Netflix series The Lost Pirate Kingdom

[Alf]

Anybody watched all of this? It’s absolutely bloody brilliant. Basically glued different bits of individual pirates’ histories together to make a really compelling narrative. It’s made me realise that Long John Silver, Jack Sparrow and the like have distracted our collective imagination from very real, far more interesting characters. IMO unsung working class heroes, probably intentionally had their legacy diluted by powdered wig wankers.

 

[Ragnarok]

Fox news rags mode on...

So they've turned out another show full of woke wiberal faux moral outrage brainwashing bollox...great

Fox news rags mode off...

Will give it a try. Always nice to see something fresh and enticing...

 

[Foolweary]

Yeah we watched it all in 2 nights. Really entertaining, and historically accurate too. Nice insight into the pirate phenomenon. I had no idea how significant Nassau was, or how much the pirates were based on a political idea of freedom and breaking out of the crappy backgrounds they came from. Very similar to the first colonies. Seems a lot of people left England to get away from the crushing social system.

 

[Alf]

Fox news rags mode on...

So they've turned out another show full of woke wiberal faux moral outrage brainwashing bollox...great

Fox news rags mode off...

Will give it a try. Always nice to see something fresh and enticing...

Nah that’s just my interpretation of the history mate! It just lays out the facts in as much of a consistent narrative as possible. Just takes a few liberties in imagining what conversations could have taken place on Nassau between the famous folk living there

 

[Alf]

Yeah we watched it all in 2 nights. Really entertaining, and historically accurate too. Nice insight into the pirate phenomenon. I had no idea how significant Nassau was, or how much the pirates were based on a political idea of freedom and breaking out of the crappy backgrounds they came from. Very similar to the first colonies. Seems a lot of people left England to get away from the crushing social system.

Yep! There’s a lot of individual examples of that around the globe, for instance William Adams a labourer from Gillingham working on a Dutch ship that landed in Japan during the first shogunate. 1600ish. They weren’t allowed to leave, but fast forward a couple of decades and he was the first western Samurai ever, had a castle and servants, and would you believe it no intention of going back to the Mrs and the slog in Gillingham!

Being a bit romantic, I like to think the Shogun had never seen something as hard working and strong willed as the working class Englishman, and the working class Englishman probably never experienced true meritocracy.

 

[BWseasider]

I started it but I'm quite wary of Netflix's historical documentaries, I've watched a couple of others and wasn't overly impressed, they seemed quite light on detail and prone to exaggerating or just being nonsense. The one on the warring period in Japan for example with its line "The Katana was the greatest sword EVER MADE" made me switch off instantly. If I can tell they're being ridiculous about some topics, then how can I believe what they are saying about other topics?

If you enjoyed that, you might enjoy Black Sails, series on Amazon I think. It's basically a fictional drama that follows the exact same time period with the same historical characters. It follows history loosely but it's an entertainment show first and foremost. It's supposed to be a prelude to Treasure Island, so features Long John Silver, but it mainly follows the story of Nassau and the rise and fall of the age of piracy.

 

[BWseasider]

Yep! There’s a lot of individual examples of that around the globe, for instance William Adams a labourer from Gillingham working on a Dutch ship that landed in Japan during the first shogunate. 1600ish. They weren’t allowed to leave, but fast forward a couple of decades and he was the first western Samurai ever, had a castle and servants, and would you believe it no intention of going back to the Mrs and the slog in Gillingham!

Being a bit romantic, I like to think the Shogun had never seen something as hard working and strong willed as the working class Englishman, and the working class Englishman probably never experienced true meritocracy.

As mentioned in my other post I didn't make it far in the Japanese show, did they talk about the African samurai also? Slave/servant who was brought over by the europeans ended up being one of the best and most trusted warriors Oda Nobunaga had.

Also if you enjoy the story of William Adams I recommend the book/ or audiobook - Shogun by James Cavell. Think there was an old TV show as well actually. Again basically a fictionalized version of William Adams and the period. It's a bloody long one though I think I got about 2/3rd the way through.

 

[Alf]

I started it but I'm quite wary of Netflix's historical documentaries, I've watched a couple of others and wasn't overly impressed, they seemed quite light on detail and prone to exaggerating or just being nonsense. The one on the warring period in Japan for example with its line "The Katana was the greatest sword EVER MADE" made me switch off instantly. If I can tell they're being ridiculous about some topics, then how can I believe what they are saying about other topics?

If you enjoyed that, you might enjoy Black Sails, series on Amazon I think. It's basically a fictional drama that follows the exact same time period with the same historical characters. It follows history loosely but it's an entertainment show first and foremost. It's supposed to be a prelude to Treasure Island, so features Long John Silver, but it mainly follows the story of Nassau and the rise and fall of the age of piracy.

