How Two Reviews Ruined Shogun's Perfect 100% Rotten Tomatoes Score
Getting and maintaining a 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes is one of the highest honors a movie or TV show can receive. For weeks, "Shōgun" boasted such a score. Critics were quick to gravitate toward the adventures of John Blackthorne (Cosmo Jarvis), an English sailor who finds himself in the middle of a deadly Japanese power struggle during the 1600s. The original 1980 "Shōgun" miniseries changed TV forever, but this version is amazing and thrilling in its own right. But now, that exceptional 100% Rotten Tomatoes rating is down to 99%, thanks to two negative reviews that are still somewhat complimentary.
The first rotten review comes from Rohan Naahar of The Indian Express, who gives the series 2.5 out of 5 stars. The review begins by calling the show "Breathtaking to behold, but at the same time, almost too unwieldy to comprehend." While the writer heaps much praise on the visual style and costumes, points appear to get knocked off for the supposed lack of emotional substance.
The other unfavorable score hails from Joshua Tyler of Giant Freakin Robot, who gave the show 3 out of 5 stars, which one would think would make it overall positive but counts as negative here. He writes, "There's a lot to enjoy [in] 'Shōgun,' as long as you're prepared to hate everything about ancient Japanese culture and the Japanese people who adhere to it." Seeing as the original 1980 miniseries is almost impossible to watch, everyone will just have to make do with this new version, which should be just fine for 99% of critics and probably most of the world's population.
Shōgun is still (near) universally loved
Everyone's entitled to their opinion. While "Shōgun" may no longer be part of the Rotten Tomatoes 100% club, it's still in some pretty good company. Numerous movies lost their perfect Rotten Tomatoes score due to one bad review, and there's still the general consensus that "Shōgun" is a stunning artistic achievement. That extends to the general population who aren't professional film and TV critics. With over 500 reviews being counted on the aggregate platform, "Shōgun" has an audience score of 92%.
On top of everything else, it's great to see a series of this scale featuring predominantly Japanese actors, largely speaking Japanese throughout each episode. Hiroyuki Sanada, who produces the show and stars as Lord Yoshii Toranaga, even spoke with The Hollywood Reporter about how great it was to see "Shōgun" embraced in Japan. "I was a little worried about the Japanese reaction because they know what is authentic, and what is not," he explained. "But surprisingly, all the reviews and the reactions from the audience were great. That was exactly we wanted."
Ultimately, "Shōgun" is based on the book by James Clavell, with these ten episodes adapting the whole story. Even with all this acclaim, there's a big question mark over whether FX would want to capitalize on the success by trying to make Season 2. ComicBook.com spoke with editors who worked on the show. One of who, Maria Gonzalez, admitted, "At the time of completing, when we were done cutting, there wasn't really any mention of, or any serious plans about a Season 2. And I think that's kind of where we're at still."