Shōgun premiere: FX’s historical drama kicks off with two brutal, skillfully woven episodes
In Justin Marks and Rachel Kondo's rendering of 1600s Japan, authenticity is the name of the game
TV Reviews Shōgun
At long last, a full six years after this project was announced, two years since it wrapped filming, and a couple of weeks since its big Super Bowl ad, Shōgun has finally made it to our screens with a generous two-episode premiere. Based on James Clavell’s Shōgun, his 1975 tome of a dad book (not to diminish it—it’s apparently really good), and following the Richard Chamberlain-led NBC miniseries that aired in 1980, this new version of the classic tale boasts a cast of high caliber Japanese actors actually speaking Japanese. With one of these actors (the great Hiroyuki Sanada, who captivates as Lord Yoshii Toranaga) serving as a producer on the show, Clavell’s daughter Michaela signing on as an executive producer, and a seemingly massive budget to get the historical and cultural details right, authenticity is the name of the game. And it shows.
Now, watching historical dramas can require a good bit of context, and let’s face it: Americans like myself aren’t always that well educated on the political histories of other places. But don’t worry, guys! I did a bunch of homework. (Basically, I watched this video, read things like this, and searched things when I was like, “What’s a fief?” I’ll keep doing it, too—just for you! And in an effort to respect the culture, of course.) Anyway, this is how I understand it: Prior to 1600, Japan had gone through centuries of being ruled by a big boy emperor/Imperial Court; then feudal lords popped up as outlying regions became more prosperous, defended by samurai whose power grew to threaten the emperor’s, and they essentially all fought each other all the time. The shōgun, the sovereign leader for which this show is named, rose to power following (what else?) a big samurai insurrection, and things were peaceful for a while until another hundreds of years of turmoil erupted. In 1590, the taikō came to power, ushering in about a ten-year period of peace before he died, leaving behind a little-boy heir, and a mandate to create a Council of Regents (or bōsho). That’s when our Shōgun kicks off.
And it actually opens with the main white dude of the show, Englishman John Blackthorne, doing his job as a pilot on a Dutch trading ship coasting on a shadowy sea. (He’s the guy who got most of the attention in Shōgun’s previous TV adaptation.) This voyage has been bad news for his captain and the crew. Blackthorne remains optimistic that they’ll soon reach Japan, a land they’ve all heard about but haven’t found, but his captain has lost all hope. He reminds Blackthorne that they have gone from five ships and a crew of 500 down to one ship. A lot of their crewmates have starved to death. And the captain himself actually ends his own life shortly after the two of them have this conversation. They reach land, where samurai approach and search the vessel, with dead guys all over the deck. And that’s when the warriors find their treasures, weapons, some other nearly dead guys, and a riled up, fight-ready Blackthorne who jumps at them. They’re immediately suspicious and lock him, and his friends, away.
Meanwhile, none of these five bōsho guys like each other. The guy the group majority hates the most, though, is Lord Toranaga. They’ve gathered everyone together at Osaka Castle, because they think he’s up to some sneaky shit. Not only has his fief doubled recently, but the taikō’s widow Lady Ochiba has gone to Toranaga’s castle at Edo, and they think he has taken her hostage as a flex. He claims she’s only there to help deliver his grandchild, as her sister is the one giving birth, but they don’t buy it and decide to hold him captive. And they suggest they’ll probably vote to kill him in a little while. These first two episodes sort of lead with exposition like this—they have to—but it comes more through the lens of character. It’s subtle, skillfully woven into the show’s silky fabric.
Since it’s exposition time, here’s a little more: Blackthorne is European Protestant, so guess who he hates? The Catholics. And Catholics from Spain and Portugal—the Portuguese in particular—have established a serious presence in Japan at this time, so much so that they haven’t even told their Japanese hosts that other Europeans exist. This was before the late nineteenth century when Japan engaged in its own colonial projects. They had a good thing going where they were, they thought. Why would they care that much about these weirdos who showed up?
Well, Blackthorne quickly exposes his Portuguese enemies’ odd dealings as soon as he has an audience with Toranaga, who’s scrambling to shore up power so that his frenemies don’t kill him. And boy does Toranaga hate to hear that his country supposedly “belongs” to Portugal. So why does Blackthorne have an audience with this hot shot lord anyway? Because Toranaga sees that he’s the Catholics’ enemy (two of the other Regents/bōshos are Catholics) and he recognizes the potential to use the Englishman as a political pawn. Toranaga sees potential, too, in Toda Mariko, a Catholic woman who has studied Portuguese since converting, to serve as a translator so that he can communicate more directly with Blackthorne, without the priests interfering in their affairs. By the end of these two episodes, Blackthorne, Mariko, and Toranaga have cemented their arrangement. Together, they’re gonna take down the other Regents—and maybe some shady priests, too.