Yeah my housemate recommended that. I did watch the full samurai series and really enjoyed it but I agree with you, I just appreciate that the hyperbole is usually quite obvious and signposted. Like every single battle, and I mean every single battle, they say ‘THEY MOST DECISIVE BATTLE IN JAPANESE HISTORY’ it’s so crazy I felt like it was intentional comedy! But you realise it’s a matter of editing, what the experts are saying is all 100% legit just some of it’s been stitched together to make things sound crazier.

& no oddly enough Yasuke was never mentioned, particularly as he was supposedly a significant character on Nobunaga’s fateful last day. They also didn’t mention Bill Adams but he would I suppose be a little bit after the period derailed. There’s a full series of documentaries on the Shogunate period by PBS on YouTube which does go into a lot of detail on Adams, highly recommend that it’s about 3 or 4 episodes long.

I’m planning to watch Shogun soon! Supposedly it’s aged very well and had v high production quality. I don’t play games too much these days but I’ve just got Nioh which is basically the same sort of storyline as Shogun but with some 300esque magical license.

 

[Alf]

I started it but I'm quite wary of Netflix's historical documentaries, I've watched a couple of others and wasn't overly impressed, they seemed quite light on detail and prone to exaggerating or just being nonsense. The one on the warring period in Japan for example with its line "The Katana was the greatest sword EVER MADE" made me switch off instantly. If I can tell they're being ridiculous about some topics, then how can I believe what they are saying about other topics?

If you enjoyed that, you might enjoy Black Sails, series on Amazon I think. It's basically a fictional drama that follows the exact same time period with the same historical characters. It follows history loosely but it's an entertainment show first and foremost. It's supposed to be a prelude to Treasure Island, so features Long John Silver, but it mainly follows the story of Nassau and the rise and fall of the age of piracy.

I’d you’re interested as well, I found an early edition of Charles Johnson’s History of the Pyrates which is the (almost) primary source for all of it. Free PDF online and quite amazing to read through: History of the Pyrates
It has this very early Brexit rant on Europe selling us our own fish which made me laugh:

(On iPhone press the share button at the bottom then scroll across to ‘open in iBooks’ to read it in kindle format)

 

[GTFsTwinBrother]

Anybody watched all of this? It’s absolutely bloody brilliant. Basically glued different bits of individual pirates’ histories together to make a really compelling narrative. It’s made me realise that Long John Silver, Jack Sparrow and the like have distracted our collective imagination from very real, far more interesting characters. IMO unsung working class heroes, probably intentionally had their legacy diluted by powdered wig wankers.

I've not seen this series but you might like Black Sails... brings pirates in to a more normal realm but keeps the entertainment up. I did have to check after reading your description you weren't talking about that already....

 

[Macseasider]

Anybody watched all of this? It’s absolutely bloody brilliant. Basically glued different bits of individual pirates’ histories together to make a really compelling narrative. It’s made me realise that Long John Silver, Jack Sparrow and the like have distracted our collective imagination from very real, far more interesting characters. IMO unsung working class heroes, probably intentionally had their legacy diluted by powdered wig wankers.

Not just me that is fascinated by the golden age of piracy then?

I'm currently listening to a great book on Audible called Republic of Pirates.

So how does this compare to Black Sails? From what you've described it's a similar format as Black Sails used real life characters.

 

[Alf]

Not just me that is fascinated by the golden age of piracy then?

I'm currently listening to a great book on Audible called Republic of Pirates.

So how does this compare to Black Sails? From what you've described it's a similar format as Black Sails used real life characters.

I’d need to watch Black Sails! But it’s 60% talking heads from universities and 40% re-enactments of what they just explained

 

[GTFsTwinBrother]

I remember reading somewhere that Black Sails acts as a prequel to treasure island... sort of an origin story for long john silver.

I'm not normally in to anything pirate related mainly because a lot seems so unrealistic/ fantasy (like pirates of the Caribbean). Black sails is a lot more grounded than that...

 

[Alf]

As mentioned in my other post I didn't make it far in the Japanese show, did they talk about the African samurai also? Slave/servant who was brought over by the europeans ended up being one of the best and most trusted warriors Oda Nobunaga had.

Also if you enjoy the story of William Adams I recommend the book/ or audiobook - Shogun by James Cavell. Think there was an old TV show as well actually. Again basically a fictionalized version of William Adams and the period. It's a bloody long one though I think I got about 2/3rd the way through.

Eh up mate I found a really HQ copy of all episodes of Shogun and am gonna upload to a shared drive, let me know if you want to stream it I'll share it with ya!