PICK OF TODAY’S TV

TOKYO VICE, 9.10PM, 10.50PM, BBC1

INSPIRED by a true story, this brooding U.S. thriller series follows a young, idealistic American reporter as he immerses himself in Japanese culture in Tokyo, and into its dark underbelly of organised crime. Ansel Elgort stars as Jake Adelstein, whose internship at a Tokyo newspaper isn’t serving up the meaty stories he wants. So, he befriends local police detective Hiroto Katagiri (The Last Samurai’s Ken Watanabe, pictured with Elgort) to try to get the inside track as he investigates a spate of gruesome and increasingly suspicious suicides. At the heart of this ten-part series — which was originally shown on Starzplay earlier this year and has since been renewed for a second season — is watching the uneasy relationship between Jake and Hiroto develop, showing the contrast between western and Japanese cultures. It’s well worth sticking with — this is the kind of show that gets better and better as the stories of other peripheral characters — such as American expat hostess Samantha (Legion’s Rachel Keller) and Sato, one of the Yakuza’s junior enforcers — begin to merge into the foreground.