Shōgun

Always loved Japan since I first heard of their culture. Shogun, season 1 so far, was done nearly perfect. Everything, music, visuals, actors, class, story.

One remark though; it'd have been more 'interesting' if the English sailor's character had a little more depth and intelligence, but I can understand this choice for a dumb, simple sailor in the 15th century too. I just found Captain Allegren's character having that perfect natural dept that enriches a character. Jonathan Blackthorne is not bad however, just a little more 'down to earth'.

Well done, all who've contributed to this work of art.

This is hands down one of the best shows of the year, maybe of the last few years. Like millions of others, I'm a huge Shogun fan so I was counting down the days until this came out. Even though I couldn't wait to watch it I didn't have a lot of confidence it would be as good as the original but not only was it as good, it was even better and by a lot. The last episode was kind of disappointing. It wasn't bad but it could've been better. I was ok with the ending but it still left me a little unsatisfied so what do they do? They go and renew it for another two seasons to keep this amazing story going. I've already watched this first season a few times.

I have to agree with some comments before me. Visually stunning, nice story telling, great atmosphere. It was so satisfying to transport to a period Japan and learn more about such times.

My only complain is Cosmo Jarvis as Blackthorne. Since the first scene I could not forgive his fake blue lens and was staring at them the whole 10 episodes. Why it has to be like that? Just for one comment that he had a blue eyes?! It was totally not important.

Also it was not so believable to me to be so young as Pilot and make it that far (as career) to sail on such big mission. Of course, he had to be also very handsome (in same time) and in the middle of series lectured how English men treat women in those times so respectfully - it was super cringe and unnecessary.

At the end of the series the games were little bit too much, it was still enjoyable and made us expect a lot from the finale that never really happened. I am not sure if there will be season 2 with new cast and a new story... I would not mind.

Since the Englishman Blackthorne had quite a little impact on the story and also Portuguese, I don't think we have to force them into possible future series. I only enjoyed character of Blackthorne for the fact that all had to be explained to him from the scratch and it gave us more insights into Japanese customs that time, and of course he had to create this love interest to season things up. Other than that in some scenes he was slowly becoming even annoyance. I was also not completely sold with Cosmo Jarvis' acting, deep voice and supposed to be funny vulgar cursing?!

No matter, it was still very enjoyable and visually beautiful series and I wish to see more from Japan. I really enjoyed acting of all the asian cast and even those dark black eyes (which were also fake lens) of Tommy Bastow as Portuguese Father Martin Alvito...

Very clearly this is one of the best TV shows and a contender for top TV historical TV show.

The ambience, script, costumes, cinematography, they are so well designed that you would feel at home in XVII century Japan. This show is Art.

Clear careful treatment of culture, ideology and religion was taken into account, which highlights both the source material and its representation. Albeit not historically accurate, it is close to portraying the events enhanced for dramatic purposes. The mindset of historical figures depicted seems so realistic based on the ideologies of the period. The characters are flawed, realistic and not cartoonish. This show respects its audience just as much as the clan respects Tokugawa.

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.