Aramintai

It's based on true events though. There will be the Battle of Sekigahara and Toranaga/Tokugawa will become a shogun, the moves and chess pieces that will lead him to that goal are simply fictionalized to an extent to give a more gripping story. But the plotting players were all there. Even that leper samurai, even though he wasn't part of the Council of Five.
And Blackthorne's/William Adams's story is told quite true to the real historical events as well - he arrived to Japan at that time, was in Tokugawa's court, was made honorary samurai, did built ships for him and was made to stay in Japan until his death.
The only character that is heavily fictionalized to provide romance in this plot is Mariko, though her real counterpart also was a Christian and played a significant role in Mitsunari's defeat (or rather, her death at his orders).

Contemplating watching it, but it looks like there's a typical "woman playing two men against each other/hoes before bros" trope? Is that correct?

But One Piece's source material was Japanese. Shogun's is not, but it is about Japan. In any case, who cares? Main thing is they were prioritizing quality and authenticity in its production. Big budget productions are mostly managed by global companies nowadays anyways. And even many a smaller scale drama have migrated to global streaming services like Netflix.
And I'd rather watch this than yet another cheaply made locally baked period drama with insane number of episodes.

I’ve watched behind the scenes and everyone seemed so dedicated to make it the best possible drama. Especially the main actor who plays Toranaga, everybody else basically flocked around him after hearing he wanted to play that role. I’ve also read they’ve restarted production several times to match the quality standards.

I think this novel and plot are the most known among the Western audiences, so bringing on screen this “window into Japan” again is great. From another perspective, a Japanese novel titled Silence was made into a great thought provoking movie in 2016 - I think it’s complimentary to Shogun and I recommend watching it if you haven’t already.

It’s a historical drama, it uses creative license and fictional elements. It’s not a historical docudrama or biographical drama, ffs. Some people have real trouble distinguishing between these, it seems. If you want boring and dry history go watch history channel.

This drama's so absurd and corny from the get go, it's hard to get into. Something to watch only if you don't have anything else to waste time on.

Excellent, loved the first two episodes. Just my cup of tea.
I haven't read the original novel, but have seen the old TV show and this new drama seems to be more in-depth concerning politics and its undercurrents. I especially loved how nonchalantly Toranaga's retainer/minor lord double-crossed that Ishida lord and then sat beside Toranaga to listen to Anjin's story. And Toranga knew his enemies so well he didn't even need to do anything, he just lets enemies trip by themselves. 😂

P.S. If you didn't know already, though the characters have changed names they are based on real historical figures. And though the story is a work of fiction it is also loosely based on real historical events. If you know Sengoku period (arguably the most popular period in the whole history of Japan in works of fiction) history well, be it through history books or myriads of anime/manga/video games works, you'd feel right at home among these characters and the story that is gonna unfold.

Cheaply made makjang? That family is so cliche one can safely skip everything related to them and still know what they'll be up to.

🤦‍♂️Oh boy, that would be such a cliche. If that happens I hope ML would finally realize that his absentee parents should have no say in his life anymore.

One thing for sure that there'll be lots more filler of FL's useless brother.

Just realized there are whooping 6 more episodes left. What about? Everything feels like it's mostly over and done. Some forced drama? Revenge of the glasses guy?

They'd be drinking like fishes even if they weren't suffering from mental health issues. It's practically in every kdrama now and wasted FL is a butt of all jokes all the time.

Watching their dramas it feels like they just got to freely sold alcohol recently and are happily swimming in it without a care in the world. As a person from the western world this blatant alcoholism promotion is alien to me, here people are painfully aware of this addiction and health problems related to it, and nobody promotes it in the media nowadays as some kind of innocent fun like Koreans are. Did they use these stupid jokes about wasted FLs 10-20 years ago? I don't recall seeing such heavy drinking in earlier kdramas.

When will they stop showing FL getting drunk all the time while being on antidepressants? It's sending a really bad message.

What a dumb episode. They’re catching criminals with magical hypnosis now? There’s a limit to suspense of disbelief for such dramas and they just broke it.

Very doubtful.

So what's up with ML? Implanted false memories? Suppressed memories? That psychiatrist from the last episode was the one to do that to him? Was his father the culprit in his mother's case or that bitch that is his wife?
Was FL's father involved in ML's mother case?

They've added them because they were in the original source material.

Are people having some sort of Stockholm syndrome towards Su Min? Just because she's pretty, with twisted stories to tell and that fake cute voice that make people want to pity her? Come on, guys, if she wasn't all that and judging only by her actions should you really be doing that? She's a psycho with no remorse and got what she deserved.

First off, cherry blossom fall in spring represents change, a new beginning in Asia. That's why they like to end kdramas with this type of setting.
Second, it was at that time they've died and FL's ghost dad was driving them on a pretty lane filled with cherry blossoms. They were celebrating that day as an anniversary.