The Reel Rejects - SHŌGUN 1x01 & 1x02 Breakdown & Review

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Starting point is 00:01:26 if you're jumping into the audio review. view. But yeah, no, what I was just saying was, I think, like, it's so well paced for a show that is, I mean, it's pretty much for the most part, I think you would agree. It's, it's pretty much a slow burn, uh, because there's not a ton of action, but I need to tone down how quickly this story is

Starting point is 00:01:41 developed. Yeah, but I like, but I, but I, but I like that when it's, it's so like it, uh, it's, it's so, like, uh, it's, it's done so well. And like I said, the, the storyline is so intriguing. I, when it's done that way, I love slow burns like this. Uh, just one. Yeah. When you, when you, when there's

Starting point is 00:01:57 substance. Yeah, of course. Yeah. And I think something like this too is like it takes its time. Yes. And it unfolds gradually. But there are enough people, there are enough players on the board to where there's still a whole lot to do. You know, it's like even though it is moving at a patient and a focused pace.

Starting point is 00:02:18 Yeah, it's like all, it's rich within that, you know, I don't know, within that rhythm, I would say. but yeah like because this is too is it's one of those things where similarly like I'm aware through cultural osmosis of the series and I have you know the basic kind of familiarity with the time and place from social studies back in the day but yeah it's like I don't have the full grasp on you know the particulars of history and all that and to be kind of thrust back into this moment that feels so well observed has been very thrilling to me because I mean certainly like It does ask you to pay attention, and it is the kind of show that is dealing with a lot of political entanglements and, you know, the names of family lines and whatnot that you need to keep track of. And there are also, you know, dynasties at play of the Shogunate here that, you know, they keep bringing up a particular name. And I hope to have a better grasp on everyone's name and the names of the, again, significant players of the past as well. because yeah just like there's so many fascinating contextual elements and you're in a time and place where obviously we're removed where we're still discovering parts of the world you know in a in a civilized sense and i really really have loved the way these first two episodes are developing because they are you know this is the show on hulu you know it's it's still kind of authored in the west or with a certain you know western sensibility on it but it feels certain as though this is also very much concerned with, you know, depicting and observing this moment in time authentically, or at least I would hope. And, of course, you guys can sound off in the comments and we can do our own reading as to what is authentic or what.

Starting point is 00:04:05 But it does, to me, embody kind of a fascinating, yeah, moment in time where all you have is people's patience sometimes. all you have is, you know, maybe the tenuous bond of a shared language or a shared faith, you know, whatever it might be. And then also the ways in which all these different overlapping layers can create and or exacerbate conflict. You know, it's like when we meet Nestor Carbonell's character at first, it seems like he's going to be something of an ally. And it seems like we're going to maybe be able to put aside some of our prejudices because we are in a part of the world where those things, or at least in an apparent obvious sense are not really, they're not really like at the forefront of the world

Starting point is 00:04:54 you're living in, you know, you're in someone else's society entirely. So our petty squabbles about, you know, like, oh, you're a Catholic, you're a Protestant. They feel very small until you realize then later like, oh, damn, you know, the presence of these Portuguese Catholics and stuff here is, you know, there's the one side of like, oh, you know, we're just, again, we're opening up roads to the rest of the world and we're bringing you, we're saving you with our faith and stuff like that. And you realize, oh, no, there are certainly monetary incentives for being here as well and military incentives for being here as well. And you're in a time where to state the obvious, but I think it does kind of really thrust you into a moment where, yeah, the world is

Starting point is 00:05:38 reliant on what do we have, letters or an occasional Falcon you can send off with a message. Like, you're very kind of beholden to trust and people's accounts of things and journals. And it seems like it would be so hard to have the complete view of any culture or situation. And just watching as everyone in that first episode kind of meets each other and are trying to basically instruct via the norms of their own experience and quickly just evolving into calling each other savages and yelling at each other and, you know, sort of getting violent. until somebody is able to kind of direct the situation and then watching bless as you know those physical as the physicality of communication slowly gives way to you know actual verbal communication when you know heads are cooler and you've got characters picking up more of the language around like i don't know yeah just just the way that it drew the portrait of the world at the outset i think has been really engrossing because yeah it's like and from the west obviously it's easy to be very fascinated by japanese culture and shogun culture and stuff like that and certainly through a lot of our media we get a glimpse that exemplifies a certain fantasy of the samurai of the shogun you know this uh the sort of

