‘Tokyo Vice,’ the neo-noir crime series starring Ansel Elgort, is currently the third most-watched series on Max worldwide this week, according to the specialized website FlixPatrol. It’s only behind ‘True Detective: Night Counrty,’ which is first. The series just premiered its second season on Feb. 8th, and it’s set to keep captivating audiences.
The series was created by playwright J.T. Rogers (Oslo), who also writes and executive produces. The story follows Jake Adelstein (Elgort), an American journalist working for Tokyo’s top newspaper who gets deeply entangled in the city’s criminal underworld.
The rest of the main cast consists of Ken Watanabe, Rachel Keller, Hideaki Itō, Ella Rumpf, Rinko Kikuchi, Miki Maya, and Yōsuke Kubozuka. Here’s all you need to know about this action show, which has received positive reviews due to its realistic portrayal of Japan’s criminal world.
Tokyo Vice: Is the series based on a true story?
The series is based on the 2009 memoir of the same title by Jake Adelstein. So, yes, it is based on his real-life experience as a crime writer in Japan, especially as the first non-Japanese reporter working for one of the country’s largest newspapers, Yomiuri Shimbun.
In an interview with Forbes, Elgort said that Season 2 of the show will “get even deeper” in depicting Japan’s underbelly. “You start to see deeper into really what’s behind-the-scenes. As Jake is learning these things and investigating these things, the audience will also have a chance to start to peel back the layers and see really deep into how everything is working,” he explained.
Tokyo Vice Season 2: Episodes and release schedule
As we said, the first episode of the second season premiered on Feb. 8th, releasing its first two episodes. The season will have a total of ten episodes, and the rest will be released weekly every Thursday on Max. The series is a Max original, so it’s only available on the platform. The full schedule is:
Episode 1 – Feb. 8
Episode 2 – Feb. 8
Episode 3 – Feb. 15
Episode 4 – Feb. 22
Episode 5 – Feb. 29
Episode 6 – March 7
Episode 7 – March 14
Episode 8 – March 21
Episode 9 – March 28
Episode 10 – April 4
Is the series really filmed in Tokyo?
Yes, the series films in the city. However, in an interview with Forbes, Alan Poul, executive producer and director, said that “Tokyo is still the most difficult major metropolis in the world to shoot in because there just aren’t the kinds of governmental organs that are designed to facilitate filmmaking, and we really banged our heads against the wall a lot in season one.”
But, he also explained that after the success of the first season, the crew was received differently. He said: “We came back with a whole newfound level of respect from the police, from the Tokyo Metropolitan Government, so that we were able to break barriers and shoot in locations nobody had shot in and shoot action sequences on the street. The groundwork we did in season one enabled us to accomplish that.”
Tokyo Vice Season 1 and 2 is streaming on Max.