Treasure Island
Credit: MGM
I love pirate stuff. Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag is my favorite Assassin’s Creed game, because you get to be a pirate and sail around the Caribbean and loot treasure and board ships. I loved the Robert Louis Stevenson novel Treasure Island as a kid and the film adaptations (especially the Muppets version) and I’ve enjoyed the few pirate movies and TV shows we’ve gotten over the years, from the first Pirates of the Caribbean film to Black Sails to Peter Pan and the wonderful Robin Williams film, Hook. I’d count The Goonies among these pirate stories as well.
So I was pretty excited when I heard that MGM+ was coming out with a limited series based on Treasure Island. It had some big names attached: David Oyelowo (Selma, The Lawman Bass Reeves) and Hayley Atwell (Peggy Carter from the MCU), as well as Tomer Capone (The Boys) and Jack Huston (Spider-Noir).
Check out my interview with Oyelowo and Atwell below:
Treasure Island At-A-Glance
| Details | |
|---|---|
| Title | Treasure Island |
| Genre | Period adventure drama |
| U.S. Platform | MGM+ |
| Premiere Date | Sunday, October 11, 2026 |
| Release Schedule | Weekly on Sundays |
| Episode Count | 6 |
| Finale Date | November 15, 2026 |
| Creator / Writer | Robert Murphy |
| Based On | Robert Louis Stevenson’s 1883 novel |
| Directors | Jeremy Lovering, William McGregor and Paul Walker |
| UK & Ireland Release | Paramount+, beginning October 12 |
Treasure Island Takes Major Liberties With The Plot
Treasure Island
Credit: MGM
The season premiere of Treasure Island sets up the familiar story with a few big changes. The most obvious two: Long John Silver is Black and, though we don’t learn this yet, was an enslaved person before becoming a pirate. Many pirates were Black – it was actually an incredibly diverse profession – and giving Long John Silver a more complex backstory is quite interesting.
The second is Bess Hawkins as a major protagonist. In the premiere, this works quite well, with Bess and her son Jim (Tom Sweet) running a hussle at Bess’s inn, the Admiral Benbow (which serves as the premiere’s episode title as well). In this version of the story, Jim has a photographic (or “eidetic”) memory. Bess challenges patrons to bet on whether Jim can look at a page from the bible and then recite it word for word. Any mistakes, the house loses; if he recites it perfectly, the house wins. The page can be chosen at random.
This, of course, becomes important later when Bess burns the only map to Captain Flint’s treasure after Jim memorizes it, in effect turning Jim into a human map of sorts. I’m curious to see how this plays out, and how promoting Bess to a main character will change Jim’s own coming-of-age story. I like Bess and Atwell does a great job in the role, but can you have a coming-of-age adventure if your mom is there with you? Will this be the “helicopter parent” version of Treasure Island? I hope not.
Treasure Island Release Schedule
| Episode | Title | MGM+ Release Date |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | “The Admiral Benbow” | October 11, 2026 |
| 2 | “Great Britain” | October 18, 2026 |
| 3 | “The Wide Eternal Sea” | October 25, 2026 |
| 4 | “San Domingue” | November 1, 2026 |
| 5 | “Skeleton Island” | November 8, 2026 |
| 6 | “A Princesa De Aveiro” | November 15, 2026 |
I quite like Oyelowo’s performance as Long John Silver so far as well. He’s quite menacing. The only problem I have is the way in which he’s introduced. This is, perhaps, the most worrisome change of all. The first episode, like the book, has Billy Bones (Tomer Capone) show up, but unlike the book he’s quite quickly revealed that he has the map to the buried treasure on Skeleton Island. He’s also a charming rake, and the show quickly introduces a romance between him and Bess and just as quickly dashes it when Long John Silver shows up followed closely by Squire Livesey (Adam James) who, in this adaptation, is a portmanteau of Dr. Livesey and Squire Trelawney and also a villain rather than a possible ally to Jim.
Things get violent and end badly and Bess and Jim are forced to leave in a hurry to make their way – together – to the New World in search of treasure. Long John Silver is arrested but manages to free himself and take on a job as the cook on the Hispaniola, the same ship Bess and Jim find passage on thanks to Huston’s character, Aaron Graham, who is not in the original book at all and whom we have yet to get to know at this point in the story.
I’m bothered by two things in this first episode. First, that Billy Bones was killed off so quickly and second that Jim and Bess are introduced to Long John Silver before they board the ship. Part of the fun of the novel and basically every adaptation is the fact that they don’t know that Silver is a pirate at first. Silver, while an antagonist, is also a mentor figure to Jim. I’m not sure how that will be possible in this adaptation, and that relationship is pretty crucial, a fundamental piece of the story. Likewise, Jim feels very much a secondary character at this point, which might not be a terrible thing if this story were told from Silver’s perspective, but it appears to be mostly Bess and Jim’s story, with Silver still a mysterious force of nature.
We shall see. Reviews are thin and not very positive so far, but I’m hoping we still get a fun pirate adventure out of this, even with the very big changes. A solid cast, good production values and costumes and a tight six-episode run should at least make this an entertaining diversion.
Be sure to check out my full weekend streaming guide here:
Have you watched the Treasure Island season premiere yet? What did you think? Let me know on Twitter, Instagram, or Facebook. Also be sure to subscribe to my YouTube channel and follow me here on this blog. Sign up for my newsletter for more reviews and commentary on entertainment and culture.
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