Black Sails is doing pretty well, I think, so it's only a matter of time before we've got more pirate shows than you can shake a peg legged parrot at. I mean, there's already another pirate show called Crossbones, so there are bound to be more, right? And with the bad guys all the rage nowadays, surely these shows will branch out into other areas of piracy and villainy, right?
So what's next? Here are some possible predictions for upcoming cable TV dramas of the type where villains are portrayed as heroes:
Jolly Roger (The pirate flag is known as the "Jolly Roger", so it's perfect for a show about pirates. In fact, Black Sails should have been called Black Flags or Jolly Roger, but whatever. So anyway, Jolly Roger would be a pirate series with a pirate captain named Roger who is always jolly in his viciousness, and so they call him "Jolly Roger"; so it would be about the pirate flag and Roger's exploitative exploits.)
Buccaneers (Another name for pirates, but sounds a little bit classier, so even more helpful in making the brutal murderous thieves appear exotic and heroic.)
Privateers (A group of heroic pirates who messed with and screwed up the brutal Spaniards and helped Britannia rule the waves, so here's a gang of pirates that's a bit easier to turn into heroic renegades {unless viewers are Spaniards, I suppose…}. Plus, the term "privateer" makes it seem as though viewers are privileged to peer into a fascinating private world others cannot have access to.)
Highwaymen (Highwaymen were a kind of pirates on the land, acting as a dangerous and deadly combination of armed robbery and unofficial/illegal toll collection. So we'd see the lives and struggles of these desperate people, and what drove them to take up being highwaymen, be it depravation, greed, viciousness, etc. And we could see different clans of highwaymen having different motivations, battling over turf, intermarrying, etc. All the drama, dirt roads through the wilderness, and carriage robberies you can take!)
Banditos (The exoticism of a foreign locale and the obscure heroism of populist characters moving from simple selfish crimes toward aiding an independence movement could make a series about Mexican bandits around the time of Emperor Maximilian I fighting for the common people and engaging in Robin Hood-esque activities appeal to a wide audience. {A bunch of great Spaghetti Westerns dealt with this type of story.})
Moonshine Runners (We all know that NASCAR started with the shine runners trying to outrun the long arm of the law in evading taxes and the silly laws against private liquor distillation, and as such, there would be plenty of car chase and car crash action, as well as fast-paced drama of young men living fast and dying young, along with the women who love them, etc. It could be a big winner with red state audiences especially, and deal in anti-authoritarian, anti-government rebelliousness and lots of freedom- and liberty-themed dialog and plot lines.)
Drug Smugglers (Yes, it's Drug Smugglers: fighting for recreational drug use and helping people party with illegal substances! Who wouldn't watch a series about greedy, violent drug cartel types and their vicious lifestyles of manufacturing and distributing drugs in a climate of continual murder and mayhem? If other similarly themed shows (Weeds, Breaking Bad) are any indication, this show would be a smash hit!)
Slave Traders (This one would be seen as being in especially bad taste, but after all, Pirates killed, raped, looted, etc., so… And in this trend of showing all manner of vicious villains as sexy heroes, how long will it be before they run out of all the alluring villainy and are only left with glamorizing slave traders?)
Derivatives Traders (The guys who crashed the world economy in 2008 were derivatives traders whose behavior was so reckless and criminal, and who extorted so much money in bonuses from bailouts on top of everything they destroyed, they are really modern day pirates, but on an unprecedented scale. And so this series would be all about the pirate mentality these guys possessed, leading them to loot and pillage the wealth of the world and still manage to hold the government hostage for further extortion afterwards, and managed to get away clean to pillage another day.)
And, of course, more benign baddies may attract a more mainstream viewership, so also look out for the following possible TV series titles, profiling villainous and loathsome, but not quite so vicious and lethal, scoundrels:
Curs, Cads & Creeps
Bastards & Blackguards
Scamps, Scoundrels, Scofflaws & Scalawags
Rogues, Rakes, Rascals, Rapscallions & Riff Raff
