Shōgun

Is it historically accurate? No. Neither the source material (novel) is. Is the show fully novel-accurate? No. Some things were changed, in order to tell the story for this show, and it works mostly??

There is some "modern" injected, although not too much, just it would seem that "we" can never separate fully from the time we exist in, thus our time's "bits and pieces", follow us on all our "time travels".., also as authentic it looks, still it only looks..

Have to admit that for quite some time, I haven't liked a TV show character as much as have Mariko, or Fuji, etc, while aware of figures from history, sad and happy at the same time, that the show stayed, more or LESS, true to it overall, "underwhelming" finale included..

Premise describes events leading to creation of (most powerful) longest lasting Shogunate, where "Sacrifice of the Few" was prioritized and made for "The good of Japan", thus, no large battles as well as attempting to avoid those same, is also more or less, true to it all..

As I'm writing my review, more than couple months after I saw the show, my question, or complaint is: "seasons two and three"?? This was obviously supposed to be a Limited Series that deals with this part, thus additional seasons will follow the events post creation particular Shogunate? An era of "Japan's closed borders" and "expelling of" the Catholics"? Is Shogun going to become Anthology Series??? What are we going to watch exactly part of additional seasons??

It would seem the show got "renewed" for additional seasons only to have an entrance into "Drama Series" promptly. Let's just hope that "business models" don't leave a bad mark on this well made, and obviously Limited Series, down the line..

When I saw the title on the Disney channel I assume it's one of those mock Asian war drama we always see on the screen with fake mock Asian token actors like we always see. I can not be more wrong. The richness in characters is built on real Japanese actors who are world class actors in the film/Tv industry and the depiction of the religious and political tension is something I have not seen on a main stream service for long time. Not to mention how rare we get to hear Japanese spoken with majority of the air time on an English language channel. This authentic Japanese/Englsih drama is exceptionally well made and has the potential to lead the white audience into a new realm of Asian western fusion genre. I expect some awards to be won shortly.

It was refreshing to see a period Japanese drama on Disney+ as a change form the constant mediocre super hero or Star Wars shows put out by Disney studios these days.

I loved the authenticity of the costumes, locations and above all casting - especially using all Japanese origin actors for the Japanese characters (unlike Shardlake which did not respect the ethnicity of the English characters). This made the series so much more believable and enthralling and by the end I was really invested in the characters and what happened to them.

If you have a VR headset I would recommend watching the series in a virtual cinema with headphones, it is an amazing experience! While Disney does not have its own VR app., the Bigscreen app does support Disney.

I won't give away any of the story but just say that Shogun is definitely worth watching! I hope there will be a second series.

I like it, the acting is really good, the visuals are awesome, the pacing is good and the overall story is great, so why does it fall short for me? Because it is an increadibly shallow adaptation of Clavell's book.

Clavell's book is about a stranger in a strange land, meaning understanding cultural differences, and the major themes are about honor, duty, sacrifice, and power. And that is the problem as I see it because besides the acting and the visuals - which are great - the story actually lacks these elements or gloss over them as if they are not important. But they are! It's what makes the book (and the 80's version great). Here's a couple of examples: We don't really get to know why Blackthorne (Anjin) is important, or the role of christianity in Japan, or pretty much any other social aspect of Japanese culture. There is sub-plot about a petulant and reckless son, which I don't remember from the book, and I have no idea what the point of him is, except for the writers to add to the story themselves. Similarly, Mariko from the book and the 80's version is probably my favorite character after Blackthorne, and I don't really recognize her in this version; by making her tougher, they also make her more distant and it diminishes her inner strength which makes her less sympathetic (to me at least).

In a nutshell this is what i see as the problem, when the show sticks to the book's original themes it is awesome, when they they don't you see actions taken where you sit back and say "that was weird why do that?" And here's the kicker, the very best dialogs and scenes are taken verbatim out of the book, so it's not like the writers don't understand that the source material is superior.

Still, the show is absolutely watchable, but I always measure a show's quality by whether I want to rewatch it, and I doubt it, instead I actually feel like watching the 80's version instead - that's not really a glowing endorsement is it?

...this is not that.

While it was certainly groundbreaking and a huge hit at the time, in retrospect great parts of it was rather cheasy and cheapish, and come on, none of us REALLY bought Richard Chamberlain as a rugged and battle hardened sea officer ;)

The 2024 version feels a great deal more modern and budgeted bigger.

It's rougher, it's dirtier, the action scenes are crafted much better, the camera work is much better and reminds you of a Hollywood blockbuster, the lighting and visuals are stunning to the point of being art, and they are underlined by sound effects and a score which amplifies the mood of every scene perfectly.

The script is much richer and intricate than the original series, with better dialogue allowing the much enlarged gallery of characters more complexity and debth, which is especially important to American and European audiences, when depicting a very "foreign" culture... and it is all perfectly executed by a stellar cast, some of whom are getting their international breakthrough on this show.

I just love it, it's probably not only the show of the year, but something we will constantly crave more of in years to come, and which competitors will try to copy.

I should mention this is based off the first 6 episodes, so we are yet to see large scale battle scenes (but looking at the teaser clips, they look exellent), and we are yet to see the all important ending so I will reserve a possible 10 for then - but I am quite hopeful that is where it lands.

It's a show that makes you annoyed it is a limited series, by nature of James Clavell having written only one novel on feudal Japan.. but I actually predict this will be such a big hit, that FX will attempt to have scripts written for either a prequal, continuation - or spin offs - because that period of Japanese history is ripe with potential - and come on, who doesn't like samurais?

This is a must see show, even if you don't like samurais, even if you don't like period dramas, even if you don't like foreign language entertainment, even if you don't like subtitles - because if you don't watch it, you will be the person left out of the conversation, when the topic becomes entertainment.

Enjoy :)