Plot Summary – Shōgun follows “the collision of two ambitious men from different worlds, John Blackthorne, a risk-taking English sailor who ends up shipwrecked in Japan, a land whose unfamiliar culture will ultimately redefine him; Lord Toranaga, a shrewd, powerful daimyo, at odds with his own dangerous political rivals; and Lady Mariko, a woman with invaluable skills but dishonorable family ties, who must prove her value and allegiance.”

10/10

Pretty much a perfect season of television. Very rarely do I get to watch a show and revel in its brilliance like this. Many were quick to eulogize and declare the death of prestige television when HBO’s Succession ended. Shogun proves that prestige TV is alive and well, and dare I say, thriving! From concept to execution this show is perfect. Every single moving piece is brilliantly thought through. It’s so rare for another culture’s tradition and philosophy to be conveyed so delicately and yet so effectively. It never tries to bring a Western lens or perspective to the values and rituals of the medieval Japanese. Instead it calls out the hypocrisy in judging the past with modern, Western ideals. The show manages to be overtly political without rubbing it in your face, and the dim viewer may able to enjoy the ‘plot’ of this show without grasping any of its greater themes and that’s the beauty of it. It manages to be extremely entertaining and have so much narrative that it keeps you engaged and then it hits you with its subtext and background, which is what makes it so beautiful.

Hiroyuki Sanada as Toranaga continues to show why he’s a legend in one of the calmest performances I’ve seen. He’s so charismatic and compelling as the patriarchal leader that the show follows. But the show would be nothing without the performances from Cosmo Jarvis as Blackthorne and Anna Sawai as Mariko. They blew me away with how complex their characters were and how they managed to portray this mainly through tiny tweaks of their facial expressions. This shows uses language and body language so effectively. Lesser shows would use long monologues or speeches to say the same things this show does with subtle smiles and gestures.

I highly recommend this show to everyone, I think you would really miss out by not watching it. It’s like Game of Thrones meets Succession set in feudal Japan in the age of the Samurai. What’s not to love?