Must Watch reviews Tokyo Vice

Wednesday 16 November 2022, 9:55

Every week, the Must Watch podcasters review the biggest TV and streaming shows.

This week, Hayley Campbell and Scott Bryan review Tokyo Vice.

BBC One shows an American Journalist navigating his way through Japan, when he discovers the dangerous world of Yakuza.

Hayley says "I think mostly what I like is it’s a show that doesn’t make it easy for you. It's one you really have to pay attention to"

"This was a must watch before I had even pressed play because the pilot episode is directed by Michael Mann. He's one of my favourite filmmakers: he made Heat with Robert De Niro and Al Pacino, he made Thief with James Caan (which I like even more), Collateral with Tom Cruise — and he produced the show Miami Vice and made a movie out of that in the mid-2000s.

"He’s made so many films about men who live in a world of crime and I love them. I was excited just to see his name on the credits. He doesn’t direct any episodes beyond the first one, but because it’s the pilot he set the mood and the tone for the show and they do their best to carry it.

"There's a lot to love about this show: I love how it drip feeds you information, how it's about this young guy trying to make a living working as a newspaper reporter in Tokyo and we only learn about the bigger story they're telling as he picks up these tiny clues that other people in the newspaper think he is ridiculous for even pursuing.

"I love how the show doesn’t rush it and I really like that it trusts us not to get bored. It’s got a different pace to other shows. I think mostly what I like is it’s a show that doesn’t make it easy for you. It's one you really have to pay attention to. It even makes me like Ansel Elgort, who is an actor I've found annoying in the past so it’s no small thing that I like him in this."

Scott says "It gives it that level of depth, that extra little bit authenticity and heck, encourages you to put away your phone for a bit"

"It is a Must Watch. I think the era that it is set in is particularly fascinating. It looks at Japan at the turn of the millennium, so that was when an economic boom sort of then became a decade of lost growth, a real difficult time for the Japanese economy. I think it looks at Japanese media, which you might be surprise to hear is far more expansive than it is in the UK. We have many competing newspapers, but Japan has some of the highest readership of newspapers in the world.

"The fictional newspaper at the heart of this story has 12 million readers a day, and in the first episode you see the main character competing in an exam hall hundreds of other journalists for the same job. It’s so fiercely competitive.

"It is also interesting that this drama is made in partnership with a Japanese broadcaster. I won’t be able to confirm whether this drama truly reflects what life is like in Japan, but it feels realistic and authentic.

"I also love the fact that you hear the two main characters speaking fluent Japanese throughout the series too. It gives it that level of depth, that extra little bit authenticity and heck, encourages you to put away your phone for a bit."