So there’s plenty of intrigue and potential for backstabby drama here, and as I mentioned earlier, the period accurate details are rich. The landscapes—from lush forest to dank and dirty jail cells to the great wooden palace with its central karesansui garden—are a sensory feast. The acting is awesome. But tender-hearted friends, let me warn you: It gets gory. The violence in Shōgun is staggered, but when it shows up, it’s staggering. Men with katanas slice heads clean off, characters go on throat slashing sprees, arrows pierce through people in the woods, a guy gets boiled alive. Close your eyes sometimes if you must, but let’s all keep watching. This is good stuff.
Stray observations
- It’s kind of an important thing and it took me longer than I care to admit to catch onto this: When Blackthorne is speaking to his shipmates, he’s definitely speaking English English, but when he’s speaking “English” to anyone in Japan, it’s meant to be Portuguese. Just think of it as dubbed Portuguese, but without that annoying dubbed quality, and you’ll be fine.
- The translation stuff is interesting in general: the way this show illustrates the realities of a language barrier, the characters each calling each other their equivalent of “savage,” the layers of deception that can stem from relying on a person (perhaps of questionable character) to translate. It makes things twistier and it highlights cultural differences in a clear way.
- This Blackthorne guy is pretty hot by certain Western standards, kind of a rugged, singer-songwriter vibe (turns out Cosmo Jarvis is one). So it’s interesting to see the Japanese samurai and nobles he encounters so grossed out by his appearance, calling him a dog all the time. Poor, hairy guy!
- Also, I like Jarvis’ voice in this. I’ve seen it compared to Tom Hardy, and it is a bit Bane-like, but with a hint of Daniel Plainview.
- Isn’t it wild to imagine not even knowing another place exists in today’s globalized world? The Portuguese really could be liars like that and lie, through omission, that they’re the only Europeans out there. Wild.
- The last scene of episode two highlights a cultural difference in hygiene at the time (and probably now, too). When Lady Mariko tells Blackthorne that servants are preparing a bath for him, he responds, horrified, “Two baths in a week. What, do you want me to catch the flux?” (That’s dysentery. I looked it up.)
- That scene also gives us a moment I rather like. Blackthorne tells Mariko, “Your lord is in danger. And I have a ship.” He wants her to sail away with him, eh? Her calm, measured response is that he should watch his tongue…and call her “Mariko Sama” from now on. Yeah! Show her some respect.
- Also, Mariko’s husband seems like a huge butthole. When she jokes with her own kid, he says, “You laugh with our son like he’s a lady of the court.” Seems clear she doesn’t laugh with this guy…ever.
Shōgun is available to stream now on Hulu.
84 Comments
I was like, “What’s a fief?”It’s a geezer who nicks stuff, innit.
Ha! Good one! But I would have gone with “It’s how a geezer calls someone who nicks stuff… Unless the old geezer describes himself as someone who nicks stuff… …If I understand your jest correctly…
Nah, the first joke was good. Yours went into overexplain/over complicate mode.
boo…
A thief trying to describe himself after getting his teeth kicked in for stealing?
Either that or a tiny flute.
this post really gets on my tits.
Oh, well done!
Would love to watch this but the description of the violent stuff means I probably won’t, which is a shame.
In the first two episodes, all of the violence is either obscured by something in the foreground (the sword-neck interactions) or is onscreen for less than half a second (boiling guy) and out of focus.It’s like the old Chainsaw Massacre thing where people swore they saw every second of Leatherface hanging people on the meathooks when actually the camera cuts well before anything is shown.
You see a decapitation and someone being boiled alive, they’re really quick shots, but still it’s a bit much compared to The Texas Chainsaw Massacre which (according to Tobe Hooper who shared your sentiment) was only kept from getting a PG rating because of the scene where Franlin’s blood spurt everywhere while he’s being murdered.
The boiling scene is drawn out though.
Thank you! that doesn’t sound too bad then. The thought of that kind of stuff just terrifies me
Do like I do and just change the channel/move the cursor along during the rough parts.
