Tokyo Vice - Season 2 (HBO MAX/2.8.24)

R

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Unsurprising, but really, it's just a set up for a story that is clearly, clearly fiction. I knew that the first meeting probably did happen, given Mann, and his research and detail, but almost everything else beyond the set up, is writers room creation. There is even a little too much "bad boy" sex appeal in the later episodes that struck me as little unneeded to say the least. Having an affair with Towaza's mistress was really extra, and obviously fiction.
 
Nero Christ

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re'up said:
The whole show is a genre piece, (Mann, is in a sense, a genre director) but the last several episodes went too far into those cliches, and didn't sink the show, but put some holes in it. Some of those scenes were rough, and not in a good way. Too on the nose, too much swaggering sociopath villain, too much goofy white antics. It lost the touch of the first episode, which carried mostly through 5. It was the last two that felt the weakest.

And the pilots first sequence was never circled back to, and honestly feels like a different show. I think Mann (or whomever) probably had a lot of notes from the studios, to include some of the weaker stuff, given the relative quality of the first episode, compared to the last. Some of those sequences were like writers workshop at first year film school or something. Stuff I came up with when I was a child.

The finale felt written like a show hedging it's bets, on being renewed, but not certain of it, which hurts it creatively, because it had less weight to all it's punches, and doubles down too far on sleaze Netflix C list thriller tropes like a video tape of a murder, and the speech in the warehouse. That was poorly done.

Loved it, as a whole though, and especially the first 5, which are some of the best TV episodes in awhile, for me, in it's genre.

That Yakuza ritual in the first season was one of my favorite TV scenes in a while.
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yea show starts off as a detailed look into the interconnectivity of various Tokyo industries and the Yakuza and that is interesting, and then turns into a run of the mill gangster show which isn't. I mean that meth trip scene :francis: and then his editor (who's shown throughout to be methodical, no nonsense, but caring) casually laughs off him coming to work high on meth...I rolled my eyes at that shyt:stopitslime:
 
R.E.N. Spells Ren

R.E.N. Spells Ren

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I thought it was straight. Not amazing not terrible. :ld:


I agree with those disappointed in the finale; especially given the opening.


Are we supposed to know who killed Sato and why? If he’s even dead…

My real question is regarding the pretty boy cuz I don’t understand that dynamic at all. These hostesses beat rich tricks off with a stick for a day job only to be tricks themselves supporting broke pretty boys to the point of going in debt? :dahell:
 
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Just finished it and really enjoyed it, wish the finale was better but it sets up a season 2 surely. My guess is Jake puts all his info together and drops a story that can basically get Tozawa locked away for good and it picks up from the opening scene of season 1. They need to drop season 2 asap.

i enjoyed every scene Sato was in the most, he stole the show in my opinion.
 
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"throw in some weird sex scenes"

"people love characters using drugs in unrealistic fashion"

"warehouse scene!!!"

You can see the notes trying to make it more entertaining for people who probably don't want to really watch a show about the Yakuza and Japanese journalism/underground clubs, and want a story told in nice, easy cliches and familiar patterns.

I would watch Sato/Sam/Karigiri and Jake's co workers, and you could lose Ansel, but execs won't go for that.
 
King Static X

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re'up said:
"throw in some weird sex scenes"

"people love characters using drugs in unrealistic fashion"

"warehouse scene!!!"

You can see the notes trying to make it more entertaining for people who probably don't want to really watch a show about the Yakuza and Japanese journalism/underground clubs, and want a story told in nice, easy cliches and familiar patterns.

I would watch Sato/Sam/Karigiri and Jake's co workers, and you could lose Ansel, but execs won't go for that.
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I agree that the show should be centered around the Japanese actors/characters.

I don't like Samantha's character though :hubie:
 
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Also, expensive show to produce, I imagine. It's done the old way, filmed on location, no expense spared, which is a Mann signature, and reason why he has a hard time getting things made, given the failures of projects like Blackhat and Luck. The former featuring filmed on location scenes in Hong Kong, Shanghai, Jakarta, and the latter real live race horses, who kepot dying during filming.

HBO Max isn't hurting for money, and their shows are probably more expensive on average than Netflix, but still an investment.

@King Static X, I think her acting is mostly solid, the script wraps her character in cliches and bad lines, that would be hard for even an A lister to sell. I like her story, like her character, though perhaps I am biased, as she reminds me too much of a girl friend of mine who works in a "gentlemen's club" of sorts lol
 
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