The Best Game Of Thrones Successor Isn't On HBO – And Has No Dragons

Despite the widely despised series finale of "Game of Thrones" — which, for the record, we at /Film didn't hate nearly as much as the rest of the world seemed to at the time — the show was an immense cultural juggernaut for HBO, and in the risk-averse television landscape, it's only natural that other channels and streamers saw that show's success and wanted to replicate it for themselves. Prime Video spend ungodly amounts of money on the rights to a TV show set in "The Lord of the Rings" universe, Netflix dumped a bunch of money into the forgotten "Marco Polo," and even History got into the mix with "Vikings."

FX, meanwhile, decided to greenlight "Shogun," a tremendously expensive-looking adaptation of James Clavell's 1975 novel (which was previously adapted into an ultra-popular miniseries in the '80s). After enduring production delays due to the pandemic and finally premiering this February, the 10-episode first (and only?) season came to a close last week — and even as a fan of "The Rings of Power," I can confidently say that none of these other "Game of Thrones" imitators have come as close to capturing the thrilling early "Thrones" days as "Shōgun."

The FX drama series is reminiscent of the early seasons of the HBO smash hit in several ways. It drops its audience into a fully-realized world and expects us to keep up. It feels epic without overextending its scope. It features artisans at the absolute peak of their craft coming together to create best-in-class production design, set design, costumes, cinematography, and direction. Star-making turns proliferate throughout the cast, from stars like Hiroyuki Sanada ("Avengers: Endgame," "John Wick: Chapter 4") to familiar faces like Tadanobu Asano (who plays Yabushige) to Cosmo Jarvis (John Blackthorne) to Anna Sawai, who is the MVP of the entire series as Lady Mariko. Then there are more surface-level comparisons, like the two shows sharing a predilection for political intrigue and backroom dealing, gruesome deaths, steam bath confessionals, a forbidden romance, and a sense that a conversation can be as dangerous as a gargantuan battle sequence.

In the aftermath of "Game of Thrones," HBO tried to recapture its own success by doubling down on Westeros and greenlighting "House of the Dragon," a "Thrones" prequel set about 200 years before the events of the original series. (HBO has since also moved forward with "A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms: The Hedge Knight.") But "House of the Dragon" falls prey to the original show's worst instincts, leaning on dragon action as its bread and butter. "Shōgun," meanwhile, wisely spreads its budget around so every aspect of the show truly shines, instead of feeding audiences CG-fueled spectacle. Tonally, "Shōgun" is much more in line with the behind-the-curtain machinations of early "Thrones," where the biggest reveals didn't necessarily need to involve a shocking assassination, but could simply highlight how one character was secretly three steps ahead of a rival.

I spoke about this terrific series with /Film editor BJ Colangelo on today's episode of the /Film Daily podcast, where we also broke down a bunch of other things we've been watching lately. Check it out below:

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