I do want to watch it now so will probably employ this technique!
Wait, so is the English that’s actually “Portuguese” spoken with an accent to differentiate with when he’s speaking English? Just curious. I’ll probably check it out later, but I really liked how the show Warrior handled the language use, perfect English from a Chinese character is them speaking Chinese, they speak English poorly around non-Chinese speakers (and speak subtitled Chinese) if they don’t know Chinese. I’m not really suggesting that for here, but just wondering since apparently it’s not going to be straight Portuguese.
I was VERY confused that they were supposed to be conversing in Portuguese when speaking English. I still don’t know what language Nestor Carbonell’s Spaniard who’s working for the Portuguese was speaking to Blackthorne. He’s just speaking English, but is it “Portuguese”? But while speaking “English” he also calls him “Inglés,” which is Spanish. And given that translation-accuracy is a surprisingly big plot point in these first two eps, it makes it all the more confusing.
Ah man, I’m probably combining three different characters in my head, but as I recall it was the rival pilot, Rodrigues, who called him Inglés. And I think he was Portuguese.
In this version, at least, he says he’s a Spaniard working for the Portuguese. So I guess he’s sprinkling in Spanish while speaking Portuguese to the Englishman about his Dutch ship.
He’s a Spaniard who works for the Portuguese, and, yeah they’re speaking Portuguese. Blackthorne says explicitly that he speaks Portuguese but he never says he speaks Spanish (and we can assume that since Rodrigues works for the Portuguese, he also speaks that language).
I think the “English” in this mini is European (for example, it’s not as clear as the article writer says that Blackthorne speaks English with his crewmates – he could easily be speaking Dutch). I suspect it’s just going to be a lingua franca that the European characters (and European-speaking Japanese characters) use. In the book, Blackthorne and Mariko also speak Latin to each other (a lot), so that other Portuguese-speaking Japanese don’t understand them. If the mini-series keeps that plot point, I imagine it’ll also be English.
Here goes my fuzzy memory again, but in the book when they speak Latin isn’t it still written in English but differentiated by the language being really formal and having a lot of thees and thous?
“the rival pilot, Rodrigues, who called him Inglés”The rival pilot is Rodrigues, who introduces himself as a Spaniard working for the Portuguese, and is played by Nestor Carbonell.
Hmm, for what it’s worth, Warrior (in the first season) also used a camera spin to indicate a language switch within a scene, when a character with different language skills entered the scenes. Sounds like accents might’ve been a way to go, but for what it’s worth Inglés is also Portuguese for English. Well, it might be a different accent, but sounds similar.
I actually looked it up to be sure! The Portuguese spelling is “Inglês” and the show subtitles definitely used “Inglés.” So at least four languages going on. And speaking of confusing, Nestor Carbonell was almost totally unrecognizable with the accent and the (i hope) old/fat makeup.
Oh no he still looks great, he’s also in The Morning Show on AppleTV.
‘The Portuguese spelling is “Inglês” and the show subtitles definitely used “Inglés.”’That’s one word of Spanish, and you’re putting an unreasonable amount of faith in the captioner typing that one accent mark correctly.While the burnt-in subtitles for the spoken Japanese are explicitly done by the show’s translators, as mentioned in interviews, English to English captions are typically outsourced to some third-party and shouldn’t be treated as canonical without a source saying they were done in-house
It’s not actually very important whether they’re speaking English, Dutch or Portuguese. It really just matters whether or not they’re speaking Japanese (at least from having read the book). You can probably just ignore it
I didn’t find it that confusing. They all speak “portugese” which is just english. With no accent. And Japanese speak Japanese. Anyho really liked the book back in the 90’s teenage years. I haven’t re-read it for 20+ years, but the series really feel very close the books. And it’s great. Thankfully it also seems like they haven’t tried to stretch the plot to several seasons, but keep it short and intesive. Which should be done more often. There’s after all more good Clavell books to adapt.
I mean, I don’t think it’s THAT hard to understand what they are doing here. Subtitled Japanese and Portuguese would be the authentic way to produce this, but it just wouldn’t work from a viewership perspective. It’s set up pretty early that Blackthorne is fluent in Portuguese and even his first interactions with the Japanese Catholic who provides translation services the guys states clearly that he only speaks very little Portuguese, thus you are left as an informed viewer that these two are conversing in Portuguese, but it’s English you are hearing as a viewer for efficiency purposes. I, for one, like how they didn’t treat me like a infant with this. It wasn’t anvilicous exposition.
