Read Ron’s full spoiler review of Shōgun at WWAC.
Mon: Hello and welcome to a new episode of Stereo Geeks.
Today we are reviewing Shōgun, the latest adaptation on Disney Plus and FX.
I'm Mon.
Ron: And I'm Ron.
So here's a brief summary of the new show from FX.
It's an original adaptation of James Clavell's novel.
It's set in Japan in the year 1600 at the dawn of a century-defining civil war.
Lord Yoshi Toranaga is fighting for his life as his enemies on the Council of Regions unite against him when a mysterious European ship is found marooned in a nearby fishing village.
For those of you who do not know, James Clavell's novel is loosely based on the experiences of a real person, Sir William Adams.
He was an English sea captain and adventurer, and his exploits in Japan are what inspired the book and many of the events that take place in it.
There was also a previous TV adaptation of Shōgun.
This was in 1980, and Richard Chamberlain was playing the European pilot, John Blackthorn.
This first episode of the 2024 series is called Anjin, which means pilot in Japanese.
It's kind of a double meaning because it's the pilot episode, but it's also about the pilot.
Let's talk about this very first episode.
It felt kind of protracted to me.
There were a lot of plot points, but I feel like they were just doled out like candy.
And I understand that you want to set up a lot of this world.
And for that, you need to introduce everyone in the first episode.
But I think what I struggled with a little bit was that events kind of kept happening, but they weren't directly connected with what had happened before.
And I also feel like the reactions of some of the characters, they felt so outsized.
And I felt like there wasn't enough time in the show where they'd experienced these events and these other characters for them to have such extreme reactions.
I think the pilot episode suffers from something that most pilot episodes do.
And that's the fact that it's very much a setup.
It has to introduce all these characters.
It has to also introduce the vibe, the feeling, the sets, the intrigue and the plot.
It's a lot.
Even in 70 minutes, it's a 70 minute pilot episode, and there's a lot to put in there.
So some of it does feel disjointed, especially the reactions and the emotions.
I really did feel like there were some missing emotional beats.
But as the show goes on, I'm assuming it's going to fix that issue.
But as a pilot, I have to say there are some strong points.
The beautiful landscape, the amazing sets and costumes, the political intrigue especially.
Where I really struggled was that when the show is concentrating on, I would say the protagonist because he's mentioned in the summary, right?
So Lord Yoshi Toranaga.
He is played by Hiroyuki Sanada.
When the show is concentrating on him and the political intrigue that he's facing, because a lot of it has to do with the decisions that he's making or not making.
I was invested in that part.
The moment it moved away from him, I was like so not invested at all.
And the biggest problem for me was John Blackthorn.
Now, if anybody has seen the previous Shōgun, and I'm pretty sure people who have read the books will know that he is the actual protagonist.
Who we've got here is not protagonist material.
We can already see John Blackthorn developing into the character who will be such an integral part of this story.
He finds himself on the shores of Japan, he's already trying to learn the language, he's asking different people the translations for words so that he can speak directly to the Japanese people.
So I really like that because language is a huge barrier and a lot of people just put that barrier up and like wave that flag, oh, I don't know the language, it's fine.
So I really like that they're showing, yes, it's important to know the language to actually communicate with the people that you are now living with.
What I will say though, it's so frustrating that Black Thorn keeps on calling the Japanese savages over and over again.
Listen, the first time when the Japanese characters, they refer to the white people who have landed on their shore as barbarians, it was like, huh, look, other cultures call other people rude words because they don't know who they are and what they're like.
But we also know that the Japanese folk in Osaka and around these areas have already faced the Portuguese.
So, they're probably talking about them in this derogatory fashion from experience.
Now, Black Than, from what we see just in the pilot, he doesn't know who these people are.
He's just decided and he calls them this very pejorative term.
He just comes across as a racist.
So, for me, as soon as he kept on and on saying that, my interest in this man just plummeted.
So, this is not going well for somebody who's supposed to be leading the show.
And now we come to the main problem.
Cosmo Jarvis, I've never seen him before.
I know you have.
He's an underwhelming performer.
He's just trying so hard to channel Richard Chamberlain.
And he has no presence.
His performance is tonally off.
Like, if you watch him, in comparison to everybody else, it's like he's in some kind of rollicking pirate comedy.
And, you know, we've just seen one of his colleagues being boiled to death.
So really, like, I don't know whose choice that was to make him seem completely disparate from the rest.
And his acting in general, for me, was just one note.
What are your thoughts?
First up, I will say that that boiling scene was way too graphic.
In the 1980 show, it was only implied.
And that was disturbing enough.
I had to look away over here.
In fact, in the previous show, the lead up to that scene is actually kind of more disturbing because of the politics of the European team and how they kind of just let one of their guys get sacrificed for no reason.
But yeah, moving on from that, I don't want to think about it.
As you were saying, when we were watching the show, shows live and die by their protagonist.
