The Lost Pirate Kingdom

TV review by Melissa Camacho, Common Sense Media
The Lost Pirate Kingdom Poster Image

Common Sense says

age 16+

Theatrical pirate docudrama has sex, violence, and history.

Netflix Drama 2021
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Parents say

age 17+

Based on 2 reviews

Kids say

age 17+

Based on 1 review

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A Lot or a Little?

The parents' guide to what's in this TV show.

What Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that The Lost Pirate Kingdom is a docudrama about the final years of what was considered the "Golden Age of Piracy." There's lots of violence (including shootings, branding, and hangings), but limited blood is shown. Nudity and simulated sex acts are also frequently visible, and sex work and sexually transmitted diseases are discussed. There's drinking and tobacco smoking too. The show is mature but does offer lots of interesting historical details about pirates and pirate history from the era.

Community Reviews

mikah324
mikah324 Adult
May 16, 2022
age 18+

Not for children at all

I don’t think this is appropriate for children however I really liked the series and enjoyed the actors
FatalCulture
FatalCulture Adult
April 11, 2021
age 16+

Could be better

It is interesting but they ruin it with so many pointless sex scenes and nudity (only female, bare breasts shown a lot, some with nipple covers, men don’t have to do any nudity in this of course). All that sex and nudity really isn’t needed, the lack of it would make anyone lose interest. It’s a doco about the real pirates, bonny-anne and all that. I stopped watching because half of it just seemed to be about showing sex and pirate prostitutes. I think there is violence, but seems to be mostly implied or it’s not too graphic. And drinking, too.

This title has:

Too much sex
See all 2 parent reviews

What's the Story?

Narrated by Derek Jacobi, THE LOST PIRATE KINGDOM is a docudrama about the real-life pirates who sailed during the third period of the Golden Age of Piracy. It's 1715, and the War of Spanish Succession has ended, leaving Anglo-American sailors and privateers once hired to capture and loot ships on behalf of the British now unemployed. In order to survive, ex-privateers like Henry Jennings (Mark Gillis), Charles Vane (Tom Padley), Samuel Bellamy (Evan Milton), and Benjamin Hornigold (Sam Callis) sail the waters of the Triangular Trade routes between the Caribbean, England, and West Africa, to rob Spanish ships (and shipwrecks) without official Crown protection. Also among the pirates of this period are Edward Thatch, aka "Blackbeard" (James Oliver Wheatley), and Anne Bonny (Mia Tomlinson), who partnered with Captain Jack Rackham (Jack Waldouck), popularly known as Calico Jack. With the help of actor dramatizations, and interviews with historians and experts, the series offers factual details about these pirates' lives and deaths, and the political and cultural climate in which they operated for more than a decade.

Is It Any Good?

Half informative, half entertaining, this series offers a lively interpretation of the roughly 12-year reign of piracy throughout the Caribbean islands following the War of Spanish Succession. From the plundering and stealing of ships carrying gold, jewels, and slaves to the creation of a Pirate Republic in the Bahamian village of Nassau, it reveals how postwar politics and economics, the slave trade, and natural phenomena all combined to play a role in the massive increase in piracy in the region at that time. Adding to this are humorous, and often ruthlessly violent, actor performances that create a theatrical picture of what the pirates' lives and deaths would have been like.

Many of the pirates featured here are recognizable thanks to centuries of pirate folklore and media renditions of this era. However, The Lost Pirate Kingdom focuses only on the end of the Golden Age of Piracy, which spanned from the 1650s through the 1730s. In doing so, it leaves out some of history's greatest, but less talked about, pirate activities, including the Anglo-French Buccaneers, and the members of what is known as "The Pirate Round," when pirates sailed around the world attacking ships traveling to and from what is now the Middle and Far East. Nonetheless, what stories it does tell are captivating, and worth tuning into.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

  • Families can talk about the history of piracy around the world. Did you know that Vikings were some of the world's earliest pirates? How do pirates continue their work today, given all the technology we have to stop this type of behavior?

  • The Lost Pirate Kingdom focuses on a period of pirate history made popular by books and media for centuries. Does it challenge how popular culture has characterized the pirates who were active in this period? Would it be equally entertaining if it focused on a different, lesser-known period of pirate history?

TV Details

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