By the conclusion of FX’s “Shōgun,” we won't be talking about Cosmo Jarvis. He takes second billing to Hiroyuki Sanada, which is proper. It becomes apparent that Jarvis’ character, John Blackthorne, is designed to be overwhelmed by the forces surrounding him. From feudal Japan’s landscape and its politics, to the purposeful ferocity of Lord Toranaga and his vassals, to the etiquette intricacies he fails to grasp and the cost of his clumsy words, Blackthorne nearly drowns in all of it.
In the end, Blackthorne comes to understand that he can only pray to be towed by Sanada’s Lord Toranaga, who generates a gravitational pull in a constellation of indelible characters and mighty performances. Foremost among them, aside from Sanada, is Anna Sawai as Mariko, a haunted noblewoman and Christian convert whom Toranaga assigns to Blackthorne as his interpreter and minder.
