June 2024 Review

We have officially jumped the shark. Not only do I not review movies anymore, but I review TWO TV shows? What’s gotten into me? What am I? Am I Hollywood creatives in the late 2010’s and early 2020’s? Quietly but noticeably shifting their focus toward the less-limiting, more open-ended medium of television? Am I writers who no longer wish to be bogged down by the requirements of the standard studio four-quadrant film and want to go it on their own, bringing life to their ultimate creative vision as a showrunner?

No, but I would I’d wish to be either of those things in a heartbeat. Really, I’m just a guy who watches things and talks about them when I feel like they give me something to say or a lesson to learn. Shogun and Blue Eye Samurai both did this for me. Both of them were exercises in perspective, with both of their narratives and our view on them being heavily skewed by the lenses we were told these stories from. Characters who might otherwise seem antagonistic receive the benefit of the doubt from us, and those who really aren’t that different from “the good guys” are scrutinized and distrusted wholesale. Why? Because of the perspective the show presents them in. This is the case in Shogun. For Blue Eye Samurai, the entire bloodthirsty revenge quest is something we are brought into through rose-colored glasses (joke intended). The show is very intentional in how it glosses over the darker parts of the story for us, only really bringing them into the light when it wants us to reflect on them and remember in the same way its protagonist does.

So, check out both of these shows. They’re really good. And after that, check out my review of both of these shows here. I’m really happy with it.