Starting point is 00:07:01 you know all-encompassing uh blend of honor and you know philosophical consideration and you know the i don't know moral code and and i guess the truth of the matter would have to be that yeah like some aspects of this life do lean into that but there are many others that are just as susceptible to political machinations or greed or personal vendetta and uh and yeah i don't know like and even just watching as the agreed upon customs can kind of echo through a family this one guy has an outburst out of passion support for you know his leader only family line yeah and then you have this dual conversation that takes place where it's like that was a brave thing that you did however under the system that we live in that was rude disrespectful

Starting point is 00:07:50 dishonorable and and now you'll have to end your entire family line and they let that unfold in such a fascinating way across that episode because it's like it's not the focus but the second that thing starts it's always looming in the background you check in with that guy you see the struggle his wife is going through and the way that that compounds with the character of modico and and yeah It's like the way they draw like the difficulty of navigating the world at this moment in time alongside setting it in a way like I understood this is like, oh yeah, John Blackthorn. Blackthorn? Yeah. Yeah. You know, it's the sense I got from the original concept would be that like in the 80s, I would imagine we're mostly following this guy as our protagonist in a more definitive way. And I feel I get the sense that this would probably be semi reworked to be. It does feel like they've found a great balance between this being a story from the Japanese perspective in many ways, you know, the Portuguese and the English and the Catholics and the Protestants. These are all outsiders, even though, you know, one of our main players, you know, John Blackthorn is tied up in all that. He still feels like one of, he doesn't feel necessarily like the main protagonist, so to speak, but I like that he does feel like a pivotal, crucial character. but not like, oh, we're going to tell a Japanese story about a white guy. You know, like, it feels really, really.

Starting point is 00:09:20 Yeah, and that's the thing is you can transcend all of these, you know, debates we get into on social media and out in greater culture by just, again, tempering things and really, you know, I don't know, taking time in the crafting. And I feel like that's what they've done here. All right, Reject Nation. So today I want to share something with you that has been a wonderful addition to my health and fitness journey that I discovered during the holidays. and that is liquid IV's hydration multiplier.

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Starting point is 00:13:39 I believe it's Blackthorn. I do want to create myself a little study guy, too, because it's one of those things where, especially in the moment, like, and you are jumping in between languages, which I really appreciate. But, yeah, I want to draw myself a little lay of the land, all the major characters and, yeah, and allegiances or rivalries. It was interesting, though, with his character, just seeing like he had this plan, like, once they were captured, like how he,

Starting point is 00:14:03 had this whole plan of just like okay we're gonna do this and then it's like okay he's in a world that he does it like he doesn't fully understand and now he's just like kind of just engrossing it and now he's starting to understand it a little bit better and then I really like I love that exchange where he was drawing the map and giving uh here yuki sonata's character like and understand like no do the Portuguese and uh what did he say the Portuguese like they they claim this land right is that what he was saying oh yeah what is it he said that uh Which is the Spaniards and the Portuguese drew a line across the world and said, yeah, you, any, any non-Catholic lands that you encounter, they're yours. But I love because, again, Hiro Yuki Sanana's character is, I mean, he's already dealing with so much with the other four factions that are all obviously out to stop him anyways in terms of their, I mean, they're about to stop him from power or assassinate, whatever they're about to do, get rid of him.

Starting point is 00:14:59 he's already dealing with that but now opening his eyes to that whole situation it's just like how he's like he's opening his eyes to another different situation I just found that exchange just to be really interesting

Starting point is 00:15:11 well it's a threat greater than our inter... Yeah, than the civil war that we're already dealing with you know currently and yeah then it just opened up to that scene that where he was dealing with the church

Starting point is 00:15:24 and I just found that to be another fascinating interaction again where he's like he was about to press the stamp or hit the signing, but whatever he's about to do. And then, you know, they're like, okay, he's starting to get an, he's starting to catch on now. And then also on top of that, we see that one- He's testing this intel that Blackthorn has given him. Yeah. And then on top of that, we see that one of the other five, I forgot what, but you know what I'm talking about,

Starting point is 00:15:49 one of the other five of the regents. The five regents. Thank you. He's in on the whole thing with the church, too, because we saw that when they were talking about the backstories and they were kind of describing how each of them are. They said that this guy was specifically, it was extremely greedy. So it makes sense that he would be in tandem with the church here on the monetary stuff. And how that can be like all the inroad you need

Starting point is 00:16:14 for this to sort of ingratiate and infest and sort of take control of your whole culture, you know, if you're not careful. And I feel like that is one of the looming threats that I feel like kind of, I love the position that we're in right now because we have such a clear sense for what the tensions are here in Japan between these, you know, these five regions, these five, you know, clans. And now we have this greater, more vague threat from the outside. And yeah, you are just sort of limited to sometimes your own geographic, like the knowledge that you could see in front of you, you know, they're none the wiser that there are these.

