How good is Shogun? Good enough to crush Netflix in back-to-back weeks on the streaming charts, something we rarely see, and certainly not from somewhere like Hulu. The samurai series has now claimed the top spot on Samba TV’s tracking list, which includes both shows and movies.
Here is the list for this week, where last week Shogun also topped the list. Though next week, I’m not so sure for reasons I’ll go into.
- Shogun (Hulu)
- Love is Blind season 6 (Netflix)
- Damsel (Netflix)
- Wonka (Max)
- The Gentlemen season 1 (Netflix)
- The Program: Cons, Cults and Kidnapping (Netflix)
- Avatar: The Last Airbender season 1 (Netflix)
- Spaceman (Netflix)
- Ricky Stanicky (Amazon Prime)
- Masters of the Air (Apple TV+)
So, another big performance, beating out even what is probably the most popular reality show in America right now, Love is Blind. But I have my doubts it will continue next week. Why? This chart only reflects three days of Netflix’s The Gentlemen being on air, a show that is performing extremely well for them, on top for almost two weeks now. My guess is those numbers will be enough to surge above Shogun next week, but we’ll have to see.
Shogun is going to be on this list in some form or another for a long time, as it’s week to week and does not see sharp dropoff the way Netflix binge-watched shows experience. Shogun may be a miniseries that will almost certainly not see a second season, but unlike most miniseries, it is actually a full ten episodes long, meaning that with four episodes aired, we are going to keep getting new episodes until April 23, over a month away. The joys of traditional TV. You can agree or disagree, but I actually enjoy it in this case.
I do have to wonder what this level of success does for the potential of more Shogun-adjacent content. What I mean by that is not a second season of Shogun itself, but the adaptation of more Asia-centric content from the same author, who has five other books set in different time periods. Shogun took a hell of a lot of work to make, so I doubt they can just spring into another time period immediately, but it certainly seems like it could be on the table if Hulu wants to grab this level of hit again. Or it may not be in the cards, if the same team is not available to produce something of similar quality.
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Pick up my sci-fi novels the Herokiller series and The Earthborn Trilogy.
