Have tv shows just given up de ageing characters? How are we supposed to believe Mariko and the priest looked the exact same 14 years ago? 
Television Shōgun (FX Networks series) - premieres February 27, 2024
- Thread starter RedDevilQuebecois
- Start date
Take it you've never seen this.Have tv shows just given up de ageing characters? How are we supposed to believe Mariko and the priest looked the exact same 14 years ago?
The priest looked the same, but Mariko did look significantly younger.Have tv shows just given up de ageing characters? How are we supposed to believe Mariko and the priest looked the exact same 14 years ago?
I don't know, with the hair style and her demeanor I'd buy her as a teenager. (don't put this in that thread)She looked 25 instead of 30, maybe.
Anyway, great episode. That ending
Great show and all that but damn, how beautiful is Anna Sawai?
Great show and all that but damn, how beautiful is Anna Sawai?
You need to watch Monarch: Legacy of Monsters as well.
Loving this show so far a few episodes in. It's excellent and I love that much of it is subtitled so we get the full vibe.
Have to say though, I find the Anjin very unlikeable. I can't seem to root for him at all even though it looks like he is the main protagonist. I hope he dies and we get to follow the Japanese characters at some point.
Have to say though, I find the Anjin very unlikeable. I can't seem to root for him at all even though it looks like he is the main protagonist. I hope he dies and we get to follow the Japanese characters at some point.
Well, feck. Just watched it.
Can't fathom how this ends after 1 more ep.
Can't fathom how this ends after 1 more ep.
Final was a bit of a let down for me.... The whole flashback from the "future" ploy was just weird since it was just a hallucination (I think). Also, not getting to see Ishido's fate was a bummer since he totally deserved his book ending. For me this was the worst episode of the season. Still good, but I feel the writers veered wildly and tried to get cute when they spent 9 episodes totally locked into great story telling.
That flashforward (is that a word?) Just why?
Agree with @WI_Red, quite comfortably the weakest episode of the series, it felt so hollow and rushed... and the grand reveal didn't carry as much gravitas as the creators thought that it would.
In general Anjin was the weakest part in the series for me. To be fair I don't think that the character was supposed to be anything special, more like the plot device to allow us a slower introduction into the world, but the actor was so wooden... and he was hilariously bad in the last episode. The rest of the series were simply brilliant though, fair fecks to everyone involved (and to Hiroyuki Sanada specifically, I've read that he played a big part in maintaining the authenticity of the entire production).
Just why?Agree with @WI_Red, quite comfortably the weakest episode of the series, it felt so hollow and rushed... and the grand reveal didn't carry as much gravitas as the creators thought that it would.
In general Anjin was the weakest part in the series for me. To be fair I don't think that the character was supposed to be anything special, more like the plot device to allow us a slower introduction into the world, but the actor was so wooden... and he was hilariously bad in the last episode. The rest of the series were simply brilliant though, fair fecks to everyone involved (and to Hiroyuki Sanada specifically, I've read that he played a big part in maintaining the authenticity of the entire production).
I am not so down on Cosmo Jarvis as he was in tough position. The show, rightly in my opinion, strove to shift the story from "foreigner in a foreign land" to more centered on the actual major players of history, and so I felt he was tying to balance things (which is what I think you were getting at). He wasn't amazing, but he was good. That flashforward really bothers me. It was wasted time, and for what? To trick viewers into thinking he got back to England until you see him drop the crucifix? Anyways, it was a 9.9/10 series for me.That flashforward (is that a word?)
Agree with @WI_Red, quite comfortably the weakest episode of the series, it felt so hollow and rushed... and the grand reveal didn't carry as much gravitas as the creators thought that it would.
In general Anjin was the weakest part in the series for me. To be fair I don't think that the character was supposed to be anything special, more like the plot device to allow us a slower introduction into the world, but the actor was so wooden... and he was hilariously bad in the last episode. The rest of the series were simply brilliant though, fair fecks to everyone involved (and to Hiroyuki Sanada specifically, I've read that he played a big part in maintaining the authenticity of the entire production).
Enough of the negatives, how about the positives:
1. The scene with Fuji and Blackthorn on the patio when the look at the empty space. Fuji adds another "who needs words when you can act this good with your face" feather to her cap.
2. The whole scene with Ochiba and the heir. My goodness what an actress she is.
3. Yabu fishing.
4. Yabu wanting diving lessons.
5. Yabu's death poem.
6. Yabu going "feck the ceremony, lets get this sepuku show on the road".
7. Yabu.
Also, I really wanted this scene in the show, it is the very last line in the book and is a savage, and deserved ending.
