Go premium drama with Shōgun; Or classic TV procedural with the awesome Elsbeth.
It's a weekend for everyone's TV taste - here's your weekend's viewing guide
Gosh, isn’t it a delight when you have not one, but two shows that knock you off your feet in one week?
Believe the hype - Shōgun is already one of 2024’s best dramas. A remake of the 1980 mini-series of the same name, the show is about a British guy whose pirate ship washes ashore in Japan (circa 1600) and is thrust into a world of political power plays and existential angst that the future of Japan is being dictated by outside oppressors - the Spanish and Portuguese.
Keep in mind that Nandos is still a few decades away from existing, so being conquered by the Portuguese isn’t quite the appealing prospect it might be in the modern era.
The show is a smart, brisk, and engaging watch. I didn’t quite warm up to it in the first episode, but by the end of episode two it had me in its hooks. It’s a strong, must-watch premium drama that will appeal to fans of the political gamesmanship seen in Game of Thrones and Succession.
At the other end of the pool is Elsbeth, a spin-off from The Good Wife. This is as pure classic TV procedural as one can get with a quirky lawyer/detective solving mysteries in New York City. The show owes a significant debt to detective TV shows like Columbo and the more recent Monk.
As much as I loved the Elsbeth character in The Good Wife, I did sense the danger in spinning such a quirky character like her off into her own show. It could be an exercise in mass viewer frustration. But, I also knew showrunners Robert King and Michelle King were savvy enough to reorientate the character to make her work for a mainstream CBS procedural audience.
Beyond the, well, murders… there is no mystery to what you are getting with Elsbeth each week - it’s a funny, offbeat delight.
Take note of something really clever being done in episode one of the show, which concerns the murder of a college student actor. One of the questions surrounding the Elsbeth character has always been how authentic she is when engaging with people - she’s exceptionally smart and a great tactician, but how much of her ‘on-the-spectrum’ demeanour is legitimate. By setting the episode around actors, the series addresses the idea it is all an act fairly head-on… and manages to side-step an answer at the same time.
This is a show that preserves its wit and intelligence at every turn.
If you have older pre-teens in the house, Iwájú on Disney+ is apparently very good. Petrana Radulovic at The Verge was very complimentary about the show, which has a strong lean into afro-futurism.
The animation is a step above the usual Disney CG television fare, more in line with the studio’s movies, which elevates the story as a whole. There’s more care to the backgrounds, especially. The glowing technology, the fun action sequences, and the little particulars that make up the world all captivate attention. A montage in the fourth episode, when Tola and Kole explore the street markets of Lagos, becomes a colorful explosion of little details, all bolstered by the fun transitions which blend traditional patterns with the geometry of the landscape.
I like the look of the trailer and will try to give this a look over the weekend.
It’s a week’s worth of viewing that has something for everyone.Other highlights you might want to check out: