I just finished Shogun and the thought struck me, that this is probably the standout show for me of 2024. One may qualify that with phrases like "so far", but it's hard to see what's going to surpass it. BTW, there are likely to be spoilers in this post, so proceed with caution.
When I first heard about a new adaptation of the James Clavell novel, I wasn't exactly skeptical, but I didn't think of starting on it straight away. As I've mentioned, I fear I'm going to lose access to Hulu soon, so I'm trying to be very careful about which shows I start watching there and on Disney Plus. I was watching something else when Shogun started, so I didn't want to start a completely new show.
But then I started seeing and hearing comments about how good it was. My mom said it was great, and so did Craig Mazin, one of the hosts of Scriptnotes (and, as the guy who wrote HBO's Chernobyl and The Last of Us, he knows a good TV show when he sees one). When I heard Mazin's recommendation, I immediately checked it out, that very evening.
In terms of the plot, it's probably not the most groundbreaking or pulse-pounding premise I've ever seen. Though Shogun is kind of the grandaddy of the "Westerner goes to Japan and becomes a samurai" genre. That said, the characters are mostly fascinating - Hiroyuki Sanada is particularly good as Lord Toranaga, the scheming warlord who drives much of the politicking of the show. Toranaga is based on Tokugawa Ieyasu, the warlord who essentially brought Japan under his control in the 1600s, so you can see how the show is informed by historical fact, if not exactly a perfect recreation of it.
Anna Sawai is also excellent as the doomed love interest, Lady Mariko, of our POV character John Blackthorne (played by Cosmo Jarvis). Because she's a Christian (specifically a Catholic), she acts as an interpreter for Blackthorne throughout, though there are multiple interesting strands to their relationship. For one thing, as an Anglican he's considered a heretic by the Portuguese, who have converted a number of locals to Catholicism, and Mariko shares some of this religious distaste for him.
They also predictably have a romantic relationship, which is accompanied by her guilt at her estrangement from her overbearing husband, whom she believes dead for a while. On top of all that, Mariko has a tragic past as the daughter of an accused traitor, which diminishes her in the eyes of her husband but also means she's able to connive along with Toranaga to achieve his aims of control over the Imperial Heir and of all of Japan. Sawai plays the conflicts in the character very well throughout, especially when she acts as the intermediary between Toranaga and Blackthorne's sparring.
For me, the star of the show isn't a specific character or actor, but rather the set design. The mansions and castles and villages in which the action takes place all look amazing, and the costumes, movements and camera work all add drama to many scenes that are essentially just people sitting in large rooms and arguing. Not being a scholar of feudal Japan, I can't tell how accurate the costumes or blocking are (though I did some searching and discovered that the dialect of Japanese spoken in the show is accurate to the time period). But almost everything looks amazing, even down to the splashes of blood on the shoji doors when assassins try to murder characters at various points.
The one thing that looks a little dodgy, at times, is the scenes onboard ships. One or two of those scenes looked like they were shot on a green screen, which is unfortunate, because you shouldn't be able to notice that. That's a minor quibble, though, because everything else is just so good.
Apparently it was initially planned to be a limited series consisting of these ten episodes, but the reaction has been strong enough that it appears to have been greenlit for a second season, with Sanada returning. I've never read the book or watched the previous adaptation, so I don't know how much of the story this version adapts, but it should be interesting to see what happens next and if it's as well-done. Though I wonder if, rather than continuing Shogun, subsequent seasons shouldn't instead revolve around Clavell's other novels in this series, such as Tai Pan or Noble House.
In any case, despite my initial inertia, I'm glad I gave this show a try. It may not be as compulsive as HBO's We Own This City or The Last of Us, but it's a worthy addition to Hulu's library of prestige TV. If you don't mind blood and subtitles, it's a great watch and well worth the investment of time.
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