Great article. I also enjoyed the link here to your piece on nonlinear storytelling. I loved Lost but usually find it annoying. It also bothers me on the page. So many novels use this device now too. Can’t someone just tell us a story so we can focus on that and not on the tricks being played in the storytelling!?
Thanks! Again, some of the greatest shows of all time did it regularly. As with the discussion of shows without ad breaks several newsletters ago, this one comes down to "Really talented artists can get away with doing that, but the lesser ones might want to try something else."
Lost is one of my favorite shows of all time. I loved everything about how they told the story. It’s just when it’s everywhere! And not always done as well.
Yes. It’s like Six Feet Under having the father as a character even though he was dead. That worked. But then on so many shows dead people return like that and it’s not even surprising.
Anna Sawai coming out of seeming nowhere (from an American POV) to do Pachinko, be one of the better parts of Monarch, and then Shogun is wild. I hope to see a lot more from her.
She has been incredible in this. Telling the audience about the Eight-fold Fence is one thing but conveying it in scene after scene with her physical performance is something else. Speaking of Pachinko, the earthquake in this ep reminded me of that particularly stunning ep of Pachinko.
Alan, I'm a year younger than you (based on your college years) and right with you on the X-Men cartoon. Not only was it not particularly good, it was completely overshadowed in quality by the Timmverse shows WB was producing at the same time. Mystified why this one show has such a cult following.
I've been steadily watching S1 of The Tourist on Netflix, I'm enjoying it quite a bit although I'd agree that some developments in eps 4 and 5 are a little weak it's still been a really great TV series thus far. I mention this because it blows my mind that HBO Max did such a poor job promoting this show (or properly curating their app) when it was exclusively on their service. I didn't even know it existed, but because Netflix knows how to curate a home page I'm watching it. These other streaming services might have been more profitable if they just successfully ripped off Netflix's whole presentation.
Anyway, Danielle Macdonald is really great, I recognized her from Poker Face and Unbelievable but she should be in a lot more stuff.
Waiting till the seventh episode to reveal the premise of a show actually sounds like a great idea if they could really pull it off.
The best formal trick like this I've ever seen is Douglass Sirk's The Imitation of Life, where you don't realize who the protagonists are until the last 10 minutes of the movie.
It is odd jumping straight into X-Men '97 without revisiting the past seasons. I don't recall Bishop and Morph so that threw me off a bit but I am enjoying the show.
Everything about Shōgun from the textiles to the mood is compelling. I don't want the journey to end.
Shogun is truly spectacular, and seems to be getting better every week. One very underrated aspect of this exquisitely crafted show is that it's actually quite funny as well as being compelling, moving, etc.
I watched the first episode of 3 Body Problem, and really enjoyed it! I read your review and a few others as well. It feels like this is a polarizing show for critics which is actually quite interesting. I have long felt Benioff and Weiss were unfairly maligned. Not the criticism of the last couple seasons of GoT but rather this notion that they’re the worst showrunners ever and should never write a show again. That was way over the top and showed amnesia of how good a job they did adapting GoT. I have not read the 3 Body Problem books but I came away riveted from the opening episode. I thought Benedict Wong was really good and it was nice to see John Bradley on my screen again. I will continue to watch the show, which feels like a good show to watch after Oppenheimer which I saw recently.
Think Pete Davidson walking away from Bupkis is the whole story, or is this also a cost-cutting cancellation of a little-watched show? I was surprised it got renewed in the first place.
Just noting that this week Gmail put your newsletter under the "Promotions" tab in my account instead of the "Primary" tab. I manually labeled it a "newsletter" in Gmail, hopefully the app is smart enough to remember that.
It’s telling of the times & demonstrates how much tv has changed in the last 30 years that you (relatively) missed stuff in 4 years of tv in early ‘90s but still could keep up with the tv landscape for most part, whereas in the past decade, you have to be selective to keep up with the shows/genres you enjoy most.
Maybe I'm just not in the loop, but I feel like no one has been talking about Shogun, and the show is just phenomenal. The politics and games within games to go along with the stunning set pieces and cinematography/production are all great.
One thing though, and maybe I misread it; but based on Toronaga speaking to the spy Samurai and then the planting of evidence on the gardener's house to set him up as the spy after his death, weren't we suppose to infer that it wasn't actually Blackthorne's fault that the gardener killed himself. It appears more like Toronoga exploited the gardener's loyalty, and used the pheasant as an excuse/cover to frame the gardener to stop Yabushige from finding the real spy?
No, the gardener killed himself over the pheasant issue, but Toranaga and the real spy then took advantage of this to cover their tracks. There is a bit more on this in one of the upcoming episodes, but it's what it looked like here.
I see, I guess I just read too much into it. I thought it was being used to show just how ruthless Toronaga is with his political maneuvering; but it also makes sense on its face that it's just being used to demonstrate how Blackthorne can't comprehend how serious honor is in Japanese society and that his words matter more here.
I had the same read as you, it seemed like they said Muraji asked Uejiro to take down the pheasant and then planted the evidence which would lean into he "found" his spy.
So unless it's included in a DNR, should I be looking forward to Shogun episode 9 as much as having recently read the book would lead me to be? Or do the budget constraints make it less than the at least half hour of pure awesomeness it should be?
Great article. I also enjoyed the link here to your piece on nonlinear storytelling. I loved Lost but usually find it annoying. It also bothers me on the page. So many novels use this device now too. Can’t someone just tell us a story so we can focus on that and not on the tricks being played in the storytelling!?
