We all know the story of Blackbeard: The violent, sociopathic, demon pirate who put fuses in his beard to terrify his victims and ended up with his decapitated head strung up the mast of his own ship. What you may not know is this dangerous homicidal man once co-captained a ship with Stede Bonnet, or the Gentleman Pirate: a wealthy landowner who abandoned his wife and kids to fulfill his dream of being a pirate captain, despite having absolutely no experience in crime or sailing. “Our Flag Means Death,” a new HBO comedy, tells the—largely fictionalized—story of the romantic relationship that formed between these two men.

While Blackbeard/Edward Teach (Taika Waititi) becomes a central character by episode four, the show primarily follows Stede (Rhys Darby) and his incompetent but lovable crew as they try to be real pirates, aboard The Revenge. Full disclosure, piracy is the least important part of the show. “Our Flag Means Death” is a show about finding love and friendship in unexpected places, that happens to take place on a ship during the Golden Age of Piracy. The pirating setting adds a nice aesthetic to the characters’ wardrobes and provides certain drama and characterizations that would not be possible in other shows, like the constant threat of death or the characters’ varying levels of literacy. While this setting is fun and has become less common in the past few years, piracy is not what makes the show entertaining or original; the creativity expressed through character relationships and dialogue is what sets “Our Flag Means Death” apart from other group ensemble comedies or period pieces. 

For any comedy to carry a meaningful plot or lovable characters, it must have some semblance of realism. “Our Flag Means Death” is an extremely silly show. Blackbeard attends a fancy French dinner party and must learn how to be passive-aggressive, the crew of The Revenge design a haunted house to scare rival pirates, crew member Buttons (Ewen Bremmer) breaks the news to a seagull that her seagull husband, Karl, has died. It is a comedy above all else, and yet its emotional arcs, especially the dramatic season finale, hit hard. I credit this to the show’s incredible script being depicted by a perfectly cast group of actors. The chemistry among the crew and, more importantly, between Blackbeard and Stede, is palpable. On top of that, while there are a few strictly comic relief characters, all the protagonists speak in quite modern ways and react to things how real people would react. It keeps the show grounded while never limiting its comedy.

This meeting of wackiness and realism also shows itself in the comically wide variety of stakes throughout the show. While some episodes force the pirate crew into death-defying situations, ripe with sword fights and gore, the majority of episodes are kind of just outlining the crew becoming a family and the romantic pairings realizing that they love each other. There are at least three episodes that contain little to no violence because the plots are Stede and Blackbeard or Oluwande (Samson Kayo) and Jim (Vico Oritz) doing cute activities and staring longingly into each other’s eyes. Zero stakes and yet I care so much.

I’ve held off on discussing an important feature of “Our Flag Means Death” so I could emphasize that this is a wonderful show, by any measure. Its organic and unapologetic inclusion of gay and trans characters is what makes this show important, groundbreaking even, but the show does not rely on those characters’ sexualities or gender orientations to make the plot happen or the episodes worth watching. By the end of season one, this show has featured three non-heterosexual relationships and one nonbinary character, yet not a single storyline was brought up dealing with internal nor external bigotry. All the queer characters happen to be queer; it is an incidental trait to further flesh out their personalities, and no characters take issue with that. Realistic or not, this portrayal of LGBTQ characters is extremely rare. Disney brags about its out-of-focus background lesbians, while David Jenkins, the creator of “Our Flag Means Death,” is making it as clear as possible that the show he created should not be construed as anything other than a rom-com following relationships between non-heterosexual people.

Shows like this one do not come around often. So whether you are sick of ensemble shows full of queerbaiting and heteronormativity or just want a great romantic comedy with pirates and comic stylings straight out of “What We Do in the Shadows,” I give “Our Flag Means Death” my highest stamp of recommendation. And let us collectively pray it gets a second season.