James Clavell's Shogun on FX, premieres on Feb 27, 2024

[Duke Togo]

10 hours ago, Big s said:

Seems that a second season is coming. Maybe we finally get that battle after all. Either that or another season of being teased without a payoff 

No. Just no. There is no sequel book. They'd be making it up on their own, and that's a whole different kettle of fish from adaptation. Just ask Benioff and Weiss.

The show runners talked about wanting to adapt another really good Clavell novel, Tai Pan. I was excited by the prospect of that. I am not excited about this news.

[Big s]

2 hours ago, Duke Togo said:

No. Just no. There is no sequel book. They'd be making it up on their own, and that's a whole different kettle of fish from adaptation. Just ask Benioff and Weiss.

The show runners talked about wanting to adapt another really good Clavell novel, Tai Pan. I was excited by the prospect of that. I am not excited about this news.

It definitely be an odd show with most of the cast being killed off in the first season 

[azrael]

8 hours ago, Duke Togo said:

No. Just no. There is no sequel book. They'd be making it up on their own, and that's a whole different kettle of fish from adaptation. Just ask Benioff and Weiss.

The show runners talked about wanting to adapt another really good Clavell novel, Tai Pan. I was excited by the prospect of that. I am not excited about this news.

☝️ Or if they really want to stay in Japan, adapt Gai-jin (which relates to Toronaga's descendant and takes place in the years leading up to the Meiji Restoration). I'm not interested it any carryover-sequel series to Shogun. Adapt another Clavell novel.

[Knight26]

43 minutes ago, azrael said:

☝️ Or if they really want to stay in Japan, adapt Gai-jin (which relates to Toronaga's descendant and takes place in the years leading up to the Meiji Restoration). I'm not interested it any carryover-sequel series to Shogun. Adapt another Clavell novel.

Much better idea.

[Big s]

1 hour ago, azrael said:

☝️ Or if they really want to stay in Japan, adapt Gai-jin (which relates to Toronaga's descendant and takes place in the years leading up to the Meiji Restoration). I'm not interested it any carryover-sequel series to Shogun. Adapt another Clavell novel.

I’d probably agree if the show felt finished, but it really doesn’t. But I think another episode or two would have been better than a full season of mostly new characters 

[Duke Togo]

34 minutes ago, Big s said:

I’d probably agree if the show felt finished, but it really doesn’t. But I think another episode or two would have been better than a full season of mostly new characters 

The show ended where the book did. The story was finished. 

[Big s]

58 minutes ago, Duke Togo said:

The show ended where the book did. The story was finished. 

Yeah but even if that’s where the book ends, the story felt unfinished 

[azrael]

57 minutes ago, Duke Togo said:

The show ended where the book did. The story was finished. 

Exactly.

 If Clavell lived to write another book after Gai-jin, it would have still moved away from the period Shogun took place in. To me, that says that particular story (Shogun) was done. If the writers come out with anything that is a direct sequel to Shogun, they are pulling stuff out of their ass.

[mechaninac]

3 minutes ago, Big s said:

Yeah but even if that’s where the book ends, the story felt unfinished 

I felt the same way when I watched the original miniseries but I've come to realize that adherence to the source material, even if it feels unfinished -- as the original author intended, is infinitely preferable to having adapting screenwriters, producers and directors make stuff up to fill in gaps or add (ultimately) dumbed down resolutions to tie up things with a "neat" little bow... that never works to anyone's satisfaction and invariably cheapens -- too many examples of this, sadly, as it always comes across as the midgets standing on the shoulders of giants arrogantly believing they know better -- the entire effort involved, especially that of the original author.  In essence, be faithful to the source, within the constraints of the medium chosen, or don't do it at all.

[Big s]

18 minutes ago, mechaninac said:

I felt the same way when I watched the original miniseries but I've come to realize that adherence to the source material, even if it feels unfinished -- as the original author intended, is infinitely preferable to having adapting screenwriters, producers and directors make stuff up to fill in gaps or add (ultimately) dumbed down resolutions to tie up things with a "neat" little bow... that never works to anyone's satisfaction and invariably cheapens -- too many examples of this, sadly, as it always comes across as the midgets standing on the shoulders of giants arrogantly believing they know better -- the entire effort involved, especially that of the original author.  In essence, be faithful to the source, within the constraints of the medium chosen, or don't do it at all.

But if it had an ending, it would’ve probably surpassed the original series. Being too faithful to something like a book isn’t always the best route. Some material works better in different types of media. I’ve never read the book, but for that media it may have been perfect, but for a visual series with so many teases, it just feels like a let down. The book itself was just an adaptation of real life events that strayed pretty far from the source material in some aspects 

[mechaninac]

18 minutes ago, Big s said:

But if it had an ending, it would’ve probably surpassed the original series. Being too faithful to something like a book isn’t always the best route. Some material works better in different types of media. I’ve never read the book, but for that media it may have been perfect, but for a visual series with so many teases, it just feels like a let down. The book itself was just an adaptation of real life events that strayed pretty far from the source material in some aspects 

If they had added an "ending" it would be the farthest thing from perfect... we've been witness to far too many examples to expect otherwise; they would've butchered it and it wouldn't have been Shogun.  It would've been some hybrid mockery of what the author put to paper.  Again, faithfully adapt the source as they did, to their credit, or leave it alone and create something original in no way associated with the works of others... something most modern screenwriters, producers and directors are terrible at, or incapable of, doing.

[Big s]

1 hour ago, mechaninac said:

If they had added an "ending" it would be the farthest thing from perfect... we've been witness to far too many examples to expect otherwise; they would've butchered it and it wouldn't have been Shogun.  It would've been some hybrid mockery of what the author put to paper.  Again, faithfully adapt the source as they did, to their credit, or leave it alone and create something original in no way associated with the works of others... something most modern screenwriters, producers and directors are terrible at, or incapable of, doing.

If it were handled by a lesser crew, I’d agree with you. But the team that was handling this adaptation boxed themselves in by being too close to the book. I don’t know how an entire extra season would turn out, but one extra episode either before or after the epilogue would have been all that was needed and I think the people that handled this show could’ve done it well. It’s not like a Disney production that you know is just gonna be totally botched. The screen writers and producers and the directing crew felt more professional than most and there’s been quite a few great shows and movies that have come out in recent years that show that not everything is trash these days, even though there are some bad examples and most of those are obvious from the start rather than the end

[electric indigo]

Fan art.