SPLICED Magazine SPLICED Issue 05 June/July 2014 | Page 46

SPLICED FEATURE / TEN TV SHOWS YOU SHOULD BE WATCHING Black Sails Genre / Adventure cast / Toby Stephens / Luke Arnold / Hannah New / Zack Mcgowan / Pirates! Creators / Robert Levine / Jonathan Steinberg What is it about? Pirates! If there was ever one thing that you needed to know to watch a TV show, it’s pirates! Taking inspiration from Louis Stevenson’s classic novel, the show is set twenty years prior to the events that unfold in Treasure Island. This isn’t your Pirates of the Caribbean type of outing though. The show focuses on the politics and way of life of being a pirate, and the schemes and power struggles that took place during the era. 46 Why watch it? Shiver our timbers and shake our barnacles! Did we mention that Black Sails is filmed entirely on location in our very own Cape of Good Hope? That’s right, complete with a South African crew and supporting cast. The network that brought us Spartacus, Starz, is behind the buccaneering production, so you can expect loads of nudity, violence and cursing, albeit on a much more toned down level. With characters like the shady and conniving Captain Flint, the swashbuckling Captain Vane and the hard as nails businesswoman Ms Guthrie there’s a pirate for everyone to love and hate or love to hate. Best ye watch now or forever be a landlubber! ISSUE 05