In Episode 5 ofTokyo Vice’s second season, after a stretch where American journalist Jake Adelstein (Ansel Elgort) and Japanese detective Hiroto Katagiri (Ken Watanabe) have gone their separate ways, a concerned Jake asks Katagiri, “We’re still a thing, right? Starsky and Hutch?” Katagiri ponders the question and asks in return, “Which of us is Starsky?” Jake quickly answers, “Me, obviously.” Katagiri considers that for a moment before firmly replying, “I do not think so.” It’s a good moment, but, more importantly, it’s a legitimately funny moment in a series that rarely finds time for humor. Don’t mistake it forTokyo Viceloosening up too much, though.Season 2 continues the show’s neon-lit and blood-soaked tale of two men risking their own lives in an attempt to bring down the most dangerous of the Japanese capital’syakuzagangs.
Also, don’t expect the Max show to hold your hand and ease you back into its story if your memory is a little fuzzy about where we left off nearly two years ago. In fact,Season 2’s first episode feels like it should have been the final episode ofSeason 1, as it picks up immediately after and mostly concerns itself with the fallout of previous events. We learn that Jake’s friend, the conflictedyakuzaenforcer Sato (Show Kasamatsu), has survived being brutally stabbed. Detective Miyomoto, who was working alongside Katagiri while secretly being on the payroll ofyakuzaboss Shinzo Tozawa (Ayumi Tanida), is found dead. The videotape that was anonymously mailed to Jake and could serve as evidence to put Tozawa behind bars mysteriously burns up in a fire at Jake’s newspaper office. Essentially, everyone pretty much ends up back at square one, which is whythe new season’s real start feels like it comes with the second episode, when we jump forward three months in time and all the show’s pieces are reset like a new chapter unfolding.
Tokyo Vice
A Western journalist working for a publication in Tokyo takes on one of the city’s most powerful crime bosses.
‘Tokyo Vice’ Season 2 Expands the Story in Many Different Ways
Jake’s reset means stepping back from the Tozawa investigation to refocus his reporting elsewhere. He ends up becoming involved with a group of young motorcycle thieves, whose exploits he chronicles, but he gets pulled back into Tozawa’s orbit when he resumes his romantic relationship with Tozawa’s mistress, Misaki (Ayumi Ito). Meanwhile, Katagiri reluctantly joins a newly created task force that finds a novel method for targeting Tokyo’syakuzagangs. Sato heals up and is back on the job, though he spends most of his time trying to keep his younger brother, one of Season 2’s handful of new characters, off theyakuza’s radar and on the straight and narrow. Samantha (Rachel Keller), the American hostess/club worker who befriends both Jake and Sato, has finally opened her own club, but she quickly learns that operating underyakuzaownership comes with its own pitfalls.
That’s essentially whatTokyo Vice’s main characters are all up to early on in the new season, which, like the first, is set in the 1990s. But the series also finds time to (deep breath) expand on the personal lives of Jake’s two reporter buddies at his newspaper (turns out, one is gay and one likes to bake); create a new blossoming romance between Sato and a hostess friend of Samantha’s who has a young son he bonds with; get more involved in the personal life of Jake’s editor Emi (Rinko Kikuchi), who suspects the newspaper fire was an inside job; and detail the continued infighting between the variousyakuzagangs, especially when Tozawa, who suffers from liver disease, goes missing and is presumed by some to be dead.
So, yeah, it’s a lot, and some of the story arcs prove to be more compelling than others. But there’s something supremely appealing about a series that unabashedly tracks such a large group of characters through plotlines that could best be described as labyrinthine. It also helps thatTokyo Vicecontinues to serve as one of television’s coolest and best-looking crime dramas. It’s tough to say how much executive producerMichael Mann, who directed the series' first episode, remains involved, but showrunnerJ.T. Rogersand his team of directors (includingAlan Poul, who helmed the season’s first two episodes) continue to effectively ape Mann’s slick style.
Meanwhile, the acting is top-notch across the board. Watanabe remains the series' MVP, as he struggles with knowing that his ongoing battle with theyakuzaputs his rapidly fraying family in more and more danger. Elgort remains goofy yet eager — a fish out of water whose keen journalistic instincts transcend cultural barriers. Tanida makes for a fierce and threatening antagonistic presence as Tozawa, and Keller, continuing her winning streak thatstarted withFargoand carried over toLegion, finds more layers to her character the more trapped and frazzled she becomes. Kasamatsu… well, his Soto is still just the coolest.
Will ‘Tokyo Vice’ Get Renewed for Season 3?
The first five installments of the 10-episode season provided for review include a huge action set piece that takes a major player off the board and shakes up the show’s universe in a way that propels the season to what should be an exciting second half. However, as much as I enjoyTokyo Vice(and let me be clear: Ireallyenjoy it), I can’t help but to ponder a couple of questions that hang over the show like an invisible specter. The first is: Does Warner Bros. Discovery care enough about this series to let it grow into the epic crime saga it’s so obviously designed to be —the controversial memoir by the real Jake Adalsteinthat the show is inspired by spanned 12 years — or are they going to cut it down after this second season? After all, the corporation has been, uh, shall we say… fickle with its content lately, andit’s easy to wonder ifTokyo Vice’s viewership numbers are good enoughto ensure it a spot on the streamer for a few more seasons. (Tokyo Vice’s first season never came close to reaching the watercooler-talk heights ofSuccessionor evenBarry. But those shows are gone now, so maybe Max could use the consistency aTokyo Vicerenewal would provide.)
My second question is: IfTokyo Vicedoes get the axe after Season 2, will the series at least finally circle back to its flash-forwarding opening scene? In case you’ve forgotten, Season 1 ofTokyo Viceopened with a scene set sometime in the future where Jake and Katagiri, wearing body armor under their suits, walk into a meeting with Tozawa’s underboss, who gives a threatening ultimatum. Season 1 never caught back up with that scene (which felt structurally odd), and, halfway through, Season 2 has yet to arrive at that point in time. It’s just hanging out there like a promise that the show is going to need to keep if it wants to feel like it’s telling a complete story, whether it reaches a conclusion this season or three seasons down the road. I’ll root for the latter option there, asTokyo Viceproves captivating in a way that makes it feel likea classic HBO Sunday-night TV show, even if it technically isn’t one. The underbelly of 1990s Tokyo provides an incredibly juicy setting andTokyo Vicemakes the most of it, offering up a sprawling tale of cops, crooks, reporters, and the blurred lines between them.
Tokyo Vice continues to be one of TV’s sturdiest crime thrillers in Season 2.
Tokyo ViceSeason 2 premieres with its first two episodes February 8 on Max, with new episodes released weekly thereafter.
