PICK OF DIGITAL & ON DEMAND TV

TOKYO VICE, STARZPLAY

THE culture clash at the core of this show is real and is based on the experiences of Jake Adelstein, the first nonJapanese reporter at Tokyo’s Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper. Adelstein’s original 2009 memoir, subtitled An American Reporter on the Police Beat In Japan, was unable to find a publisher willing to put out a Japanese edition because of the risk of violent retaliation by the Yakuza — which gives you some idea of the high stakes involved in reporting on the Tokyo underworld. In this eight-part series, Adelstein, as played by Ansel Elgort — the fresh-faced star of The Fault In Our Stars and Baby Driver — appears blandly American next to the complex culture he clashes with, in a workplace where new staff are told, ‘After today, your lives belong to this newspaper.’ Ken Watanabe (pictured with Elgort) plays the veteran police detective who takes the young Adelstein under his wing. The show has a cool visual style, set in place in this opening episode by the director Michael Mann, who also helmed the movies Heat and Collateral. New episodes follow every Sunday.