Little Look: Shōgun

An edit has been added at the bottom of this post to reflect the news of renewal.

A little look at the show Shōgun. Spoilers contained, seriously watch it before reading.

I’m growing tired and bored with the endless sea of television shows in recent years. Not only has television exploded since the advent of streaming, but the shows have reverted back to endless release. We had the wonderful sweet spot of a few years where shows were being commissioned that had a direct vision of three seasons here and five seasons there where the showrunners planned most in advance and adjusted a little as the seasons went on and storylines shifted. But apart from the odd show, most of which either finished or is finishing in the last couple of years, everything now has gone back to the endless ‘we’ll keep going until they tell us to stop’. They go until they are cancelled mid-way through a three season arc that leaves the audience both confounded and disappointed. Or, perhaps even worse, shows are cancelled after one season which just feels pointless to put that money into something that is obviously meant to be multiple seasons just because the numbers don’t look great. This has made me less interested in picking up a new show. The only television I end up watching really is stuff associated with Star Wars, A Song of Ice and Fire, or a project led by a film director whose work I love. Occasionally though, something will peak its head out from the trenches and catch my attention. On this occasion, it was Shōgun.

The fact that it was even a miniseries was an absolute blessing. No need to worry about that potential cancellation after each season. No need to worry about writers or actors wanting to leave unexpectedly. The show was released, and that was it. That’s also partly why I didn’t bother starting it until the last episode was about to air. Then I knew I could go at my own pace, and get a complete story. Being based on real events can be a curse as much as a blessing for a television show or film. People are obsessed with pointing out factual inaccuracies in what is still, in the end, a drama. They think that simply because it is based on real events, it has to have the accuracy of a fully-fledged documentary. This has also been evident with the recent Napoleon film from Ridley Scott. People need to get over this, and this comes from someone who enjoys reading history books. If you can’t handle tweaks to real events to make the drama more enjoyable then go and watch a documentary on the subject to ease your anguish. The adults will carry on and enjoy the drama that Rachael Kondo and Justin Marks have created for us. Though if you are so inclined to cringe at the tweaks ‘based on real events’ shows make, don’t fear. Shōgun has simply changed names and other details here and there that, although it doesn’t take a genius to figure out who they are basing the names on, you have a little bit of separation from the real events. I am aware that the show is based on the books by James Clavell but I am treating them as one entity for the purposes of this article (also I haven’t read them yet, so there’s that). So people who do have a problem with these types of dramas may be able to watch with no fear. And so they should, it is an excellent television show. As I hinted at, the general plot and background tensions will be known to anyone familiar with the establishment of the Tokugawa Shōgunate. The show balances two protagonists, Cosmo Jarvis as John Blackthorne and Hiroyuki Sanada as Lord Yoshii Toranaga, quite well using Blackthorne as the western audience’s pair of trousers to guide them through a mysterious world and Toranaga as the badass star strong in their political intrigue akin to Tyrion from A Song of Ice and Fire. Although Blackthorne serves his purpose well, just like his purpose in Toranaga’s plans, the Lord of the Edo region is the true protagonist of the show. With Blackthorne and the character of Mariko as his pawns in a political game to gain control of all of Japan.

So the characters. We’ve already talked about Blackthorne a little but one of the only major downsides to the show is Cosmo Jarvis’ performance. I seem to be in the minority for this, but I do find Jarvis’ acting to be very overdone and a little forced. Maybe he’s doing a great job for the type of historical character that Blackthorne is based on but I find most moments are simply a little comedic (intended or not) or cringe-worthy. There are a number of subtler moments where his body language or more subdued and less boisterous moments shine through and really display what the actor can do. Though, to be fair those moments often are whilst he is acting opposite the rest of the cast. Before I talk about the Japanese cast, I will briefly mention Nestor Carbonell who plays Rodrigues, the pilot who helps Blackthorne out (in some ways) as he initially travels to Osaka. Carbonell was someone who I recognised for a while before realising it was an actor who had been in an episode of House M.D. after looking it up (“Cursed” for those who are curious). If it’s an actor in a single episode of House M.D. and I don’t know them from anywhere else, I usually don’t expect to see them in something so big as this, let alone with a fantastic performance. It’s not a huge role but Carbonell completely disappears into it with ease. It’s incredible what some grey hair dye (or not using some black hair dye) and a beard can do to help transform someone — not to take away from his own preparation and work. But where the cast really shines is its Japanese actors. Perhaps it’s my lack of knowledge with big Japanese language content outside of some anime and Kurosawa films, but there is something special with this cast of actors. Every single one of them completely knocks it out of the park and has a particular scene where they steal the limelight and sometimes the entire episode. Both Sanada, who was mentioned earlier, and Anna Sawai (who plays Toda Mariko) give a wonderfully subtle performance whilst never taking away from their emotional scenes. Though with that said, the characters are fairly different and provide great arcs over the season. The major standout for me in the entire show is Tadanobu Asano who plays Kashigi Yabushige, the Lord of Izu. A character perfectly made for any political intrigue television show, he flips loyalty rapidly throughout the show as he tries to manoeuvre himself into a beneficial position no matter who wins the war that inevitably breaks out. I would compare Yabushige to the likes of Littlefinger and Ramsay Bolton though with a major difference. Whereas with the two A Song of Ice and Fire characters who are made for you to hate, Yabushige is given Littlefinger’s political knowhow with Bolton’s sadistic nature but yet over the course of the show, you end up rooting for the maniac. In the end, he gets his comeuppance as any character like that should, but it is not without sadness and a wonderful scene between him and Toranaga as the show wraps up in the final episode. The whole season leads up to this scene and it is wonderfully done. I am surprised but also glad that such an important scene was given to this character.

The technical approach to this show is fantastic. You have a lot of the work being carried by the costume department, but the way everything is framed and the shots chosen all add up together and bring a great overall experience. As I mentioned in my last article about Rebel Moon, the show uses a bizarre camera lens that gives a sort of radial blur to a lot of the shots which is used poorly in Zack Snyder’s sci-fi experience but subtly enough here that it works well and gives a sense of the claustrophobic atmosphere that envelopes the entire show. Subtlety is evidently the name of the game, including when we talk about the soundtrack. To be honest, a lot of it goes by unnoticed aside from the show’s main theme. The only time, aside from that intro, where the soundtrack usually shines is the diegetic music played during the play in episode six.

Overall, the whole experience of Shōgun was short and sweet. Though even that description does not give it enough credit to fully explain its wonders. This has easily become one of my favourite shows, even with just this one season. I’d love to see what else the creators of the shows end up making. We’ll see.

I don’t control the wind. I only study it.

EDIT: So it turns out the show has now been turned from a limited series to a full television with a second and maybe even a third season on the way. I can’t tell you how disappointed I am in both the network (though it’s not surprising from their end) and in the show’s creators. I guess it’s possible that the network threatened to continue the show with different showrunners if they refused but either way, this day is sad. My only hope is that they don’t fuck it up and that the show doesn’t grow stale by the time a potential third season is released. This kind of shit is what truly makes me hate the industry. They can’t seem to simply leave things alone; they have to continuously push and push until every single penny is drained from their ‘content’. Fuck you, FX.