Thanks! Again, some of the greatest shows of all time did it regularly. As with the discussion of shows without ad breaks several newsletters ago, this one comes down to "Really talented artists can get away with doing that, but the lesser ones might want to try something else."
Lost is one of my favorite shows of all time. I loved everything about how they told the story. It’s just when it’s everywhere! And not always done as well.
Yes. It’s like Six Feet Under having the father as a character even though he was dead. That worked. But then on so many shows dead people return like that and it’s not even surprising.
Anna Sawai coming out of seeming nowhere (from an American POV) to do Pachinko, be one of the better parts of Monarch, and then Shogun is wild. I hope to see a lot more from her.
She has been incredible in this. Telling the audience about the Eight-fold Fence is one thing but conveying it in scene after scene with her physical performance is something else. Speaking of Pachinko, the earthquake in this ep reminded me of that particularly stunning ep of Pachinko.
that was a devastating episode (the Pachinko earthquake)
Alan, I'm a year younger than you (based on your college years) and right with you on the X-Men cartoon. Not only was it not particularly good, it was completely overshadowed in quality by the Timmverse shows WB was producing at the same time. Mystified why this one show has such a cult following.
I've been steadily watching S1 of The Tourist on Netflix, I'm enjoying it quite a bit although I'd agree that some developments in eps 4 and 5 are a little weak it's still been a really great TV series thus far. I mention this because it blows my mind that HBO Max did such a poor job promoting this show (or properly curating their app) when it was exclusively on their service. I didn't even know it existed, but because Netflix knows how to curate a home page I'm watching it. These other streaming services might have been more profitable if they just successfully ripped off Netflix's whole presentation.
Anyway, Danielle Macdonald is really great, I recognized her from Poker Face and Unbelievable but she should be in a lot more stuff.
Toranaga turned that pheasant into his pigeon
Waiting till the seventh episode to reveal the premise of a show actually sounds like a great idea if they could really pull it off.
The best formal trick like this I've ever seen is Douglass Sirk's The Imitation of Life, where you don't realize who the protagonists are until the last 10 minutes of the movie.
The Crowded Room (the show I was linking to my review of there) decidedly did NOT pull it off.
There is also an upcoming show that waits much too long to explain what it's actually about, and suffers for it.
It is odd jumping straight into X-Men '97 without revisiting the past seasons. I don't recall Bishop and Morph so that threw me off a bit but I am enjoying the show.
Everything about Shōgun from the textiles to the mood is compelling. I don't want the journey to end.
Shogun is truly spectacular, and seems to be getting better every week. One very underrated aspect of this exquisitely crafted show is that it's actually quite funny as well as being compelling, moving, etc.
I watched the first episode of 3 Body Problem, and really enjoyed it! I read your review and a few others as well. It feels like this is a polarizing show for critics which is actually quite interesting. I have long felt Benioff and Weiss were unfairly maligned. Not the criticism of the last couple seasons of GoT but rather this notion that they’re the worst showrunners ever and should never write a show again. That was way over the top and showed amnesia of how good a job they did adapting GoT. I have not read the 3 Body Problem books but I came away riveted from the opening episode. I thought Benedict Wong was really good and it was nice to see John Bradley on my screen again. I will continue to watch the show, which feels like a good show to watch after Oppenheimer which I saw recently.
Think Pete Davidson walking away from Bupkis is the whole story, or is this also a cost-cutting cancellation of a little-watched show? I was surprised it got renewed in the first place.
I thought Cosmo Jarvis was doing a Richard Burton impression, but Tom Hardy works too.
Just noting that this week Gmail put your newsletter under the "Promotions" tab in my account instead of the "Primary" tab. I manually labeled it a "newsletter" in Gmail, hopefully the app is smart enough to remember that.
It’s telling of the times & demonstrates how much tv has changed in the last 30 years that you (relatively) missed stuff in 4 years of tv in early ‘90s but still could keep up with the tv landscape for most part, whereas in the past decade, you have to be selective to keep up with the shows/genres you enjoy most.
Maybe I'm just not in the loop, but I feel like no one has been talking about Shogun, and the show is just phenomenal. The politics and games within games to go along with the stunning set pieces and cinematography/production are all great.
One thing though, and maybe I misread it; but based on Toronaga speaking to the spy Samurai and then the planting of evidence on the gardener's house to set him up as the spy after his death, weren't we suppose to infer that it wasn't actually Blackthorne's fault that the gardener killed himself. It appears more like Toronoga exploited the gardener's loyalty, and used the pheasant as an excuse/cover to frame the gardener to stop Yabushige from finding the real spy?
No, the gardener killed himself over the pheasant issue, but Toranaga and the real spy then took advantage of this to cover their tracks. There is a bit more on this in one of the upcoming episodes, but it's what it looked like here.
I see, I guess I just read too much into it. I thought it was being used to show just how ruthless Toronaga is with his political maneuvering; but it also makes sense on its face that it's just being used to demonstrate how Blackthorne can't comprehend how serious honor is in Japanese society and that his words matter more here.
I had the same read as you, it seemed like they said Muraji asked Uejiro to take down the pheasant and then planted the evidence which would lean into he "found" his spy.
Reddit has a pretty robust Shogun page which has some great discussions
So unless it's included in a DNR, should I be looking forward to Shogun episode 9 as much as having recently read the book would lead me to be? Or do the budget constraints make it less than the at least half hour of pure awesomeness it should be?
I don't remember the exact details of the book (again, it's been practically 25 years), but episode 9 is excellent.