TV Talk: ‘Shōgun’ impresses; ‘Avatar: The Last Airbender” achieves altitude

PASADENA, Calif. – FX’s 10-episode remake of “Shōgun” (10 p.m. Feb. 27, FX; same day on Hulu) premieres with two episodes next week followed by one episode weekly through April 23. A two-episode premiere is smart because the show comes into its own in that second hour.

The first episode is A LOT as viewers accustom themselves to the constant barrage of English subtitles and as they try to figure out who’s who in a series that doesn’t make it easy at the start.

Set in 1600, the European characters are all dirty with long hair, which makes telling them apart a challenge, and there are many Japanese characters. How they connect or rival one another is a bit of an unclear hodgepodge from the jump.

Episode two offers greater focus on the show’s primary characters and by then the lead European character, John Blackthorne (Cosmo Jarvis), has gotten a haircut, which helps immensely.

Like the 1980 miniseries that starred Richard Chamberlain as Blackthorne, this re-do is also based on the James Clavell novel, but FX’s version offers multiple perspectives — it’s not just the story through Blackthorne’s point of view. And there are even glimpses of humor as the series juxtaposes the European point of view (they see the Japanese as “savages”) and the Japanese perspective (they call the Europeans “barbarians”).

Lord Yoshii Toranaga (Hiroyuki Sanada, also a “Shōgun” producer) fights against a Council of Regents that has united against him in league with Jesuit priests who may not have Japan’s best interests’ forefront in their schemes.

Mysterious Christian noblewoman Toda Mariko (Anna Sawai, “Monarch: Legacy of Monsters”) becomes Blackthorne’s interpreter and love interest.

The love story is perhaps the least convincing aspect of this iteration of “Shōgun,” but the rest of it feels impressive in its scope, attention to detail and storytelling that sucks viewers in by the end of episode two and holds their attention from then on.

The show’s grounded visual effects integrate seamlessly with the storytelling even as you’re shocked by the violence inflicted on Toranaga’s rivals when his son makes use of Blackthorne’s canons in episode four. (Shades of “Game of Thrones”-style bloodbaths persist throughout with multiple incidents of seppuku.)

Earlier this month during the Television Critics Association winter 2024 press tour in Pasadena, Calif., showrunner Justin Marks (“Top Gun: Maverick,” “Counterpart”) said the goal with this new take on “Shōgun” was to hew closer to Clavell’s novel.

“It did an incredible job of telling a story from a variety of points of view,” Marks said. “And now we can use a different audience standard … and do this show in the language of the country where it is set, that we can have this in Japanese and that we can be subtitling it and using subtitles not as a device to hold us further apart from another culture in another language and the people who speak it, but to bring us closer to their inner thoughts and who they are and what they feel. We could tell a story that was a lot more layered maybe than anything that could have been done before.”

Despite the Japanese setting, “Shōgun” filmed in British Columbia, Canada, due in part to the covid-19 pandemic.

“At first, I thought, how can this work topographically? How does this make any sense?” Marks admitted. “And in fact, it actually was kind of a nice fit to the landscape and terrain we were after. But it meant that we had to, in a lot of ways, bring Japan to us.”

Sanada said he’s filmed projects in other countries that played Japan before.

“Vancouver has everything: The big studio and then [within] just 30 minutes’ drive: forest, river, harbor, beautiful lake,” Sanada said. “Perfect for shooting samurai drama because in Japan it’s hard to find the best place to shoot samurai drama because the [telephone] poles and the wires [are] everywhere. Vancouver had great location and then [we] created the authentic village, a whole village and harbor. I think it was better than shooting in Japan.”

‘Avatar: The Last Airbender’

Asian-inflected stories are having a moment this month. Not only is there “Shōgun,” but also Netflix’s long-gestating live-action adaptation of Nickelodeon’s animated “Avatar: The Last Airbender,” now streaming its eight-episode first season.

Unsurprisingly, given that it’s based on a children’s show – albeit one with fans of all ages – Netflix’s “Avatar” proves a much easier series to enter than “Shōgun.”

“Avatar” has its own complexities around its air-water-earth-fire mythologies, but even at that the barriers to entry are much lower (no subtitles, clear delineation of good guys and bad guys, etc.).

If “Shōgun” is sophisticated, realistic and gritty, “Avatar” feels more fantastical with fanciful special effects that sometimes don’t seem all that special (some shots almost scream “Visual-effects-happening-here!”).

Not that the show’s intended, youthful audience will care. Kids can forgive a lot and the sometimes-shaky effects work won’t detract from the story.

But adults coming to this “Avatar” might be disappointed. From the performances (occasionally stunted and wooden young actors) to the general gee-whiz tone, “Avatar” is an OK but not amazing adaptation.

Channel surfing

Meryl Streep will return in the fourth season of “Only Murders in the Building.” … Comedian Shane Gillis hosts NBC’s “Saturday Night Live” this weekend with musical guest 21 Savage; Sydney Sweeney hosts March 2 with Kacey Musgraves; Josh Brolin hosts March 9 with Ariana Grande. … Paramount Global and NBCUniversal parent company Comcast have discussed merging Paramount+ and Peacock but no deal is imminent, per Variety. … Netflix renewed “Berlin” for a second season. … The Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development announced the state “is providing a $27 million film tax credit to the producers of ‘The Mayor of Kingstown’ … [whose production] has resulted in more than 3,000 new jobs being created and [more than] $90 million being infused into the region’s economy.” Ignore that there is no “The” in the show’s title, but the data provided is vague. Are those numbers for the show’s second season, its first filming in Pittsburgh, or something else? In response to questions, the DCED said the 3,000 jobs/$90 million figure comes from an audit of season two “along with the applicant’s estimated data for 2024 to date” and that the $27 million is “a multi-year allocation for season three.”