I find the study of piracy to be fascinating. I've read several books, seen plenty of documentaries, and I'm a big fan of the Pirate History Podcast (which I highly recommend). So I was eager to see "The Lost Pirate Kingdom." I just finished it and have to give it a six out of ten.
I give the show high marks for special effects (though they are clearly special effects, but the costs associated with finding, manning, and sailing enough replica vessels would be astronomical), most of the reenactment scenes, and for the overall narrative presented here.
Now, if you are unfamiliar with the explosion of piracy following the War of Spanish Succession, or the pirate haven in Nassau, then this is going to be really fascinating for you. If you know all about that, then there's nothing really new here ... and that's fine. There's only so much information on this subject that is available.
What I didn't like were the following things:
*Too much repetition. This was true both in reusing the dramatized pieces and for the conveying of information. The narrator would say something happened, there'd be a dramatized scene showing it happen, and then a couple of historians would tell you how it happened. This all could have been handled better, but the greatest fault here is that with so much repetition it left too little time, which brings me too....
*Almost no focus on tactics, on vessels, on the geopolitical situation (or at least very little on this one in particular.
*The pacing. I already touched on the way they repeat themselves numerous times, but this really comes home in the final episode. After Blackbeard is killed, the show pretty much wraps up with a montage of "and here's what happened to Anne Bonny ... here's what happened to Charles Vane." The ending felt very rushed. And I, for the life of me can't understand why they didn't make this an 8-episode show. There is plenty of material, plenty of other pirates they could have followed, more details in the life, etc.
*Too much speculation and assumption passed off as fact. For instance, there's no evidence Anne Bonny ever held a knife to Woodes Rogers throat or that Charles Vane gave an inspiring speech moments before his execution. I realize this is a docu-drama, but I prefer more docu and less drama in my history. Speaking of which....
*The history here is hit and miss.
1. Woodes Rogers is a villain? I realize critical theorists are at work here, but come on. Woodes Rogers' life is quite impressive and he shouldn't be vilified. This series portrays him as some rigid puritan trying to ruin the pirates' good time. The historical record is quite different. Rogers established order on New Providence and was quite generous towards the pirates--he had to have been, otherwise he would have been a failure.
2. Again, critical theory at work, but the pirates were not some social justice warriors out to change society. Yeah, they would free slaves ... sometimes, when it suited their purpose. But they were also just as likely to sell those slaves they acquired wherever they could. Yes, there were black pirates ... but then again, there were black freemen in all parts of the British Empire.
3. This series tries to make it seem like the British only started to care about the pirates once a couple of slave ships were captured. No, the situation was much more complex than that. And here is why they should have devoted a little more time to the history ... because the War of Spanish Succession was a devastating conflict that left all of Europe bankrupt. The British, however, were able to pay off their debts due to their global economic empire. It was the disruption of this network--not to the slave trade, but to raw materials headed for European markets--that affected this. While slavery was indeed a key part of the colonial economy, it wasn't as robust as this show makes it out to be. For instance, there were more Europeans enslaved by the Ottomans, and Barbary states than there were Africans enslaved in the Americas. And at least two-thirds of all African slaves went to South America (Spanish and Portuguese colonies), not British colonies. I say all this because the show tries to minimalize a rather complex issue.
4. While they do address Blackbeard's syphilis, they completely forgot to mention that he blockaded Charleston, SC for several days until his demands were met. Pirates of this age seldom had the power to do such a thing. Only the privateers and buccaneers of the earlier eras had ever done something like this (or worse, sack the city).
Anyway, I could go on, but you get the idea.
Long story short -- this is on Netflix, so if you have Netflix and like this topic, give it a watch.
