The Best Acting on TV Right Now Is on ‘Shōgun’
It’s been a busy spring TV season already, with some of the funniest comedies of the year (Girls5eva), best reality shows (Top Chef), best documentary projects (Queens), and most excitingly cast new series (Palm Royale) all airing at the same time. But there’s one show that’s been the standard-bearer of the season, with everything from its production design to its casting operating at a level that warrants mention alongside the all-time great TV series of the past. If you’re not watching Shōgun, what are you doing?
The best compliment I can give Shōgun is that it appeals to people who never in a million years imagined they would like a series like Shōgun. I say that from experience.
Listen, I don’t think it should come as a surprise that “long and complicated action epics” are not my genre. It was torture for me to watch Game of Thrones each week, which I did just to keep up with the zeitgeist. Every minute I spent watching Westworld felt like I was getting a drawn-out lobotomy. I’m a Real Housewives and Abbott Elementary kind of guy. When I sign in to Hulu to watch the new episode of Shōgun each week, it appears in the “Continue Watching” rail alongside Will & Grace, Designing Women, and Happy Endings, all of which I’m rewatching at the moment, and all of which have nothing in common with Shōgun. And yet, the show is so good that I can’t wait for each week’s new episode.