The new crime series Tokyo Vice is a show that is already grabbing the attention of a lot of viewers. The series follows an ambitious young American living in Japan who gets a job at a prestigious newspaper where he seeks to explore Tokyo's criminal world with the help of a determined detective.
The show combines a lot of elements into its larger story that help to make it one of the year's most exciting new series. And with its compelling subject matter and stylistic approach, Tokyo Vice is similar to some other great series that fans should check out next.
Miami Vice (1984-1989)
One of the most exciting elements of the show is the involvement of Michael Mann. The director of such crime classics as Heat and Collateral is such a talent to have on this series, but fans might forget that Mann already has an established television career as well.
Miami Vice was one of Mann's earliest projects and a hugely popular series that followed Detectives Crocket and Tubbs taking on Miami's crime world. Despite the title, Tokyo Vice isn't really a Miami Vice spinoff, but it features Mann's same blend of the vibrant look of a city along with its dangerous underbelly.
The Sopranos (1999-2007)
Along with dealing with the cops and reporters of the city, Tokyo Vice also explores organized crime and its culture. When focusing on the Yakuza members of the story, they are presented as complex characters with their own struggles and doubts while also allowing them to be violent criminals.
When thinking of organized crime seen in television shows, it is impossible not to think about The Sopranos. Similarly, this crime show depicts Tony Sopranos and his fellow mobsters as real human beings who operate in this deadly world.
The Newsroom (2012-2014)
The show is also an interesting exploration of journalism although seen in a culture where it is very different. The fast-paced and demanding nature of this professional world is very exhilarating, especially seeing how a reporter puts a news story together and how it can be picked apart.
The Newsroom is another series that operates in the sphere of journalism although within a cable news show rather than a newspaper. Jeff Daniels leads the cast of characters tackling real-life news events with Aaron Sorkin's signature witty banter guiding them.
Narcos (2015-2017)
The character of Jake, played by Ansel Elgort, serves as something of an audience surrogate in the story. Though he has been living in Tokyo for a few years by the time the show begins, it is through his eyes that the viewers get exposed to the deadlier aspects of the city and its crime world.
In Narcos, the crime series also explores a different world of crime as it takes audiences into the Colombian drug cartels. The first season follows the DEA character of Steve Murphy as he explores this world, but it also focuses on the other side of the battle with Pablo Escobar.
Daredevil (2015-2018)
Given the fact that Tokyo Vice is a grounded crime story, it might seem strange to compare it to a Marvel show. But Daredevil is not the typical superhero story as it is also a violent and gritty look at criminal organizations controlling the city.
Along with the surprisingly similar aesthetics of the show, the first season of Daredevil also explores investigative crime reporting similar to Tokyo Vice through the character of Ben Urich. It tells a similar story of the few heroes willing to dig deeper into the dangers of the city.
Deadline (2000-2001)
From Jake and his fellow new reporters to his stern editor Emi (Rinko Kikuchi) to the relationship between the press and the police, the newspaper aspect of Tokyo Vice is one of the most interesting aspects of the whole series.
Deadline was a short-lived series from Dick Wolf that also looked at journalism and the high-stakes business at a prominent newspaper. Though it didn't catch on while it was on the air, it is a worthwhile show to revisit after all these years.
True Detective (2014-2019)
Quite unexpectedly, Jake and Detective Katagiri (Ken Watanabe) make for a great pair of partners in the series. Though they are very different men in a number of ways, they seem to share a connection in their determination to get to the bottom of a conspiracy even if no one else wants them to.
The first season of True Detective has a similar unlikely pairing with Woody Harrelson and Matthew McConaughey as two detectives forced to work together. But as they stumble upon a disturbing and far-reaching case, they form a bond.
The Wire (2002-2008)
Though Baltimore and Tokyo are two very different places, The Wire shares a number of similarities in how it explores crime in its city as Tokyo Vice. The shows also have the same approach to a grounded and more realistic look at how justice is served.
On the police side of the stories, both shows share themes of police being told to focus on closing cases rather than necessarily making things better. The fifth season of The Wire also takes place inside a newspaper office with more similarities to Tokyo Vice.
Giri/Haji (2019)
The setting of the show not only gives an opportunity to tell a compelling fish-out-of-water story through the eyes of Jake, but it also gives a chance to explore the culture of Japan in some interesting ways through the various characters, including the underground world of the Yakuza.
The crime series Giri/Haji is another fish-out-of-water story, this time focusing on a detective from Tokyo who travels to London to find his missing brother. It is another intense series that explores Japanese culture while also dealing with the deadly threat of the Yakuza.