After being awarded and having been praised by critics and the public, this series remains one of the best to see this year.
My little reindeer, Ripley, Fallout, Samuel… 2024 offered great moments and great intrigues to series fans. Faced with all these releases, it’s not easy to nominate THE series of the year. But if we had to choose just one, which stands out for its epic scale, it would probably be this one: widely rewarded in the United States, praised both by critics and the public, it is probably the program that absolutely should not be missed over the last 12 months.
Adapted from a bestseller by writer James Clavell, this historical fiction takes place in Japan in the 17th century. As a civil war approaches, an English commander arrives with a ship whose crew has been decimated by months of wandering at sea. But he quickly takes a decisive role in the political life of the country, while a lord Nippon, engaged in a fight to the death against its enemies in the Council of Regents, took advantage of this newcomer to tip the scales in its favor. In the middle, there is a translator, a Christian noblewoman whose lineage has fallen into disgrace, but who will also play a particular role in this new situation.
When it is released in February 2024, Shogun was quickly compared to Game of Thrones by American critics for its complex political intrigues and sometimes brutal scenes. Described as a historic and ambitious fresco, the series has achieved a rare consensus. In just ten episodes (each averaging an hour), it was also unanimously acclaimed in France for its narrative and visual ambition. If we rely on spectator reviews alone, it obtains the excellent rating of 4.3/5 on Allociné, 8.6/10 on Metacritic, 90/100 on Rotten Tomatoes and 8.6/10 on IMDB.
Building on this critical success, Shogun was also the big winner of the last Emmy Awards with her 18 awards. Crowned Best Drama Series and Best Direction, it also offered an acting prize to actors Hiroyuki Sanada and Anna Sawai. The series thus entered the history of the American awards ceremony as the most awarded for a single season.
Shogun is also the first non-English speaking to be crowned Best Drama Series (Hacks was crowned for comedies, and My little reindeer for mini-series). If you missed the phenomenon of the year, don’t panic: the 10 episodes of Shogun are still available on the Disney+ streaming platform.