My guess is that it’s because the Japanese didn’t know Englanders even existed, so they assumed John Blackthorn and his crew spoke Portuguese. The Spaniard obliges with “I can speak Portuguese” to protect the secret. So they’ll say to the Japanese that they’re speaking Portuguese with John, but it’s really English, and the Japanese can’t tell. That’s my guess.
I caught on to that very quickly. I think there was some dialog early on by Blackhorne intended to clue us in…something along the lines of him having and advantage as he speaks Portuguese. Although I hate reading subtitles because I feel I am missing out on important visuals when I am reading them, I love the fact that they are all speaking Japanese. Having to also have a bunch of actors speaking Portuguese and subtitling that as well would basically make the entire production subtitled for an English speaking audience, and probably would have been challenging for the actors.
If they didn’t want the entire show subtitled, and if they didn’t want their Japanese/English actors to actually learn Portuguese for all of their lines, then this was probably the most elegant solution. I also noticed during the translation scenes that they began with the translator relaying everything that the protagonists were saying, they eventually fell away and the characters were “speaking” to each other, albeit in different languages. Again, pretty elegant way of doing this, I bet a lot of other shows do it as well.
On the Erasmus they’re probably speaking Dutch, actually. Blackthorn is the only Englishman on board.
“when he’s speaking English”There’s no actual in-scene English. Blackthorne’s shipmates are Dutch.“perfect English from a Chinese character is them speaking Chinese, they speak English poorly around non-Chinese speakers (and speak subtitled Chinese) if they don’t know Chinese”The village priest spoke Japanese poorly, and the subtitles when he speaks are in broken English.
Even though this is before Turner D. Century’s favorite era and takes place in a topsy-turvy land, a good yarn is a good yarn. I hope it is as delightful as a Gilbert and Sullivan production and am looking forward to it.
YOU GET OUTTA HEAH TURNERGO’ON GIT
First of all, I’m not sure Commodore Perry did us a service by opening up the strange land of Japan to the West. This violent display was certainly not The Mikado!
As for your protestation sir, I only wish to return us to a time where ladies and gentleman could enjoy life’s simple pleasantries without the crass and vulgar excess of so called modernity.Perhaps you could join me at the soda fountain of the local druggist for a palliative refreshment? A lime rickey sounds nice. We can then discuss my plans to restore the once genial nature of our nation.
I was gonna continue my protestations but a lime rickey does sound good
Cracking!
Read the books, only have vague memories of the miniseries. The Toranaga-Anjin relationship was similar to the Ragnar-Athelstan bromance in Vikings — the captor very curious and friendly towards the prisoner, but did remind him of his place when necessary. And the original casting was Richard Chamberlain as Anjin, who was also “pretty hot by western standards.” Likewise, Toranaga was Toshiro Mifune, so good to see they are doing their best to continue that legacy.
If anyone ever decides to embark on a harebrained scheme like remaking some Toshiro Mifune movies, they could do a lot worse than casting Sanada.
I don’t have anything all that insightful to say here, but the novel is great and the show looks fantastic. Really looking forward to checking this out. I kind of can’t remember the last time I was looking forward to a show like this.
I did not read the novel, and barely remember the original miniseries other than the fact that my dad was a fan, but for some reason I could not wait to watch this. Ended up watching the first two eps last night, and it did not disappoint.
I kinda just wish the casting was… I don’t know, somehow a little different. Like a couple of the characters, particularly the guy who plays Yabushige, just looks like a total jerk and you know from the first second that dude is gonna be trouble. No mystery there.
He boils a dude alive in the first few minutes (pages of the novel). I don’t think it’s ever supposed to be a mystery.
But he’s also one of my favorite characters in the novel (and his nephew). He’s always a shitheel, but he has surprising depth.
Sure, but like right of the bat, the second you see him, he just LOOKS like a humongous self-centered jerk. I haven’t read the novel or watched the original miniseries, but I do get the sense that they’re definitely not making him a one-note, mustache-twirling villain though.
Also, was that boiled-alive thing more like a simmer? That dude took FOREVER to die, and it was him just bashing his own head in.
How do you say “punchable face” in Japanese?
God, yes, “punchable face” was really what I was going for! He definitely has one.
Yeah, that’s a pretty nasty scene. I want to watch this with my wife, but I know she’ll be immediately turned off the whole program by that scene.
