Stede Bonnet’s midlife crisis didn’t involve a trophy wife or a red convertible. He became a pirate.
“Our Flag Means Death,” premiering Thursday on HBO Max, follows real-life pirate Bonnet, the 1700s so-called “Gentleman Pirate,” a wealthy aristocrat in Barbados who ditches his family, buys a ship and hires his own crew of misfits. At some point, Bonnet draws the attention of Blackbeard.
It’s a muddled story, much lost to time. For creator David Jenkins, that was part of the appeal: he got to fill in the blanks.
