How gory is Black Sails?

Graphic gore and brutal violence. If graphic gore is a dealbreaker, skip it.

What is Black Sails rated, and is it OK for kids?

It is a TV-MA, with strong sex and nudity, brutal violence, and frequent strong language. Keep it for adults.

Black Sails (2014)

Series · 1h episodes · Rated TV-MA

Action, Adventure, Drama

Pirate captains fight for survival on New Providence Island in an epic, gritty, and suspenseful adventure.

Pulpy. A late-night trip at a measured pace. Emotionally it is heavy.

Streaming on Starz, Prime Video, The Roku Channel (free) and Plex (free).

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Black Sails parents guide

For a TV-MA, this one goes further: strong sex and nudity. Beyond that, brutal violence and frequent strong language.

Scare: Not scary
Jump scares: A couple; One or two sudden jolts.
Gore: Graphic gore; Blood and wounds shown clearly.
Violence: Brutal violence; Our top level for violence.
Sex and nudity: Strong; Strong means explicit or repeated sex, extended nudity, or sexual assault shown on screen, attempted or completed, even partly off screen. Any one of these is enough.
Language: Strong; Frequent strong profanity or slurs.

How we rate: an AI reads what is known about each title and tags it 0 to 3; we check the tags against a hand-rated set and correct them by hand when readers tell us. Estimates, not a scene-by-scene review. Spot a mistake? Tell us.

Three questions

How gory is Black Sails?: Graphic gore and brutal violence. If graphic gore is a dealbreaker, skip it.
What is Black Sails rated, and is it OK for kids?: It is a TV-MA, with strong sex and nudity, brutal violence, and frequent strong language. Keep it for adults.

What is Black Sails about?

The pirate adventures of Captain Flint and his men twenty years prior to Robert Louis Stevenson’s classic “Treasure Island.” Flint, the most brilliant and most feared pirate captain of his day, takes on a fast-talking young addition to his crew who goes by the name John Silver. Threatened with extinction on all sides, they fight for the survival of New Providence Island, the most notorious criminal haven of its day – a debauched paradise teeming with pirates, prostitutes, thieves and fortune seekers, a place defined by both its enlightened ideals and its stunning brutality.