The Lost Pirate Kingdom does something commendable. It tries to catch an incredibly interesting period in history; when pirates where all mighty. Emotionally, it does this very well. The stars aligned in such a way that pirates roamed the Caribbean virtually untouched, and it brought forth legend after legend, who are the clear focus of the documentary. It nails the feeling of just how extraordinary this must have been. Unfortunately, that's all it does well.
Functionally this documentary is pretty much flawed. There is too much repetition, the music is on the nose and there is so much focus on the players, that all the interesting background information, the ships, the technology, the navigation, the balance of power, the differences between the sea fairing nations... it's all pretty much completely lost. We get to spend a lot of time with (good) actors, and the (also good) narrator telling us how their characters felt, but we are left wanting. It's so thin on information, it hardly deserves the name 'documentary'.
I watched this after watching the excellent Age of Samurai: Battle for Japan. This is also a flawed documentary, that makes a few historical jumps too many, but far less so than The Lost Pirate Kingdom. I'm giving our pirates a positive 6 stars because I still think it's interesting to get a better feel for this period overall, and I got some new inspiration from it.
An emotionally engaging series sure, just not much of a documentary.
Functionally this documentary is pretty much flawed. There is too much repetition, the music is on the nose and there is so much focus on the players, that all the interesting background information, the ships, the technology, the navigation, the balance of power, the differences between the sea fairing nations... it's all pretty much completely lost. We get to spend a lot of time with (good) actors, and the (also good) narrator telling us how their characters felt, but we are left wanting. It's so thin on information, it hardly deserves the name 'documentary'.
I watched this after watching the excellent Age of Samurai: Battle for Japan. This is also a flawed documentary, that makes a few historical jumps too many, but far less so than The Lost Pirate Kingdom. I'm giving our pirates a positive 6 stars because I still think it's interesting to get a better feel for this period overall, and I got some new inspiration from it.
An emotionally engaging series sure, just not much of a documentary.