching the crew gradually warm up to the idea that they're okay with being in a fun pirate romcom instead of the gritty grimdark pirate action movie they thought they'd signed on for. (They don't fully cross over into Stede's genre until the lighthouse scene when it's clear that Blackbeard is into it, which gives the rest of them permission to admit they're into it too, and from then on the comedy works SO MUCH BETTER because EVERYONE is finally on the same page about what genre they're in. Except poor Izzy, who will hang onto being a Gritty Grimdark Pirate with his dying breath because everyone else is Doing Piracy Wrong.)

I love watching the crew gradually warm up to the idea that they're okay with being in a fun pirate romcom instead of the gritty grimdark pirate action movie they thought they'd signed on for. (They don't fully cross over into Stede's genre until the lighthouse scene when it's clear that Blackbeard is into it, which gives the rest of them permission to admit they're into it too, and from then on the comedy works SO MUCH BETTER because EVERYONE is finally on the same page about what genre they're in.

Oh gosh yes. Though Oluwande was definitely prime to flip right from the start--we know absolutely nothing about his backstory, but he's clearly been at it for a while and he seems very aware from the beginning that this might not be a normal gig, but as piracy goes it's an easy gig, and he appreciates that and is cautiously willing to just follow it and see where it goes. Lucius, too.

Except poor Izzy, who will hang onto being a Gritty Grimdark Pirate with his dying breath because everyone else is Doing Piracy Wrong.)

OMG yes. Even worse, it's wrong but it keeps working anyway. How dare they! HOW DARE ANY OF THEM. He's spent his entire life torturing himself into becoming an excruciatingly stellar example of gritty grimdark, and that twat and his band of stupidly loyal, happy imbeciles are undermining the very core of Izzy's identity.

Oluwande was definitely prime to flip right from the start--we know absolutely nothing about his backstory, but he's clearly been at it for a while and he seems very aware from the beginning that this might not be a normal gig, but as piracy goes it's an easy gig, and he appreciates that and is cautiously willing to just follow it and see where it goes. Lucius, too.

Oh my two most precious cinnamon rolls and the way they try to protect Stede's little bubble of happy weirdness for him. I love them so much.

And the more space they make for his weirdness, the more freedom the entire crew finds for their own, which is considerable and joyful. Win/win/win/win/win/win/win.

JZ, your joy in this OFMD has lead to my discovery that I have HBO max through my cell plan! I am eight minutes in and can tell I am going to love it!

I am eight minutes in and can tell I am going to love it!

EEEEEEE. Come bring all your thinky thoughts here!

I don’t even have thinly thoughts just yet! It does give me Slings and Arrows the feelings now that I have made it to the part where Stede and Ed have met and are working together.

Oh, there's a moment coming up in the 6th episode that feels like a deliberate Slings and Arrows callback.

What is the spoiler policy?

My biggest thought on the end right now is that they killed My precious Lucius!

This show was released weekly, 2 eps at a time, and it's now at least two weeks after the last two episodes went up so it looks like no spoilerfont is needed.

Right now he is Schrodinger's Lucius, but I *think* there may be hope for him--actually killing him would be a hard dark turn that it would be almost impossible for Ed to come back from, plus the island everyone else got marooned on isn't actually all that far from the ship, and we already know that Stede is within sight of the island, so in a 'verse where it's already established that oceangoing distances are kind of wibbly wobbly and it seems to be really really easy to scoot from one spot to another it seems plausible that someone's gonna be able to scoop him up before he sinks.

I've also seen an alternative theory that he clawed his way back up using all the barnacles he refused to scrape away as hand and footholds, and now he's hiding inside the walls like Bruno.

He really better not be irrevocably dead, is all.