‘Crossbones’ premiere preview: John Malkovich, cast on new NBC series

Do you love pirates? If you answer that question with a “yes,” then you may very well enjoy the premiere of “Crossbones” on NBC Friday night. Then again, you may enjoy it even if swashbuckling is not something that you are typically keen to check out on TV.

The biggest reason why this series may end up working as something more than a Friday-night summer series is simple: John Malkovich. It is rare that you get an actor with this much talent and acclaim on a series, especially in an iconic role like Blackbeard. However, this is not the same Blackbeard that you remember from previous pirate stories. He’s a little older now, is sort of the de-facto king of an island, and uses some of his charm to influence people to go along with an occasional dosage of fear.

The show certainly looks stunning visually, and it feels as though there is everything in here that you would want in a pirate series, whether that be sword-fights, romance, or betrayal.

Will this be better than “Black Sails” on Starz? That is an interesting question. In retrospect, we were probably more excited about that series, but soon realized afterwards that we were not that interested in a pirate stories that was this dark and bleak most of the time. We prefer our pirates a little more fictionalized, and there to be a little more humor and charm in the story. We’d rather a less-violent series in this case that doesn’t have characters taking their clothes off all of the time. Maybe it is just a psychological element that goes along with pirates being something that you form memories of as a child, and when you grow up you continue to seek out whatever that image may be.

We’ll have our full review of “Crossbones” online Friday, so be on the lookout for that. Also, be sure to sign up today for further updates via our CarterMatt Newsletter.

Photo: NBC