I watched the super popular series “Shogun” (2024). Critics rejoice, but why?

On April 23, Hulu’s wildly popular series Shogun ended.

It received rave reviews from both viewers and critics. Thus, on the Rotten Tomatoes project it scored 99% of critics and 91% of viewers. This is one of the best results of the season.

We have already watched the first season and are eager to share our impressions.

High-quality series about Japanese feudal lords

What is the series about?: Japan, early 17th century. English navigator John Blackthorne crashes and enters the Land of the Rising Sun, closed to Europeans, where he goes from a prisoner on the border of life and death to the right hands of the samurai Toranaga, who is struggling for power.

The plot of the film is based on the novel of the same name by James Clavell, published in 1975. And the first thing that pleases us is the selected cast. Cosmo Jarvis and Tadanobu Asabo literally got used to their videos and were able to convey a wide range of emotions.

Both the characters and the whole plot are all very contradictory. Yours the point of view changes from episode to episode, and it is very tightly tied to constantly changing events. This project definitely creates the atmosphere of the early 17th century.

The history of the places looks so cruel that you can’t even find words for what is happening. All that remains on my mind iso “horror and tragedy”” You feel sorry for ordinary people from the very first episodes, be it war or simple everyday life. They suffer, but they harden and thereby develop as individuals. You literally see their development from the very bottom.

From the first minutes, the viewer is immersed in incomprehensible and sometimes absurd rituals and customs, and at the same time introduced to the era. You especially feel this when you meet Blackthorne. We are constantly immersed in Eastern wisdom, introducing them to their values.

And it’s the story that sticks out the most here. She is cruel and makes you think about many questions. At the same time, the authors do not leave questions unanswered, they answer them almost immediately and do not rely on some kind of great intrigue (although the season will not do without it in any case).

Local behind-the-scenes intrigues are reminiscent in places of “Game of Thrones” – it was clearly a guideline for the creators of the project. But still, the great emphasis here is not on private individuals, but on ordinary Japanese. You can and want to survive this period together with the heroes.

This is just an amazing picture

Another advantage of the game is the staging. The operator deftly operates the rosette and shows breathtaking landscapes, flying over rocks and various devices. Film crew from Southeast Asia during Japanese feudalism.

Osaka was chosen as the central location, and it was, as it were, not provided for All the beauty of Japan.

Of particular interest is the authors’ attitude towards cruelty. It seemed to be transmitted at some unattainable level. Here, literally just like that on the street, a passerby can have his hand cut off or beaten half to death. Simply because they wanted it that way, and no one did anything to them for it. Emotions at such moments simply go off scale – they cannot be conveyed.

But there is no major bloodshed in the project. Both at the beginning of the season and in the second. This is not even necessary here, because you are observing what is happening against the backdrop of other events. But there was a need for scale, and he was already thinking in the first two episodes. Not exactly battles, but just events.

Must watch

“Shogun” is a rare case when a series is interesting to watch from beginning to end. It seems that if a small minute is carefully adjusted here, the level of elaboration simply goes off scale.

The project looks like it will take one breath, it is difficult to stretch it over several evenings. After all, you are interested in what will happen next. And not even due to the intrigue, but simply due to the high-quality production and development of the story.

This is the case when history is interesting to literally everyone.