I had very high hopes prior to the release of FX/Hulu/Disney+’s new series Shōgun, and it has lived up to all of the hype after two episodes. Y’all. This show is great.

I don’t know the actual historical setting for Shōhun, nor have I ever read the book, so all of this is new territory for me. And, so far, all of the decisions have been homeruns for me. The writing, directing, casting, set design, etc. is all terrific.

So, not only do we have the intrigue of the five regents pushing for power to reign into the heir comes of age, but we learn in episode two of the Portuguese subterfuge in trying to claim all of Japan for Portugal.

It can be tough to properly convey the emotion in a scene where they’re relying on subtitles to translate the language into English for the audience; however, when Tornaga said, “Did he say ‘belongs’ to Portugal?”, it was very tense. You could feel the shock he was experiencing at that moment.  They nailed it.

They did a big exposition dump to explain who the five regents were and what their beliefs were, but they did it for John Blackthorne (and the audience) to discuss that information for the first time. I’m a big “show, don’t tell” person like most, but I think it was handled well.

I can’t recommend Shōgun high enough for you to watch. It’s a great television show, and they’ve nailed all aspects of the show for me.