When we saw the trailers at the tail end of last year, we thought FX’s Shogun looked like it had a lot of promise. Now, according to a collection of reviews pulled together by the ever-reliable Dark Horizons, it seems those who have seen it agree. Shogun is landing stellar reviews all over the park, and is so far 2024’s best-reviewed show.
Metacritic has it at 83/100, which puts it in the bracket with last year’s best-reviewed shows like Blue Eyed Samurai and The Last Of Us. At Rotten Tomatoes, it has the perfect 100% rating.
Here are the quotes:
“I never wanted to leave this world and its rewarding storytelling. Please, FX, never stop aiming this high.”
Matt Roush, TV Insider
“Shogun is a rich, textured, even sensitive grownup drama that knows how to strike the razor-thin balance between spectacle and spectacular.”
Eric Francisco, Inverse
“There’s a lot going on in Shogun — thematically, historically, and dramatically. This adaptation handles it all adeptly without ever surrendering the forward momentum of its compelling plot.”
Keith Phipps, TV Guide
“‘Shogun is immersive world-building, feeling at once like an old-fashioned epic and something modern in style.”
G. Allen Johnson, SF Chronicle
“At a time when so many of TV’s biggest swings, from Amazon’s The Rings of Power and Citadel to Netflix’s Stranger Things and The Crown, have yielded at least partial misses, FX’s Shogun stands apart as a genuine masterpiece.”
Judy Berman, TIME Magazine
“The series is more than another elegantly staged historical drama, using three distinct perspectives to turn it into rumination on life and death.”
Ross McIndoe, Slant Magazine
“Even if the payoffs aren’t always there, ‘Shōgun’ stands to be one of the most engaging, impressive shows of the year.”
Brandon Yu, The Wrap
“Shogun has the look of money all over it — meaning it is visually lush, bountiful and believable; there is action aplenty, fountains of blood and enough characters to populate a fishing village.”
John Anderson, Wall Street Journal
FX will premiere the series with two episodes today followed by weekly episodes. Today? What are we still doing here… to the TV!
Check back every day for movie news and reviews at the Last Movie Outpost