Three days later Ishido was captured alive and Toranaga genially reminded him of the prophecy and sent him in chains to Osaka for public viewing, ordering the eta to plant the General Lord Ishido’s feet firm in the earth, with only his head outside the earth, and to invite passersby to saw at the most famous neck in the realm with a bamboo saw. Ishido lingered three days and died very old.
Him asking for a cooler death than seppuku
"Have angry fish tear me apart!"or get blown apart by a cannonHim asking for a cooler death than seppuku
Yabushige was so awesome. I want a spin-off about him consisting of only scenes where he takes a deep breath and does something shite.
I thought it was a great ending, really enjoyed this show. Fantastic.
Enjoyed the finale. The Toranaga & Yabushige scene was well done.
Excellent storytelling & acting throughout the season. One of the best shows I've seen in recent times.
Excellent storytelling & acting throughout the season. One of the best shows I've seen in recent times.
Yeah I loved that finale, Yabu is the absolute fecking (dead) man.
Great show.
Great show.
It was a good episode, although I feel a bit short changed that the ending was basically just exposition. Like Yabushige, I wanted tearing canons and angry fish.
Yeah not the final episode I was expecting but enjoyed it all the same. More so than the missus anyway. Yabu got his just desserts and the flash forward thing was confusing...so the cops knew that internal affairs were setting them up?
Brilliant series on the whole. Hope the audiobook is well done...
Quick hint, they have split the audiobook into 2 books for "rea$on$". It was originally sold as a single book. I was able to find it as a single book, for pretty cheap, on speechify. If you buy it there you will need to download the Speechify Books App to listen.
Thanks, I've got audible credits to burn fortunately.
Really enjoyed the series on a whole. Final episode felt a tad week, but that was likely because episode 9 was just so tense and good.
I was saying how he looks like a cross between those two.First two scenes I thought they went totally Rick Grimes but they‘ve gone full Tom Hardy with him. Doesn‘t help that the character is written less than stellar. Always raising eyebrows to how they treat their women while he abandoned his with two kids for seeing „the horizon“..
Just finished it. Really good show. Beautiful to look at and great characters. Anjin was a bit shit though.
Wonderful show, though the final chat between Yabu and Torinaga felt strangely focussed on the Anjin. To me he felt fairly peripheral to the actual machinations of the plan/plot. I'm guessing that's the case in the book too?
The Anjin actor always makes me feel like he's pretending to be blind. He oddly focusses on some spot on the floor away from everything. I don't get it.
The Anjin actor always makes me feel like he's pretending to be blind. He oddly focusses on some spot on the floor away from everything. I don't get it.
Still can't believe they boiled that guy alive in one of the earlier episodes... imagine going like that 
My belief was always that Blackthorn was serving as the vehicle for western audiences to peer in on Japanese history. Remember that this book was written at a time where, especially for American audiences, there was likely little to no familiarity with Japanese culture or history. Writing this story without him would have likely limited the reach of the book and especially the original mini-series, without which we would not have gotten this masterpiece.
Also, the show did not do a good job, likely because of time constraints and possibly because they wanted to move away from it, of building up what was an actual and genuine friendship between Blackthorn and Toranaga in the book. The book also ends abruptly and with Toranaga musing internally about much of what he told Yabu in the show. Since internal monologues do not make great television you can see why they needed to create the Yabu conversation to lay it out.
I can't speak to the book at all, but I felt they were heading that way well enough until Toranaga cut him loose. They never really made up after that, which made the relationship between them a bit murky at the end, particularly as I was still kind of assuming Blackthorne blamed him for Mariko.
The finale was a bit weak for me but maybe because the show had been building for so long I was expecting something more epic. Great series though and Yabu is an all time character.
Episode 9 was the finale really and the final episode seemed to be more of a epilogue detailing the consequences. They said that's where the books ended so they did it that way but it might have had a stronger conclusion if they had a couple of episodes going into the aftermath. Although, I'm very wary of series going off-book now and the danger is they could have fecked it up.
Up there with Jesse Pinkman's "bitch" compilation.
So good
Read an interview that the producers aren't against a season two based on the sentiment that it gets. They said that it would have to depend on the strength of the script and the idea being worthy of Clavell's work.
I, for one, would love to see a little more Fuji.
I, for one, would love to see a little more Fuji.
No Yabushige, no party
They could do more of his books instead. I'd be wary of a season 2 with no Mariko, Fuji, Yabushige and some story they invent over a few months.
It's normal that they would get misty eyed over a potential second season due to how well they have done with season one, but it would be very risky given the source material is no more and also quite arrogant.
I think they are better off not doing a second season, particularly with Mariko not being in it. Add to that, they will be writing their own story, so I can only see them creating a mess that takes away from what they have produced to date.