Shōgun

The only interesting parts are Blackthorne interacting with this new culture but he's almost entirely erased from the story. All the scenes depicting the Japanese are comically cliche and superficial. They speak to eachother in almost nothing but poems and philosophical monologue and because of the secrecy and repressed nature of the characters this makes for some skin crawlingly slow and dramatically inert tv. The rush turns the political scheming and war plot into a confusing sideshow

Starts to drag towards the late episodes, but that only gives more opportunity to admire to beautiful Japanese design. The architecture, the clothes, the rituals, wow Japan is the best

Beautiful show, beautiful filmed and acted, a lot of pushing against traditional period tropes. The ending will leave many feeling a bit let down, but I don't think its because of the outcome, it just feels a bit underdeveloped, but some of the moments in its subtlety is really nice. One of the better TV series of the last 20 years.

Acting, direction, cinematography, costumes, dialogue, scenery, props, customs representation, pacing, duration, everything. Its what Game of Thrones could have been without the last 2 seasons cockup. Actors playing Toranaga, Blackthorne, Mariko Yabushige were superb and the others very good. But the standout was the acting of the character playing the Heirs mother, perfect understatement without any drama but conveying volumes. Wish it didnt end so soon.

A story about a Japanese warlord who plays 5D chess while his opponents play checkers. Breathtaking attention to detail with period appropriate language, costumes and mannerisms. There’s good and bad in every character. It’s morally muddy and often challenges Western concepts of honor and righteousness. A somewhat weak landing reduced the score from episode eight 99/100 high.

A generally elegant and well written historical drama with immaculate production values; worth watching if you enjoy stuff like Vikings or The Last Kingdom or what have you. The ending did leave me with a slightly unsatisfying feeling of “that’s it?” though.

Brilliant period drama. Very faithful to the spirit of the book, superb acting, impressive set and costume design, great photography (perhaps except for the overuse of vintage lenses). No insertion of contemporary politics so far, which is a breath of fresh air.

The dated 1970s origin of the story is sadly all too visible, the accents of the "Portuguese" priests was shocking, and the Anjin looked bemused the while time and walked like he'd just ran a marathon. Otherwise, I enjoyed the Japanese aspect regardless of how true to life it is or isn't.

Yuck. Horseshit.

Fuckin good series ... See Ancient japanese tradation and fight style