Broadcast in streaming, this historical fiction series is unanimously appreciated by viewers and critics and is breaking audience records. This is the big surprise at the start of the year.
Since the (controversial) finale of Game Of Thrones in 2019, many are looking for the series that will be its worthy heir. And the contender for the title could actually take medieval Japan as a setting, without a dragon, but with samurai. And like GOT previously, it broke audience records with 9 million views in six days on Hulu and Disney+, becoming the most watched series of the moment across the world.
Adapted from the best-selling book by James Clavell, Shōgun takes place in the 17th century. As a civil war approaches, English commander John Blackthorne could have a decisive impact on the country’s political life. Lord Yoshii Toranaga is, in fact, engaged in a fight to the death against his enemies in the Council of Regents, and intends to use Blackthorne to tip the scales in his favor. At the heart of their relationship is a translator, Toda Mariko, a Christian noblewoman, also the last of a line that has fallen from grace.
Thanks to a large budget, the creators of Shōgun were able to transcribe Japanese historical reality as closely as possible while faithfully adapting the political intrigues and cultural differences of its protagonists. On screen, the series offers a great spectacle to spectators, with very brutal sequences that one would not deny Game Of Thrones. In the casting, viewers may recognize Cosmo Jarvis, already seen in the Persuasion by Netflix, Hiroyuki Sanada (47 Ronin, Sunshine) and Anna Sawai (Fast and Furious 9, Pachinko) in the main trio.
In the USA, Shōgun was described as the “new Game Of Thrones” by several American media, who gave a grandiose welcome to this ambitious historical fresco. With no less than 100% positive opinions out of 34 opinions, this fiction from the American channel FX reached a very rare consensus. Viewers who discovered the first episodes are no less rave, with one of the Internet users on X even estimating that “if the rest of the series is as good as the first two episodes, this series will become one of the best of all time”.
Shōgun also attracted the French press. For Allociné, it is nothing more and nothing less than “one of the most ambitious and accomplished mini-series of recent years”. Digital people are also seduced by this “sublime, bloody and stunning journey”, when Le Parisien says it is won over by this “magnificent historical fresco in feudal Japan”. In France, Shōgun arrived on Disney+ on February 27. Since then, a new episode has been posted online every Tuesday, until the finale on April 23.