Read the book ages ago, in high school, and absolutely loved it (although I’m sure there are parts that can’t have aged well). Felt like my first real ‘grown up’ book (after Tolkien and Mary Stewart’s Merlin Trilogy). I also loved the original miniseries (my mom, like all ‘80s moms, was a big Richard Chamberlain fan), but there are parts of the book that have stuck with me for decades.Can’t wait to watch this new series
“The new version…boasts a cast of high caliber Japanese actors actually speaking Japanese.” Suggests that wasn’t the case in the 1980 version.In fact, that version boasted Toshiro Mifune, perhaps the most celebrated Japanese actor of all time, as Toranaga, and I assure you they were actually speaking Japanese as well.The new version looks amazing, and might well be ‘better’ (it certainly has a much larger budget), but the 1980 version was pretty amazing for its time.
It introduced America to “Konichiwa”. I was also amused by Richard Chamberlain’s character getting outraged at being offered a girl for the evening “or a boy if you prefer.”
“Based on James Clavell’s Shōgun, his 1975 tome of a dad book (not to diminish it—it’s apparently really good)“I am sorry Meredith but I expect much much more than this from a pop culture analysis article. That sentence says absolutely nothing apart from your smug attitude to Old Books. There is a lot, a bloody lot to say about Shogun and its crucial and very complicated spot on oriental ism for example. Unless you think that those topics are only for dads.
I don’t think she was as dismissive as you’re making her out to be; she said it was “apparently really good.” Stereotypically speaking, dads are into books about WW2; would you say calling those “dad books” is saying they lack substance?
It’s a novel that was a massive hit when it came out over 40 years ago and then fell into relative obscurity. That’s what they mean by “dad book”. It didn’t have the “legs” that similar bestsellers like Dune, Stephen Kings’ assorted novels, Anne Rice’s vampire series, or even V.C. Andrews Flowers in the Attic have had where the original readers’ children come along and rediscover them years later.
It’s a very niche novel in that it really hasn’t appealed to readers in large numbers beyond Boomers and Gen X (FX even went through the trouble of running bumper ads for the book, I’ve never seen that done before). I mean, I and several people remember this being one of those books that you always saw in the visitors’ lounge in retirement homes.
You’re comparing genre fiction to a work of serious historical fiction, and one that has remained consistently in print since its publication so it is clearly finding new readers.
I’m probably a little older than you, but I remember when every middle-class white family had the works of Clavell, Michener, and Wouk on their coffee table. The popularity of the big doorstop thick historical novel went back to at least the 1940’s, probably peaked in the 1970’s, and went into a catostrophic decline by the end of the 1980’s. Everybody read them back then…X, Boomers, Silent Generation, Greatest Generation, all the way back to whatever generation my grandmother, who was born in 1903, was. These books were ubiquitous for generation after generation. It’s still shocking to me how fast they disappeared after 1990 or so.
It sites beside all the John Jakes “Kent Family Chronicles” books.
You expect something of this site? Do you know where you are?
Noble House and Shogun are incredible works (Noble House is better imo but I find HK a lot more fascinating in general). My dad owned the books and told me to read them when I was 17.
Between this, Calm with Horses, and Raised by Wolves, I’m digging Cosmo Jarvis’ range
Hopefully it’s better than Warrior. The fight choreography in that show was bland and the story seemed overdone and cliché. I don’t think I made it through the pilot.
what the fuck
These are two completely different kinds of shows?
Man, Japan would’ve been fucked if not for White Guy.Seriously, I am enjoying the show and for me that’s rare since I find most “prestige tv” unwatchable dogshit.
Also, I like Jarvis’ voice in this. I’ve seen it compared to Tom Hardy, and it is a bit Bane-like, but with a hint of Daniel Plainview.
Thank you, trying to figure out where I heard a voice like that was really bugging me! Now that I think of it, it reminds me a whole lot of Tom Hardy in Taboo.In any, I enjoyed the first two episodes. I look forward to watching it all.
I get the Tom Hardy thing but what came to my mind was that he was (as Hardy often does) channeling an older generation of actors. Something of Oliver Reed in the voice and manner. Or even Richard Harris. Those classic actors who gave off the vibe of being both well-educated and constantly up for a punch-up.
Awesome. Loving it so far.I was wondering how Hiroyuki Sanada would compare to Toshiro Mifune and he’s doing just fine.One good omission is the voice over.
