The new series that opened on NBC the last week, based on the pirate legend BlackBeard, managed very few good reviews. The content was old, and the making proved to be abysmal. The series named 'CrossBones' seemed to stagger from the very beginning, with the screenplay racing towards an invisible finishing line, gulping up almost enough content that could have made a season worth of stuff on TV. The introductions to the characters were bad, only to be saved the shame, by even worse use of actors. Imagine a man of John Malkovich's demeanour, delivering a threat to someone, and we as audience feel nothing, but ordinary words coming out of a bald man's mouth.
The immediate comparison to Starz 'Black Sails' would make it more difficult for this series. 'Black Sails' achieved the status of moody pirate tale, with plots that delivered its darkness to the audience, unlike 'Crossbones', which linger in a space between comedy and stupidity. The actors are almost pathetic, and nothing they do seems to work.
Its upto the writers now, to change the fate of this new series, else we might not really want it to return again.
