With Spartacus having wrapped up, Starz is hoping the Michael Bay-produced pirate drama Black Sails can step in and fill the void. Though the series premiere doesn’t air on Starz until January 25, Starz has made a censored version of the complete premiere available to online stream for free via their YouTube channel, and you can watch it right now in the embedded player below if you have an hour to spare.
Starz is so bullish on Black Sails that they have already ordered a second season and put it into production last month. It is not often that a network is willing to roll the dice on two seasons of a new series before a single episode has aired, but that’s exactly the risk Starz is willing to take with Black Sails.
The story of Black Sails takes place roughly 20 years before the events of author Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island book and even includes a young John Silver played by Luke Arnold. Captain Flint (Toby Stephens) is the main character and he and his crew will spend every day trying to survive and, like any good pirate, be on the hunt for booze, boobs and a big treasure score.
Starz gained a reputation for nudity and over-the-top violence with Spartacus, though Black Sails seems to be a bit more grounded in reality. There’s definitely nudity, though, as there is with the other big Starz period drama Da Vinci’s Demons, but you will have to wait for the uncensored series premiere to debut on Saturday, January 25 at 9/8c to see all of what goes down when the booze is flowing.