And Cosmo Jarvis as John Blackthorn, he's too bland.
And he's just got one expression.
I saw him in Netflix's adaptation of First Version.
The adaptation was not great, and he was not great either.
I was really surprised to see him in this show, because he is, as you said, technically the lead.
He keeps doing this thing where he's giving breathy insults, and that does not a personality make.
And I keep comparing him to Richard Chamberlain in the 1980 show, who was so vivacious and so expressive.
This is kind of graphic, but the maturation scene.
In the 1980 version, it was a moment of such vulnerability for Blackthorn.
But in this episode, it's just a blink-and-you-miss-it moment.
Even though the camera is actually focusing on Cosmo Jarvis' face, he has no expression.
This is a moment of profound humiliation for this man after he was trying to humiliate somebody else.
And I remember when we were watching the behind-the-scenes of the 1980 show, Richard Chamberlain had said that, I think they used beer or something like that.
And despite knowing what it was, he still felt humiliated.
Yeah, so I don't remember anything from the previous Shōgun.
We lived in the same house, and there was just the one TV, so I don't know what I was doing, but I was not paying attention.
That scene was brand new to me.
I was like, what is happening?
And he was like, oh, they're just going into it.
I'm like, what?
So yeah, I mean, again, when you're talking about this guy who's supposed to be the lead of the show, and then you go to Hiroyuki Sonada, who in the pilot makes me think he's the actual lead of the show, and I'm really hoping that they go with that angle.
I don't know.
Look, Sonada is a veteran.
We've seen him in so many things.
He's always got this commanding presence.
And in this show especially, what I like is it's almost a real reversal.
He's not just in a position of power.
His position is also under threat.
He's a little bit vulnerable, and there's a lot of people asking a lot from him.
You can see all that.
The weight of his family history, which we don't know about, is bearing down on him.
His duty to his people is bearing down on him.
And the battle for the Shogunate, that's definitely on there.
And you can see all this, how it plays on this person's mind all the while he's trying to be calm and respectful and honorable.
All these layers through this very subtle, quiet performance, and then you got Cosmo Jarvis being so weird.
I think one of the main reasons why we're watching this show is because of Hiroyuki Sanada.
Having seen some of his previous performances, a lot of them in science fiction films, this is such a fascinating role for him.
Because Yoshi Toranaga in this show is not a man who is comfortable.
He is literally moments away from death.
He doesn't know how it's going to happen.
He knows it's going to happen.
But there are people on his side.
He just needs to make a decision what his next steps are going to be.
It will involve bloodshed.
And he has already said in the very first episode, he does not want more unnecessary death.
The funny thing is that this is a role that seems to belong to legends.
Because in the 1980 show, Toshiro Mufune, he played Toranaga.
And he even corrected the anachronisms of the Japanese dialogue, because the dialogue as it was written in the script was modern Japanese.
Now, from what I read, the Japanese actors, especially Mufune, did not actually have the amount of time on set as the actors from America and the UK.
So he did not come across as the protagonist in the 1980 show, whereas Hiroyuki Sonada, I think, will get to be a larger presence in this one.
So alongside Sonada, we also have Tajonobu Asano.
I almost didn't recognize him because he is so scary and menacing and evil.
In fact, I'm a little bit scared to watch too much of this show because I feel like Asano's character is going to bring all the violence and gore and I don't know, the salacious stuff, because that was all, you know, connected to his character in the first episode.
But again, wow, what a performance.
So we last saw Tadanobu Asano as Hōgun, one of Thor's Warriors III in the Thor trilogy.
At first, when we meet Asano's Yabushige, he's like the big fish in the small pond and he's throwing his weight around.
He's telling his nephew what to do.
He's, you know, getting people boiled.
Oh God.
But the moment Torunaga's people arrive and they immediately put him back in his place, Yabushige becomes a coward, like an obsequious coward.
Yeah, I'm intrigued to see more of these characters really.
Okay, so I really want your opinion on Anna Sawai as Mariko.
I have a very vague recollection of the previous Mariko.
Again, I don't know what I was doing.
I was not watching the show.
So in this one, I don't know.
I am unconvinced by her as this character.
She's going to go toe to toe with John Blackthorn.
She's very essential to this story.
But honestly, when you see her, she comes across looking like a child.
I don't know how old she is, but she's very petite and very young looking.
We've just recently seen her on Monarch Legacy of the Monsters.
Her character over there is barely out of her teenage years.
So I've already got this preconceived notion of her being really, really young, and she's given a pretty important role.
She has no presence, especially commanding presence.
I mean, there's a scene she's sharing with Hiroyuki Sonata, and I'm like, there's a difference.
There's a difference.
I'm unconvinced.
But what do you think?
Anasawai, she's apparently 31.
She just looks very, very young.
She's actually a bilingual kiwi.
She's had a singing and acting career in Japan, so she's got the acting credits.
Now, in the 1980 show, Shimada Yoko, she was absolutely incredible as Mariko.
