‘Shōgun’ Episode 4 Review: The Series Finally Finds Its Rhythm
“SHŌGUN” — Pictured: Anna Sawai as Toda Mariko. CR: Kurt Iswarienko/FX
Up until this week’s episode, I’ve been enjoying though not loving FX’s Shōgun. The series, based on the 1975 James Clavell novel of the same name (which was already adapted into a miniseries back in 1980), has been rather slow at times, especially in the beginning. The third episode was also slightly anticlimactic, even if I would still recommend it and the show as a whole. However, with the fourth episode, they’ve really got me hooked now. Director Frederick E.O. Toye helmed this one, with Nigel Williams and Emily Yoshida writing.
The term “slow” is not a reference to the lack of action or presence of. It’s about the rhythm of the narrative, which finally felt like it was going places today. Our main focus has been on Cosmo Jarvis’ John Blackthorne, or Anjin, as he’s referred to in this episode. He’s slowly giving in to his new Japanese surroundings, and this episode presented him with his biggest challenges yet. He now has a consort, Moeka Hoshi’s Usami Fuji, and their relationship remains one of the most awkward elements of the show. It’s essentially used by the writers to further the relationship between Mariko (Anna Sawai) and Blackthorne; I hope they get to do more with her as the series goes on. Even Blackthorne was surprised by Fuji’s surprise turn when handed a gun — more of that, please!
The two of them inch a bit closer on a couple of occasions in this episode, especially at the time of exchanging gifts. I appreciate the “all-noble man” schtick that Blackthorne has, but I roll my eyes on many occasions whenever he performs like a 21st-century gentleman in the year 1600. The “twist” of Blackthorne not having been to a ground battle before was also a bit of a predictable one, but I liked how they were able to turn that on its head and put Toranaga’s men over the edge by learning how to use cannons.
“SHŌGUN” — Pictured: Cosmo Jarvis as John Blackthorne. CR: Kurt Iswarienko/FX
The political game of Shōgun continues to be its most intriguing aspect, and I was a bit disappointed that this wasn’t developed further in this episode. There’s been a growing sense of war knocking on Toranaga’s door for the past few episodes, and Sawai’s character essentially announced the guest in the final line of the fourth episode, “The Eightfold Fence”. That felt like a satisfying payoff to what had been set up previously in the episode, yet it wasn’t enough to make the political subplot stand out in this episode.
Despite what may have been hinted at in the opening, it’s clear that there are some frustrations within the small village that Toranaga and his people are now living in, and there were already a couple of hints in this episode that the Council may be working their way into highlighting those. That is the stuff I’m most intrigued about, and the absence of Toranaga for the majority of the episode was, at the very least, disappointing. I expect to find out more about what he was doing next week.
“SHŌGUN” — Pictured: Anna Sawai as Toda Mariko. CR: Kurt Iswarienko/FX
Anna Sawai continues to impress me the most in the show, and in this episode, we finally started to see some of the cracks in her character’s past, even if we still can’t see the full picture. Her performance in Blackthorne’s bath scene was stellar — though I was a special fan of when she pretended like it’d been another woman who snuck into the Englishman’s bedroom. I’m looking forward to seeing more of that, but most of all, I want to know more about her past. Why does she speak perfect English? And why haven’t we revisited the religious subplot for a while? That was another thing that really appealed to me about the show.
The fifth episode of Shōgun will come out next Tuesday.
Miguel Fernández is a Spanish student that has movies as his second passion in life. His favorite movie of all time is The Lord of the Rings, but he is also a huge Star Wars fan. However, fantasy movies are not his only cup of tea, as authors like Scorsese, Fincher, Kubrick or Hitchcock have been an obsession for him since he started to understand the language of filmmaking. He is that guy who will watch a black and white movie, just because it is in black and white.
