Tokyo Vice, HBO’s gritty neon-soaked police thriller, has transported audiences to the underworld of Tokyo, Japan in the ’90s. Based on the real-life memoirs of journalist Jake Adelstein, the story follows Jake (Ansel Elgort) as he reports on the city’s organized crime and quickly finds himself in way over his head.
The first season kicked off in 2022 on HBO and was critically well-received, if under-watched. Many considered the series one of the most beautiful shows of the year to fly under the radar. Despite this, Tokyo Vice was renewed for a second season, and thank God for that given season one’s cliffhanger ending.
Season two then premiered on February 8 and picked up right where the series left off, with Sato (Sho Kasamatsu) struggling to survive the assassination attempt on his life. Jake acts on the videotape of Polina’s death he’s received, and Katagiri (Ken Watanabe) does his best to keep his family safe after Tozawa’s (Ayumi Tanida) threat. Tozawa though, was conveniently absent for much of the first few episodes, luring many into a false sense of security. This includes Jake, who forms a romantic attachment to Tozawa’s mistress, Misaki (Ayumi Ito). Tozawa was never going to stay away for long though, and upon his return, the murder and mayhem picked right up where it left off.
Compared to season one’s eight episodes, Tokyo Vice season two is ten episodes long, the first two of which premiered on February 8. The remaining episodes air every Thursday, with the last episode set to air on April 4. It is unclear yet if a third season will get the go-ahead, but we hope that the chance of Jake’s story continuing is quite high.
One can only hope.
(featured image: HBO Max)