Starting point is 00:16:58 you know, bases guarded by Japanese converted Ronan soldiers and stuff like that. It's so wild and I wonder, it's like here, as of these two episodes again, you have a very clear sense

Starting point is 00:17:14 of the allegiances and or tensions at home. But I wonder, you know, and this could totally break out into a civil war and then some, or it could be sort of the uneasy navigation of these

Starting point is 00:17:28 conflicts in order to put them aside to combat, you know, a greater threat to our culture or a way of life. And I mean, I have no idea, obviously, but I, too, look forward to how it will continue to develop the characters because I feel like you do have, it's at least giving me a lot to chew on right now because even though, yeah, certain people do seem more treacherous than others are more overtly antagonist than others. Like his, the guy, and again, I'll hopefully have the names better as we go along. No, the guy who is Hirouki Sonata's. Yoshi, I just know Yoshi's.

Starting point is 00:18:12 But his, the guy who is his, like his right hand, his general or the guy who is his faithful, but who's also running between him and the main regent who's got it out for him from Monarch. I know which guy you're talking about. guy who orchestrated the thing with the bandits so that they could get Blackthorn and all that. Yeah, I know what you got Yeah, it's like that's a character where I'm sitting here wondering, okay, like I could easily see how

Starting point is 00:18:36 you're perhaps just an opportunist who is going to side with whatever gets you the better reward and or the greater boost politically or the greater armor politically speaking. It's like I could definitely see how you might be a snake in the grass here or I could see how you might be

Starting point is 00:18:54 straddling that line only to have some kind of subsequent moment down the road that really does bring you back to the Hiro Yuki Sinata character's side, you know, or to like a real allegiance to him. He's definitely got redeeming qualities to him for sure because they they were towing the line with that character because at first I was like, and he's sitting there listening to that guy died like he like that's very sinister, you know, in a lot of way. And those are all flavors and notes of like in certain scenes you can forget about that. And then you're reminded like, oh, but I sort of of know what darkness lurks in this guy and what opportunism lurks in this guy. And, and I think it's really nice because, again, this seems like the kind of show that is apt to give you, yeah, characters that aren't 100% agreeable or not in any particular way. And it just depends on,

Starting point is 00:19:39 yeah, experience and, you know, moments where it really counts. And like, I really have enjoyed watching, again, the sort of physical growth of these relationships and characters thus far in ways where yeah dialogue is part of it but oftentimes it is not all of it and it's mostly about actions and about the exchange of information and yeah like it's a fascinating game of chess to watch that also does come with it a sort of emotional weight that i'm also curious to see confronted because this is a society that has a lot of formality and a lot of etiquette to it that can be stifling, that can be narrowing in many ways. And I'm curious to see, too, how the emotionality that is often held down in favor of, again,

Starting point is 00:20:34 you know, polite society, so to speak, or, like, refined society, so to speak. I wonder how those things will boil over and, you know, challenge the status quo. Because, you know, again, you've got these two central figures who are, you know, forward-minded or who are looking to the future and who are a little tough. tired of the brutality of the present of the past. And, uh, too, they, like I said, there wasn't a ton of action in these two episodes, but when they did get to the action, just extremely violent. And I mean, to say the least, like those squib shots that they have so convincing.

Starting point is 00:21:07 I forgot I was while, when I was watching this, I forgot I was watching a show. It looked so damn organic and real. That was impressive. I don't know how they, uh, were able. Yeah, well, of course. It especially has to when you're in a time like this. Of course, but I'm just, I'm just praising, I don't know how they were able to do it so genuinely real like that. That was just impressive.

Starting point is 00:21:30 Also, too, I know it's not an action sequence per se, but when they were in that storm, I don't know, again, I don't know if they were in a tank. But however it was done, that was, that was damn impressive. I mean, it has not for the most, and in those shots, you can sit there and go like, oh, okay. So maybe they were, you know, in a real hull and they have perhaps a green screen to the sea out the window or something. Whatever it is, it felt real. Yeah, it seems like the balance between how they're using their sets and their, you know, practical, physical elements on hand and then blending that. Like, I haven't been sitting here feeling like we're in the volume, you know, and there are certain things that have taken place at sea in recent memory that have made me feel like we're in the volume. And this, yeah, that sequence where he's trying to save the ship and everything.

