Shogun (series): If you aren't watching this already, you need to start immediately

As excited as I get about a good movie it is really the series that are excellent that truly do it for me. The reason for this is obvious in that a series, done well, is many more hours of entertainment than any film is. The problem with most series is that the studios end up getting greedy when something does well and they will intentionally drag it out with what I call "lull" episodes that normally take place in the middle of the season. The fact of the matter as far as most series are concerned is that the creators have no idea if something is going to do well or not so they will just have an outline of what it is going to be about while they film an episode or two, then see how those do, and if they do well, they will get started on the rest of them.

There are a few shining examples of exactly what I just said happening and the first one that comes to me is the series LOST that was on in the early 2000's. This was an excellent show that was filled with mystery and intrigue but as the season as well as the series as a whole carried on, it became increasingly evident that the writers were just making stuff up as they went along and were intentionally dragging it out as long as possible to get as much money as possible. By the time they finally wrapped things up we had a mess of a show that didn't have anything to do with what we started with.

While it is too early for me to say for sure whether or not Shogun will end up going down this same route, at least for now, every single episode is chocka-block of action and meaningful story that is one of the best things I have seen in a while. This series has made me forget about how I was a bit disappointed with Masters of the Sky as well as the SJW devolution of HALO.

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I think if you were to survey everyone and ask them how they feel about Samurai that most people would respond positively. I also think that most people are not terribly familiar with the structure of society in Japan back in those days and how rigid the hierarchy was. I knew some stuff but I have been learning a lot about certain other things as far as the culture is concerned and this is always a big bonus when you can actually learn something when watching a show as well.

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While there are a lot of "main" characters, the one that is the center of focus more often than not is John Blackthorne who is an ambitious English sailor whose original intention was to establish trade between England and Japan when he arrived and was essentially taken prisoner at first. This takes place during a period of actual time where the English, the Spanish, and the Portuguese were racing one another to see who could conquer and colonize the most of the planet at the time. When John is released from his bonds and is introduced into Japanese society, he finds that the Portuguese are operating on colonizing the country in the name of Christianity already.

John has no interest in colonizing Japan or turning it into a part of the English Kingdom, he is merely in it for personal gain and the gain of his sailors. As time goes by he is able to curry favor with some of the Japanese leaders because he is skilled in tactics of Western war and also knows a bit about the actual intentional of the Portuguese from his travels along the way of arriving in Japan. Some do not trust him and some of the feudal leaders are actually "in on it" with the Portuguese and much of this is revealed as the story goes on.

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The costumes and locations are extremely well-done and I was surprised to discover that most of this series was filmed not in Japan, but in Canada. This means that every structure that we see in this film is likely built for the sake of the show or was put in using CGI. If it is CGI it is so well done that you can't even tell at all.

The battles must have involved hundreds of people in their production and this kind of amazed me that FX would take on such an ambitious project. Normally something of this scale would have to be reserved for the deep pockets of Amazon, Apple, or HBO. I don't normally pay FX productions much mind because they simply do not have the big bucks but i guess someone with a great deal of charisma was able to get the proverbial "green light" to push this one forward. They definitely did not cut corners at all when making this because even the scenes that take place on sailing vessels seem extremely real.

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This series is at least meant to be somewhat historical but I don't yet have any idea how much of what we see on screen was meant to have actually happened. The series is based on a 1975 historical novel and they actually attempted to make this for TV or screen multiple times. Only one of them actually ended up getting completed but it was less than spectacular which is understandable since it was released in 1980. We have made great strides as far as what can be presented on screen since then and it definitely shows.

Should I watch it?

I think the fact that it is one of the highest rated series of all time currently on both IMDB and RT should speak volumes because so few actually manage to accomplish a more than 9/10 rating with tens of thousands of reviewers weighing in. You may recall how some blowhard commented about how there is a lack of "diversity" in the cast but that was quickly shut down by the online community calling these people the idiots that they are. Just the fact that there is no diversity quota in this series is reason enough to give it a look. Although I originally complained about entire series not being dropped all at once I have actually been feeling a bit of a nostalgic pleasure in needing to wait a week before the next episode is released.

One thing to note is that this is not something you can just have on in the background while you are going through your phone. Since most of the dialogue is in Japanese you are going to have to pay very careful attention to understand what the hell is going on. I've already watched each episode twice and it is just as good the second time around as it is the first. I almost never do something like this and the fact that I have been doing so is all the reason I need to consider this series one of the most highly recommended that I have ever talked about in any of my reviews. Seriously, go and watch this now.

_{the only way to legally stream this at the moment is on Hulu (owned by Disney) or to watch it weekly on cable (who has that?) on FX}