History is something that has always made for fascinating television as alot of historical events are epic enough to be made into a TV show. However this show dares to ask the question of what if they adapted one book whilst really at the exact same time also ripping of Game Of Thrones and well what we got does add up to a really very mixed bag of affairs and so then join me as I give you my first impressions of the show that rips of Game Of Thrones with the show in question being called simply just "Shōgun" enjoy.
The plot of this episode is when a sailor is taken prisoner and one his crew are killed he must find away to survive and gain power all for himself. Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual plot that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual plot that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode was in al honesty not that bad but at the same time the plot of this episode wasn't all that good either with the plot of this episode being really weak at best as it was hard to work out what the actual plot of the episode was and while the episode does indeed do a good job of setting up the plot of the show it doesn't do a good job of telling a decent plot for the episode which is something that should have been just as a much a focus as setting up the plot for the show but the plot of this episode was really entertaining and as well as being really rather engaging as well in my freaking opinions anyways / at least.
Starring in this episode is Hiroyuki Sanada as Lord Yoshii Toranaga and Cosmo Jarvis as John Blackthorne. Also starring in this episode is Anna Sawai as Toda Mariko , Tadanobu Asano as Kashigi Yabushige , Hiroto Kanai as Kashigi Omi , Takehiro Hira as Ishido Kazunari , Moeka Hoshi as Usami Fuji , Shinnosuke Abe as Toda "Buntaro" Hirokatsu , Tokuma Nishioka as Toda Hiromatsu , Yasunari Takeshima as Muraji , Yuki Kura as Yoshii Nagakado , Fumi Nikaido as Ochiba No Kata , Tommy Bastow as Father Martin Alvito , Yuka Kouri as Kiku , Yoriko Dōguchi as Kiri No Kata , Ako as Lady Iyo / Daiyoin , Néstor Carbonell as Lord Vasco Rodrigues , Hiromoto Ida as Lord Kiyama Ukon Sadanaga , Toshi Toda as Lord Sugiyama , Sen Mars as Nakamura Yaechiyo , Paul Moniz De Sa as Father Sebastio , Takeshi Kurokawa as Ohno Harunobu and Good Omens star Ned Dennehy as Captain General.
Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual acting that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual acting that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode was in all honesty really good. With all of the episodes cast turning in some really good performances and heck the acting in this episode is so good that it's hard to say who turned in the best performance as everybody in this episode is just so good with there not being a standout performer because the whole cast is the standout performer which is something that on paper shouldn't be the case with this episode as this episodes cast is made up of mostly unknown or very little known actors and as such to expect a good performance out of them would be a mistake and yet that's exactly what we get in this episode with the acting in this episode really being helped by the fact that the episodes script is just so good that all the episodes cast have to do is just say the lines as they are written and a good performance will come out of them naturally.
Doing the CGI for this episode is the legends and the greats that are currently over at Important Looking Pirates and Lindala Schminken FX. Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual CGI that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual CGI that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode was in all honesty not that bad as it was used in a way that CGI should be used and that's to extend what's already there on set but at the same time tho the episodes CGI wasn't really all that good either as it did look really cheap looking with it being really painfully obvious when they were using CGI as opposed to whenever they were really doing something practically which is something that really does make the CGI in this episode look alot more worse then what it really should have been like.
For those of you who don't know this show is an adaptation of the 1975 novel of the same name and was written by author James Clavell. With this being only the second time that the book has been adapted into a TV show with the only previous adaptation being the 1980 nine hour TV show mini-series of the exact name and while it's hard to say if this show is more faithful of the books given that the previous TV show adaptation had the books original involved it does make the original TV show more faithful as the author would of course want his work to be translated as faithfully as possible but at the same time that's hard to say for sure as the original miniseries in nine hours long and I have no interest in either reading the original book nor watching the original show but just based of this one episode alone it does seem like this show will be just as faithful to the original source material as the original miniseries was.
This episode feels like a Game Of Thrones ripoff as there are alot of things that were in that show that also reappear in this show. With both shows having political intrigue , a pointless s*x scene and lots of blood and guts with both shows also having some really gruesome death scenes as well the only difference being is that Game Of Thrones had alot more likable characters all introduced and set up in there first episode where as in this episode it was hard to tell who the good guy was even meant to be as alot of the characters are made to be really unlikable in places but then they would go and do something that would make you question if they are likable people or not which yes does make them more complex but at the same time it also makes it harder to get a read on them as a character which does have the add on effect of making it harder for us the audience to form a connection with any of these characters as there both really likable and really unlikable as well.
In a rather bold move FX and Hulu released the first two episodes of this show which judging by the reviews is going to pay off for them. However given that the first episode has alot of scenes that make it feel boring it is also something that could have backfired for them as this is something that not alot of people would have heard of and as a result of that they really wouldn't watch to episodes of something if there not all that familiar with it but on the flip of side of that is the fact that it does show that they had alot of faith in the show that they wanted to get more viewers watching your show if your airing more then one episode a week and while yes airing one episode a week does really have it's advantages as it does allow you to build up hype for the next episode it also has it's downsides as it means that people might just watch this first episode and really not watch episode two for whatever reason but in this case it is something that is quite clearly working really well enough for this show as well and really to this shows advantage as well.
Now then this episode has / had an exact grand total running time of exactly one hour and ten minuets and eighteen seconds. Which is alot longer then what this episode really needed to be as this episode really doesn't have alot of plot to cover that large amount of running time as the episodes plot is weak at best and as a result this episode really didn't need to be that long as alot of the episode is spent with the characters just going about there day to day lives with nothing all that interesting happening for the most part and there's only so long that you can see that happening before it gets which does happen in this episode but it doesn't happen quickly as the episode does have some exciting moments in it just not enough to really justify it's nearly feature length film running time but I will admit that this film really does have some really good pacing to it tho.
So now then as this is a drama that means that I have to actually talk about the actual drama that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual drama that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode was in all honesty not that bad. As alot of the drama does feel very character driven the issue with that is the fact this is only the first episode and as such it's hard to really get a handle on who these characters are personality wise which means that for all we the audience really know these characters could be acting out of character in those moments but when we do get a really good bit of drama it is worth watching as it does create a really good scene in the episode that is also nine times out of ten really one of the best bits in the episode as whole as it's just that good from both a writing , acting and directing point of view in my freaking opinions anyways / at least.
Overall this wasn't a bad first episode but at the same time it also gives you no reason to watch episode two and while there might be some people who really like this show this isn't a show can really hold alot of people's interesting for there nearly hour long running time for each episode in my freaking opinions anyways / at least. Now then i've talked about all of the good and as well as all of the bad things that are in this very episode in this post and as this is only my first impressions I won't give this show a rating as any show can have a good or bad first episode but if this review does well enough then I might be tempted into checking out episode two which would then be a review.
Now then as for where I personally got all of the images that I personally used in this very post well then boys and girls and as well as ladies and gentlemen I personally got all of the images that I personally used in this very post being the official Shōgun fandom wiki page , the official Game Of Thrones fandom wiki page , IMP Awards . Com and Google Images. With my personally preferred website to use to get the images from these very episode that I used in this very review being the great and legendary the official Shōgun fandom wiki page simply just due to the fact that really alot of if not really all of the images that are all really from this episode and are really of course on the official Shōgun fandom wiki page are really all fairly high in quality and as well as them all being really fairly freaking high in definition.