Starting point is 00:22:14 And it's, you know, being cast off course by the currents and he's trying to tell the guy, like, just turn the rudder into the swells, you know. yeah like that was really kind of a breathtaking sequence and yeah for you know a program i know the profile and the budgets for shows have risen uh immensely in recent years but again i feel like this is a show it exists in a in an era of time where i just think that you have it's weird it's like a cg blood splatter to go back to that example plays differently in something that's set now than it does in something that's set way back when so it feels like though things have an onus to be even that much more tangible and not done in a computer to really kind of do justice to what is happening or what is being depicted. And I feel like they are so far pretty on point with that

Starting point is 00:23:01 stuff. Yeah. Yeah, I'm just excited to see more and learn more and yeah, to get better senses for the history. And again, like if you guys have historical resources, you want to throw it out in the comments, please do. There's so much too that I'm looking for. I mean, I can't name everything that I'm looking forward to because there's so much. But I would say the biggest thing I'm looking most forward to because I'm as you all know I'm mostly it's a relationship based for me and it's the development of the relationship between uh hero yuki sonata and uh paul blackthorn john blackthorn of course i said paul blackthorn that's the actor from uh arrow i believe but uh anyways i'm looking at that that relationship really intrigues me because i again i really enjoyed those

Starting point is 00:23:43 interactions um so i'm looking forward to the development of that relationship especially just because again, I really love that map scene and just how it really opened his eyes even more because he's already an extremely intuitive character and just like, again, when he saw like the possibilities of just what's happening with the church and the monetary stuff and just like, you know, now he's

Starting point is 00:24:02 trusting his gut even more so and just like how there's an inner conflict now with one of the regents. Like he doesn't know obviously yet, but like again, I'm just extremely like the possibilities of just that the development of their relationship I'm looking most forward to. But again, there's so many different

Starting point is 00:24:19 other layers and pieces and things that I'm intrigued to see that this show has me on just like it's super pumped. I'm loving it so much so far. It's basically to me like the sign of a good show is when it ends. You're like, oh, no, please keep going. I was just so engrossed. Yeah. I didn't even think it would stop that like right where it did. But yeah, yeah, I'm very much looking forward to the future. And I think they've done a really nice job in the direction of everything, the pacing of everything. And the music by Attic. Attechus Ross and the other two composers. We got to learn the other two's names.

Starting point is 00:24:52 Yeah, sorry to the other two. We just, we know how to it is. But yeah, like all the construction and again, I think big props to the writing as well, the cast certainly, but the writing as well because I do feel a really keen hand on like, again, as you said, it's not filled with action. There are some, you know, very gripping sequences of action. Yeah. But the tension I feel like is always there. Oh, yeah. And you're always feeling just how thin the loss.

Starting point is 00:25:19 lines are between certain death and salvation and the tenuousness of, again, people's allegiance is based on religion and or geography and or culture and or country and or, you know, all these different things. And I like that it's depicting a world where, yeah, there is a hierarchy of those things. It's not just that you're one. And that thing that the Marico character is confronted with at one point is, you know, are you more, you know, committed to your God than you are to your duty to me. And that's a different answer for everybody. And you feel like that is a question that will have different answers on different

Starting point is 00:25:58 days and will probably change a lot. The answer will change a lot over the course of this. Of course. And then you realize too that, yeah, like so much of history and human endeavor is hanging on threads. Yeah. And yeah, totally. You feel at the brink of so many things across this. Yeah. And also two last thing, I got to say that. that one shot cinematography-wise where they're in the prison with John and then it's like cutting or not cutting rather, it's like just turning

Starting point is 00:26:26 through the prison and then you see the beheading. That was an impressive game shot. I was like, that was extremely gripping but yeah. I can't wait for the next episode. Absolutely. What do you guys think of this? Leave us your thoughts down below. And yeah, we will catch you

Starting point is 00:26:41 I mean, as this is going up we'll probably catch you pretty soon. And then after that we'll catch you next week and next week and blah, blah, blah. love. But yeah, thank you guys for tuning in, and we'll catch you next time. Much love. Be well.

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The Reel Rejects - SHŌGUN 1x01 & 1x02 Breakdown & Review

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