After The Time of the Samurai, Netflix continues to make us travel in time and space with a new docu-fiction about the world of pirates. So, what is the promise of a day with Blackbeard's crew worth? 1715, in the middle of the Caribbean: the future great pirates are just beginning to make a name for themselves, abandoned by the English and Spanish crowns after the War of the Spanish Succession and attracted by the flamboyant treasures. Benjamin Hornigold, Henry Jennings, " Black Sam " Bellamy, Anne Bonny and Edward Thatch, better known as Blackbeard, sail the seas in search of riches, glory and adventure, but also equality and justice within the first modern republics. The rivalries of this mythical era that will inspire the legends are drawn on the screen like a tale, and yet, this is reality; Netflix likes to remind us of this by giving its series In the Wake of the Pirates (The Lost Pirate Kingdom in VO) a documentary dimension in this hybrid form that is becoming more and more important on the platform: the docu-fiction. 
This new kind of documentary, more modern and accessible, Netflix likes it: they had already tried it with The Time of the Samurai and The Alien Worlds. And if it works, it's because putting images on what were previously only scientific words and illustrations is still particularly satisfying. During the 6 episodes that make up the first season of In the wake of the pirates, historians and authors who have written about these looters will tell us their maritime and land epics, between republican ideals and bloody boardings, epics that will come to life behind the camera for a reconstitution worthy of an action series. But mixing these two genres, perhaps to the detriment of each, what is it really worth in the world of pirates? 
If it is certainly quite exhilarating to see these privateers become looters as told by the various speakers, the series suffers from two major flaws. The first is its format, which complicates a three-part narrative: the narrator, historians and characters must share a single story in a relatively long time, so that all this drags on a little and repeats itself. In the wake of the pirates struggles to find a really captivating rhythm, and the stall can happen quickly. The second defect is certainly the fault of a limited budget: with green funds and unconvincing actors, naval battles and pirate low-blows are sometimes difficult to see as the scenery reconstituted and the images reused three or even four times throughout the series are obvious. Fortunately, the thrilling destinies of these charismatic men and women sometimes make us forget the catastrophic use of lights that bathe nights at sea. If you are ready to turn a blind eye to these few technical flaws and you are fans of Pirates of the Caribbean, then In the wake of the pirates should certainly seduce you for a few episodes; but from our point of view, Netflix's docu-fiction is more like a freshwater sailor than a seasoned pirate.
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