*** This review may contain spoilers ***
*Plot and ending analyzed*
Hopefully this is the final episode, because it was of the highest order of uninterrupted nonsense. Absolutely unbelievable, intolerable, and torpid. While watching it, I felt like I was sinking deeper into molasses. Something just was not right about the whole episode. None of it fit together, or was even connected to the previous episodes.
It starts out with an insufferable shot of the Englishman, as he is probably back in happy old England, on his deathbed. Apparently the writers ruin any sense of suspense in the episode because we already know he was not killed in Japan. He is overcome by old age and appears senile, as he's reminiscing about his younger days in Japan. There was no reason for this scene except for the audience to sympathize with him automatically. Just another useless filler, and he was also an extremely unlikeable fellow. The actor himself has absolutely no range of expression, and the character he plays is unappealing, foul-tempered, and belligerent.
Then they cut to the aftermath of the death of the Japanese translator. They quickly run through a bunch of implacable and entirely useless intrigue which had transpired. It is both lethargic and extremely slow going. Yabushige the traitor feels guilt for the death of the Japanese translator, and then he goes insane a few times. Again, the writers ignore what he was before in the previous episodes. Here, he has now become a doting imbecile. It is a complete shame that the writers would make him appear like that in the ultimate episode.
Then the Englishman is allowed to leave, back to the village from where he came from, just like that. Allegedly, the Japanese translator made a deal with the Portuguese or something. It is absolutely improbable, but he had to be spared for some reason. Yabushige the traitor also goes with him. They find that the Englishman's ship was sunk by some traitor, and that Toranaga is punishing the village harshly. This is the same leader that the audience was rooting for in the previous episodes. He's ordered heads to be cut off and positioned in entrance to the village. Then Yabushige the traitor is ordered to kill himself. He's probably the character with the most sympathy and charm, and they get rid of him just like that. Insipid dreck from the writers.
They pass through more irrelevant nonsense with the Englishman and certain characters that we have seen before, but everything is inherently insincere and unconvincing. Nothing is resolved. And there is no warmth or emotion in anything at all.
The scene with Toranaga and Yabushige the traitor allows the audience to "see" that Toranaga has somehow "won" the military and political maneuvering with his "great plan". It is far fetched and beyond ridiculous. Toranaga at this point is nothing but a power hungry warlord. Of course in reality, every warlord has such common traits, but this is television, and the writers assembled him as a noble man who was wronged in the beginning, and then they deviate so drastically because they think they are being intelligent and have "fooled" the audience. It is a wearisome way to present him. He has no compassion, no tenderness, or no benevolence towards anyone at all now. And he just is not interesting, or engrossing as a character or leader. The writers have been a major disservice to his characterization.
Before Yabushige the traitor kills himself, Toranaga tells him that the consort mother of the noble son, had pledged allegiance to him. And a few of the other lords switch sides as well. This, after the previous episodes showed us that they were all rigidly against Toranaga. So now Toranaga, in a hypothetical battle in his mind, has won it all. You can scratch your head on that one. It makes no sense at all.
The Englishman's in-house consort now wants to run off and become a "nun". I don't know where that came from, probably from the writers watching El Cid (1961) or Excalibur (1981). Here they had a strong Japanese widow in the previous episodes, and now they make her appear weak and insipid. And she is going to go hide in a nunnery. Okay, the writers build up the feminine characters, and then later make them appear lamebrained and witless. Especially when they made the Japanese translator throw herself in front of the explosion.
And the Englishman is now a ship builder, and Buntaro, who hated his guts before, helps him and the villagers to pull out the wreckage of the ship. Supposedly Toranaga wants the Englishman to build him a fleet. This, after the Englishman curses Toranaga to damnation. More head scratching. Later, we also learn that Toranaga used the Englishman, and that the Englishman used him, and everyone seemed to have used everyone else, and it was all for some "plan". What plan? I am attempting to analyze this plan, but there was none. It was merely terrible and slothful writing that wanted to appear clever, but it turned out that it was entirely incomprehensible, tedious, and obtuse.
This back and forth nonsense takes up a considerable amount of the episode, and it does nothing to satisfy the resolution of the ending. The writers are attempting to weave some type of profound thread, with the meaning of life and death, but they come up drastically short, and should go read some more Albert Camus. Notably, about humanism and humanity, because that is one component that this show completely lacks.
Thusly, after ten narrative episodes, we fundamentally are left with a meaningless and vacant ending and totally uninspiring conclusion.
A horrid final episode, a complete waste of time and investment.
Final conclusion: Shogun (2024) is a vastly overrated series that has no redeeming value or qualities. It is empty and devoid of any sincere drama or proper human empathy, and it seems to rely on amoral characterization and extreme transitory story writing. The characters also lack clarity and compassion, and no chemistry exists between any of them on the screen.
Final grade for series: D -
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