Episode 1 Anjin

The first episode of Shogun starts fantastic and goes up. We start on the Erasmus. A Dutch ship has been sailing and everyone is starving and the captain thinks they are lost.
But their pilot John Blackthorne thinks they are on the right track. The captain commits suicide and later they hit the shores of Japan and John Blackthorne is taken hostage by the samurai of the town. I won’t go any further and spoil it for you but the episode is fantastic.

I really believe this could be the mini-series of the year. And will win many Emmys. The actors are all great, and many will also win awards next year.

Hiroyuki Sanada as Yoshii Toranaga
Cosmo Jarvis as John Blackthorne
Anna Sawai as Toda Mariko
Tadanobu Asano as Kashigi Yabushige10
Yûki Kedôin as Takemaru
Hiromoto Ida as Lord Kiyama
Hiroto Kanai as Kashigi Omi
Jodai Suzuki as Toranaga’s Brown Kosho #2
Tommy Bastow as Father Martin Alvito

This episode was very similar to the one in the 80’s story beat so I remembered the parts. But to compare them both now is odd, This is so much better not just the acting but everything else. The look of the show is beautiful and gives me so much hope for the episodes that we are expecting. I want to say so much more but I don’t want to give anything major away. I have never read the book but might actually have to now. The universe this is told in is interesting to me and I kind of want to see more but That’s how great things go bad. So I will just sit here and wait for the next episode like you all and hope it keeps being this good. I will give this episode a 10 out of 10 TV’s.

Shogun is back!

Shogun is back and looks better than ever. It starts tonight and I can’t wait. I remember watching the old one when I was a kid. When I was a kid we had only one TV and so the whole family either watched mom and dad’s shows or we did something else like read a book. The only reason a twelve-year-old Al watched it was for the battles and seppuku.
As an anime fan, it will be almost a decade till I get my first anime videotape. This was the perfect thing as a kid to get me ready for it.
I can’t wait to see the show and I have told Rich to watch it. It might actually be one of our first videos if not the first. Come back on in a few days for my review. Oh and did I say it starts today. yeah! Shogun! Shogun! Shogun!

Ted TV Series Episode 3

This episode is a typical Seth MacFarlane-type episode. It’s all about John going to the video store. And tries to get into the adult-only section. He fails miserably a few times until they try and get a fake ID. Then he rolls into the video store and gets in and gets a bunch of adult videos and thinks he and Ted are going to start watching for their VCR breaks. They remember the school has the same kind of VCR as they do. So they broke into the school and stole the VCR and got home and noticed that the tape was stuck in their old VCR.

This episode wasn’t as good as the last but still funny. To me, the family is as funny as Ted and John are. The whole thing is fun and I hope the next episode is good. I give this episode a 6 out of 10 stars.

Ted Series Episode Two

Ted and John are getting bullied by this big kid at school and find out by his mom his dad ran off and never saw him again. They get the great idea to call the bully and have Ted pretend to be his long-lost father after calling him and saying he will meet him at a restaurant. Well just to make it funny they also told him to show up in a sailor suit. Well, he did and his father never showed up and the bully tried to kill himself by eating a whole bottle of Flinstones Vitamins. After hearing that Ted and John figure he really needs a dad or at least a role model and they call him back saying he will be having a big birthday party at the park. They go to get him a birthday present and get caught shoplifting a Nintendo system. The guard that catches him is a failed actor and they ask him to be the bully’s father at the party. Well, things don’t go as well as they expect and are somehow better than they should.

This episode was very funny and also kind of sweet. we get to learn more about the family and the bully’s home life. I really thought this show would be like Family Guy and just go for the easy laughs and have no heart. I was wrong it is really turning out to be a nice show that is really funny and has an actual story and heart. I would give this episode 8 our of 10 stars.

The Changeling

The Changeling is a Horror Fantasy Series in Apple TV +. It is a very interesting story and so I started to watch and basically The story is about a family. A used book dealer and a librarian meet and fall in love. But not just this current generation but generations before. The couple meet in a library and the Emmy didn’t make it easy on Apollo to go on a date. After numerous visits she said yes to his advances and they finally go on a date and fall in love. And Emmy makes it even more difficult and tells Apollo she is going on a long trip around the world. While on the trip she sees someone that gives her three wishes as long as she has a string on her wrist they will come true. She comes back and they date and after a bit Apollo proposes and they are then married and soon pregnant.

I really like the story since we see Apollo’s and Emmys parents story also and it has a very creepy vibe and I have heard it is like a new fairy tale of some sort. I like the show so far but the reviews on Rotten Tomatoes his hit and miss. Critics have it at 67% and audience at 73%. But like I saw I really like it. I don’t want to give anything away so I have not told you about the weird stuff so it can be a surprise . For my review I think the first episode has a lot to do and some info to put out there. The story is fun and the acting is good. It is another good Apple TV + series. Not all have to be 10’s but this one is an 8 out of 10 for me. See you later for the second episode review.
Al

Reviews of Beef coming soon.

I am re watching the beef to review it. I will try and do a small review for every episode and a larger review for the series as a whole. I am hoping to get it up around labor day for the first one and another one every week on the blog. If Rich wants to watch it we will both review it.
I have already watched it and it is a very good show. One of my favorites of the year.
See you soon! Al