She ended up being the first Asian actress to win a Golden Globe because of that role.
And the funny thing is, Yoko was not fluent in English.
She took the role and had to work with a dialect coach.
And I remember in the behind the scenes, she was talking about how he would pull her tongue out to help her pronounce better.
I'm actually interested in seeing what Anna Survive brings to Lady Mariko.
I have noticed that, you know, when you have veteran actors and some of the younger actors, there's a difference in the presence on screen.
I don't know if there's any way to fix that.
Unfortunately, Shimada Yoko passed away in 2022 under very sad circumstances.
She had multiple organ failure because of cancer, but she was all alone and nobody came to pick up her body.
It was very unfortunate.
In fact, there was an investigation that's still continuing to find out what can be done about elderly people who are dying alone in Japan.
Sorry to bring the mood down, but her performance in the original Shōgun was absolutely incredible.
She was such a powerful presence.
I just remember there are going to be scenes later on of Mariko and John Blackthorn, and she's trying to teach him Japanese.
And in the 1980 show, those scenes were so quiet, but it really helped build the chemistry between these two characters.
That is going to be a hugely important part of this show.
You know, this is why I wanted us to chat about this on Stereo Geeks.
I was like, you're wasting all this incredible knowledge and all these memories by chatting about it off the mic.
Okay, so that's interesting.
So the only other point about characters I'll mention is there is what I can only call a Min Min A woman.
Min Min A is a Bengali word, basically like this whining, I don't know.
There's a very specific way.
As soon as you see her, you'll know what Min Min A means.
She has one scene.
She is so annoying.
I know what they're doing with this person.
They're trying to show us that there's this sultry woman who is actually so cunning and she's going to be very important and integral to overthrow something or gain power, I don't know.
She was just so irritating that whatever they were doing with that scene, which I'm sure some people might like and find titillating, I was like, she's so irritating, I can't.
Anyway, so that was my only other point about the characters.
I think you are right.
I don't remember everything about the 1980 show, but there is a courtesan who plays a pretty big role.
I don't know whether it's with Yabushige or with the other characters, but at least over here, she's been introduced as part of Yabushige's group.
I know it's not correct for us to keep comparing this show with the 1980s version.
This is an original adaptation of the novel.
Now, you and I have not read the novel.
We do not have the courage to go through that much.
It's a tome.
Also, if the violence on the screen is so disturbing, I don't even want to know what's in the book.
Yeah, exactly.
So I guess the only other thing we can talk about is the story.
Story-wise, I think there's a lot going on.
The main part which I have mentioned I really enjoyed was the political intrigue of the Council of Five Regions and how they're working against Lord Yoshitoronaga.
There's also the part where Blackthorn, he's now a captive in this land.
What does it mean for him?
How does he survive?
We also have the religious battle, the Portuguese Catholics versus Blackthorn's people.
He's English, but he's representing the Portuguese Protestants.
So there's that part.
All that is very interesting.
We also get to see a lot of Japan in 1600s, and it looks very beautiful, but it's also very violent.
It is at the end of the day, the battle for the highest title, which is the Shōgun.
I'm also very interested in the politics in the show.
Look, every time there is a regent in charge and a very young ruler, you know there's going to be drama.
And when there are five regents, four of whom don't like the other guy, Toranaga, and they're all quarreling amongst themselves anyway, there's going to be even more drama.
That stuff is definitely my jam.
Yeah, but we also know that romance is going to be a huge part of this show, and I am already wrinkling up my nose at the thought of it.
That's true.
I mean, we know that Mariko and John Blackthorn are going to have a romance at some point, and that's probably going to happen sooner rather than later.
I'm in agreement with you that I don't want to see the romance.
I'm not really interested in it.
Just give me the politics.
Does the Shōgunet actually happen?
Is Torunaga going to win?
This is the stuff I want to know about.
But I do want to add one thing.
In the 1980s show, Damien Thomas played Father Alvito.
We haven't met him in the first episode.
I believe he is going to appear soon.
Here's a little fun fact.
Damien Thomas, when he took the role, he didn't know the Japanese language at all.
But by the time he was actually on set, he was fluent.
The problem is that by the time they did the behind-the-scenes documentary, I think Thomas had passed away, so he wasn't there to talk about how he learned the language so well.
I just remember the scenes of Damien Thomas's Father Alvito sitting in front of Toranaga and translating English, Japanese beautifully.
Whoever steps into the shoes of Father Alvito, they have a huge task.
Good luck to them.
Alright, so that's our review of Shōgun after just the pilot episode.
We are intrigued, but a little bit cautious.
Let us know what you think, and if you're in it for the entire 10-episode ride.
Ron: You can find us on Twitter @Stereo_Geeks. Or send us an email [email protected]. We hope you enjoyed this episode. And see you next week!
Mon: The Stereo Geeks logo was created using Canva. The music for our podcast comes courtesy Audionautix.