This could have been a great show. It had a lot going for it: great production, interesting characters, interesting story lines, good acting. But somewhere along the line, about the end of season 3, it just got lost and wandered of course , somewhat chaotically. One of the reasons for this might be that the story involved some real historical figures from the Golden Age of Piracy (cap. Charles Vane, cap. Rackham, Anne Bonny, Blackbeard) and fictional characters from the famous Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson (Long John Silver, Billy Bones, cap. Flint, Ben Gunn). (This has lately become a trend in the entertainment industry.) While this scenario gave great opportunities to create an epic story, however dark its conclusion would have been, at the end it just became a mash-up of greatly distorted historical events and weak fan fiction with a cheesy semi-happily-ever-after final. The development of complex characters in seasons 1-3 was portrayed in an excellent manner, but in season 4 one has the impression that some of the characters had either suddenly suffered of-screen brain damage or had a personality transplantation. I gave this show 8 out of 10, because of the first 3 seasons that were spectacular and chose to ignore the existence of season 4.