If the first two episodes are any indication, this series will definitely live up to all the hype its gotten. This is great so far
I found the first two episodes enthralling, and my lacking knowledge of Japanese history made for an education. If I have one complaint, it’s how confusing it gets regarding language. I similarly didn’t know they weren’t actually speaking English in the story until like 10 minutes into the second episode. I thought Rodrigues was quadlingual, a native Spaniard working for the Portuguese in Japan, translating between Japanese and John Blackthorne, the English pilot. But they were pulling a Gladiator, only they aren’t dancing around language, they’re constantly directly referencing how they’re speaking Portuguese. So the Englishman is never speaking English, apparently, except to his shipmates (unless they’re speaking Portuguese to each other for some reason), and when Rodrigues is sitting around speaking English with other Spaniards or Portoguese, he’s actually speaking Portuguese. It’s fucking madness keeping it straight. I get that there’s no world that exists where they have a large pool of appropriate actors that speak four languages to cast, but it would be easier to follow with more precision if they did. If Yakuza can have characters speak Japanese, English, Korean, and Chinese and it’s all easy to distinguish every language regardless of my inability to understand them natively, surely it’s not impossible for a production like this.
‘”It’s kind of an important thing and it took me longer than I care to admit to catch onto this: When Blackthorne is speaking to his shipmates, he’s definitely speaking English English, but when he’s speaking “English” to anyone in Japan, it’s meant to be Portuguese. Just think of it as dubbed Portuguese, but without that annoying dubbed quality, and you’ll be fine.”’I like the way Warrior handled this, when a Chinese character is speaking Chinese with another Chinese character they’d show them speaking Chinese initially, to give you the idea that that’s what they’re doing, then the camera view would pan around that same character and they’d appear to be speaking English to us; but really they were still talking to that same person in Chinese but it’s our understanding that’s changed.
I get more horror and gore averse as I get older and the guy getting boiled alive just freaked me out. But my bigger issue is that as an Irish Catholic I have trouble seeing the the uber-Protestant English guy as a hero. Hopefully I’ll get over that as I love the Japanese world they have created.
Based on James Clavell’s Shōgun, his 1975 tome of a dad bookOkay, wtf is a dad book?
A term used by people trying really hard to be hip and edgy.
That’s what I figured smh
Any book released before Twitter was invented.
watched the first ep. the overheated music and dramatic scenes of people I don’t care about marching around and scowling didn’t do it for me. also it was filmed in the city I live in. I don’t live in Japan. that’s a fail.
When he speaks to his shipmates he is speaking Dutch, not Portuguese. The ship is from Holland and Blackthorne is the only English-speaking person on board. In the book, it’s made clear that Blackthorne has gift for learning languages, which becomes a pretty big deal. Besides English and Portugeuse, he is fluent in Latin and Spanish.
Read the book and watched the original series. Not a strict adaptation, but a good one nevertheless.
My two complaints: (1) Blackthorne is too passive, (2) they omitted/revised my favorite bit from the novel. (When Toranaga first interviews Blackthorne, he questions him about supporting Dutch rebellion against Spain. Blackthorne begins to explain there are just reasons, and Toranaga harshly replies that there are no mitigating circumstances for rebelling against your lord, to which Blackthorne responds “Unless you win.” Toranaga stops, laughs his head off, and then admits that, yes, that’s the one acceptable circumstance.)
I was a little kid and the original series was a sensation. Captivated by it, we used to play Shogun; running around fighting with plastic swords. Everyone wanted to be Toranaga or Anjin-san. To this day those two names are engraved in my brain. I’m super psyched about the new series. I know it’s gonna be awesome.
John Blackthorn pre-haircut looked so much like Andrew Lincoln that I thought it was him. Turns out he’s the original Campion from Raised by Wolves!
I’ve watched the first episode and pretty much enjoyed it, but Blackthorne is horribly miscast. They were starving for weeks before reaching Japan, and this guy has never missed a meal in his life. They should have hired someone thinner for the part. Not someone gaunt, I’m not unreasonable, but certainly not an oversized hunk of beefcake like this guy.
Yeah, I had the same thought when he’s nude. Like really?
Read the book.
I have read the book, two or three times over the last 40 years. Chamberlain was far better casting. my recollection of the character description is “tall”, not “Huge Gym Rat Who Probably Barely Lost Out On Reacher”