Since the vast success of Game of Thrones, every streaming service has tried its best to come up with an epic series that will be held in the same estimation as the earlier seasons of Thrones. (The HBO flagship drama’s rise was rivaled only by the rightful contempt in which the final series is still held, which one day will be the subject of a genuinely jaw-dropping long read or book.) There have been some close calls (House of the Dragon, Outlander), some misses (Lord of the Rings) and a couple of outright horrors; I doubt that you could pay me, or anyone else, to sit through the diabolical Wheel of Time again. But now Hulu has finally joined the action, with an apparently unlimited budget, to adapt James Clavell’s much-beloved bestselling 1975 novel Shōgun over ten episodes. Thankfully, on the basis of the first two installments, this cerebral epic — while horrendously violent in places — could yet become a true contender.
Shōgun has already had one mega-expensive (and Emmy-winning) adaptation in 1980, starring a sprightly Richard Chamberlain as Clavell’s hero, Pilot-Major John Blackthorne, who is shipwrecked off the east coast of Japan and finds himself drawn into a power struggle between samurai warlords, all of whom are competing for the influential position of shōgun, or military governor of the country. It is an honorable but dangerous course that involves much rivalry and bloodshed as this particular distinction can only be assumed by one man. Yet the earlier adaptation sidelined the storied Kurosawa actor Toshiro Mifune as the heroic central character of Lord Toranaga, in favor of Chamberlain; there is, naturally, a doomed romance between Blackthorne and a Japanese woman, which is given an almost excessive amount of screen-time.
The new version of the story redresses many of the problems that the 1980 adaptation had, while remaining faithful to the epic sweep of the novel; it helps that the screenwriters and showrunners Justin Marks and Rachel Kondu have the best part of ten hours to work with, rather than the five episodes that the original series was given. Most notably, thanks to the great Hiroyuki Sanada’s performance as Toranaga, this quiets any murmurings that this is a high-class white savior story. Dashing and distinguished though Cosmo Jarvis is in the role of Blackthorne — and somehow more convincing than Chamberlain, who always seemed slightly ill at ease with the most violent aspects of the story — this is undoubtedly Sanada’s show. He is charismatic, believable and heroic, but also he anchors the series in utter believability from the beginning. If you wouldn’t fight to be on his side, you’ve got your head loose.
It’s epic (although the sweeping cinematography owes as much to locations in the UK and Vancouver as Japan), exciting, hideously violent in places — the way traitors are dealt with will make even the hardiest of viewers cover their eyes — and above all, it makes you want to carry on watching. Given the way that even the budget-busting Masters of the Air has ended up being a disappointment, this show is setting a bloodthirsty standard that we can relish. Buckle up and say sayonara — Shōgun is going to be your new favorite show.
