SHŌGUN Episode 4 "The Eightfold Fence" | SPOILER REVIEW | FX | Hulu 

Plain and simple if you are not watching this show you are missing out. I would recommend people to watch this show alone just for John Blackthorne. This is my first time seeing this actor in a role and he's EATING it up. The character is now already one of my favorite characters ever in TV. I think Hiroyuki and him at this rate should get Emmy nominations. SO GOOD!!

It is a Masterpiece... what a good show!! The cast is awesome but I have to say Tadanobu Asano is killing as Yabu.. His expressions by the end of this episode are priceless!

The show is tremendous... It keeps getting better and better!!!!

Appreciate you guys and love the insight you bring every week. I found it very interesting what Steve had to say about the canons because on the shogun podcast, their historian said they made the switch from Blackthorn teaching the Japanese about muskets to canons because it was accurate for the time and the role they played in the Siege of Osaka in 1614. 🙏🏽

The show is already different from the book when in the book using guns is not noble, the show actually more accurate to the history because samurais at that point were already used to guns and formation.

I think Toronaga's absence from this episode speaks volumes. This guy is deep into a game of 4-D chess while everyone else still has the checkerboard on the table. He knows his son, Omi, Lord Yabu, etc & knows what will happen in his absence. I wonder if Toranaga-San will be disappointed in junior, or if it's all part of his tactics & games. I dunno about Anjin pillowing with Mariko. In the 1980 series, she arranges to have Anjin sleep with a courtesan who he would think was her by giving the girl her perfume to wear. The morning after Anjin is ready to profess his 💕 to Mariko only to find out she tricked him. But they still ended up together later on in the mini-series.

I look forward to your review every week. Absolutely loving Showgun.

Been loving the show and makes me really want to visit Japan

So glad to see SHŌGUN retaining it's well deserved 9.2 rating.

I think I know where the natto eating scene comes from. In the FX podcast Hiroyuki Sanada told there were two caterers on the set. One for the western, one for the japanese cast and crew. WIth time people of both sides were curious what the other ones were eating. And so they tried and learned along with the story they were filming. I feel they mirrored these real world experiences here.

If you think the cannon use was wrong….boy do I have something to tell you about firearms in the book. In the book he trains them on firearms, and that is what is actually unrealistic. Firearms, like the show says, had been around for half a century in Japan before this. They knew how to use them just fine. The turn to the cannon use they did in the show was great, and much more accurate to history. Especially considering the Japanese used British and Dutch cannons in the Seige of Osaka in 1615.

As someone who also read the book multiple times, this is my favourite of the Shogun review shows.

thanks Steve and John!

After actually completing your review the only things I want to add are: 1) That "gigantic story element" Steve is talking about is absolutely going to happen (opinion not an insider) and I VERY much am glad they are setting it up. I thought too that it would be this episode and I was actually disappointed (but mistaken) that it was going to come this early. I didn't think Blackthorne had shown enough that he was that accepting of Japanese ways. But now I feel like it will be much more believable as we got that needed setup this episode with him meditating in the garden, watching rocks grow and otherwise taking the time to appreciate the rain and a glorious view. 2) I missed if you talked about the trap that Toranaga disarms by his winning over Yabu's army. In the show Blackthorne says "Well lets hope so" in response to Mariko stating that it was Toranaga's army when asked about whose it was. But in the book Mariko has an internal monologue where she regrets that Blackthorne was as yet still too ignorant to understand what had just happened while gushing over Toranaga recognizing the trap and preventing itYabu from capturing him. Basically, Toranaga's inspection achieved his goal of distracting Yabu long enough for him to escape back out to sea unnoticed. Yabu just (probably) needed some time with his advisors and time to realize the prize he had effectively in his possession of having Toranaga so badly outnumbered. Just a brilliant show all said and done.

Best episode so far.

Lord Toranaga is going to WAR!!!!

I wish you guys released this as a podcast! Love your commentary!

I will have to add "Milk-dribbling f*** smear" to my list of insults 🤣🤣🤣

When I saw the old Gardener, it definitely brought back that Episode from the original 1980 series

This show is my new obsession.❤

How hot is Mariko 😏❤️

You gotta get Harloff-san to watch Shogun!

This so far feels like a realistic take on the politics of Japan at that time. Names are changed and it is indeed fictionalized, but there is ALOT of mirroring of actual events (several regents ruling until the heir of the shogunate comes of age but start infighting for control actually happened). The writing and pacing has been fantastic.

You should listen to the official podcast. They explain their choices. "Consort" is not an accurate translation of Fuji-san's position. As hatamoto, Blackthorn must be from a samurai family. Toranaga is marrying him into Fuji-san's family. She is being asked to run his household as a wife. That is her service and duty to Toranaga-sama. That is why she can give her father's swords to Blackthorn.

Harris is why I watch this reaction series. His observations and commentary are spot on. The one thing I am surprised he doesn't comment and correct Rocha on is these aren't "alliances" between Blackthorne and Fuji, etc. She finds him (initially) absolutely repulsive. However, she is a samurai woman, who also shares the absolute obedience to her liege lord, while retaining certain rights as a samurai (regardless of being a woman) (which is why later in the book, they show how delicate of a negotiation with Toranaga this all really was). I still completely do not understand what draws/attracts Mariko to this version of Blackthorne. He's brave but otherwise a complete boor and an oaf. Has no charm. He has little humility. He doesnt' share the book's or original series' Blackthorne's growing interest in things Japanese. Out of all the better things this version does ,, their Blackthorne remains a dud (to me) (and yes, I am extremely partial to the book.. it was the one book in my life I never put down once I started reading it and did nothing but eat, defecate (while still reading) for 3 days straight.

In history, Mariko is the daughter of Akechi Mitsuhide.

Love the podcast. And I don't know why I'm posting a very mild disagreement where I agree with so much else, but that said, if Blackthorne came back with a rutter/map of how to get to Japan for England to open up that market and he brought back with him a representative of the most powerful lord in Japan? He would probably have been knighted and called a glorious bastard (stomp stomp) and I'm sure the Queen would want to meet Mariko. But then Queen Elizabeth did die after a short illness 1603 and it takes two years to sail back to England.. so probably no meeting ;)

Great Show!!!

The way Toranaga shifted Yabushige's trops loyalty onto himself was masterfully done. Yabushige's face looked like the face of a man who lost his troops.

Thanks!

Is that Elvis Costello?

This was a gruesome episode

Just found out Hulu offers a dubbed version.. now I can show my subtitles averse friends!!!

Have you watched The Last Kingdom?

As the first Japanese to ever set foot in England? Mariko would absolutely get an audience with the queen.

I noticed the samurai hea-shave isn't as prominent.... is this more a cultural accuracy, production decision, or other? Thx... ✌️🤔👍❕️

Yabushige is a great character but he's gota pick a side. I hope it's Toranaga (might not have a choice at this point) but either way I'm intrigued.

Its funny that they seem to try to modernize this version by empowering the women more, but don't have a problem with offending native Japanese people by showing the strongest Japanese female character pursuing and initiating sex with a foreigner as soon as her husband dies(supposedly) while protecting them. My wife is native born Japanese btw. She also thought the scene with the natto was silly and killed the flow of the show. Since they are free to change aspects of the show, they should have let him satisfy his needs with Fuji, as he was supposed to. Having an attractive strong female lead that does not have to have sex with the male lead to be relevant would have been a bold move, and make it less of a white man's fantasy from the 1970s.

SHŌGUN is pronounced as sho-goon and not sho-gan!