FX’s Shōgun is the first can’t-miss show of the year

polygon.com:

In 1600, the setting of FX’s adaptation of James Clavell’s historical epic Shōgun, Japan was all but closed off to most Western nations. The arrival of scruffy Englishman John Blackthorne (Cosmo Jarvis), in all his unwashed glory, qualifies as an event of the highest degree; Blackthorne is a “barbarian” who upsets the already delicate balance of scheming roiling in Osaka, not to mention his ship full of guns and canons. But in its first two episodes, Shōgun takes this scenario further, reminding us with a single scene that this is a place we might be familiar with, but not a place any of us really know. In just seven minutes, Shōgun expands the whole world.

[Ed. note: The rest of this post will be discussing Shōgun episode 1 and 2 plot elements in detail. Join us!]

It all happens when Blackthorne is brought before Lord Yoshii Toranaga (Hiroyuki Sanada) for the second time. What starts as a fairly straightforward ask for Blackthorne — to draw the world as he knows it for the curious young heir to the throne — quickly turns shocking. As Blackthorne states very clearly, Japan’s Portuguese “allies” (one of few Western groups allowed in the country at the time) have a secret base in Macau, from which they’ve been smuggling guns into the country and possibly aiding the uprising against the former ruler. What’s more, Portugal has arrogantly carved up the world in concert with the Spanish, allowing each to lay claim to whatever is within their half of the fake borders — with Japan considered the property of the Portuguese.

The key point is in the information, as the murmurs reverberating through the crowd demonstrate. But nothing Blackthorne is saying is going straight to Toranaga, which adds extra layers to the conversation. It’s being filtered first through the translation work of Lady Mariko Toda (Anna Sawai), who is Christian, a close former student of a Portuguese priest, and resistant to Blackthorne as an interloper. Toranaga asks to clarify if the Anjin (Japanese