Max Just Canceled Its 89%-Rated Crime Show, but Still Did It Better Than CBS

written by Benjamin Patel

June 11, 2024 10:10 am

Max Just Canceled Its 89%-Rated Crime Show, but Still Did It Better Than CBS — Image credit: Max

Despite being scrapped, the show still got a much better fate than some of this year’s successful projects.

Following CBS’ anti-trend, Max has officially dropped one of its most compelling shows due to many reasons, with one of them regarding the streaming’s schedule change, though in this case it’s not as impertinent and cruel as it was with CBS’ scrapped series.

Still sticking to its initial plan, Max canceled Tokyo Vice, a crime drama show that wasn’t even supposed to go further than just two seasons. The news (quite expected, yet still possibly responsible for shattering a couple of fans’ hearts) spread after it was officially announced at a panel at the Produced By conference in Los Angeles.

The cancellation didn’t come as a total surprise though, considering that Tokyo Vice’s creators had no other ideas for future seasons and wrapped the whole story up in the second season finale, suitably titled Endgame. On top of that, the show’s leading actor, Ansel Elgort, was also down for only two seasons, with no plans to reprise the role for years to come.

What Is Tokyo Vice About?

Based on journalist Jake Adelstein’s 2009 memoir, Tokyo Vice follows Adelstein himself, portrayed by Elgort, who in 1999 moves from the US to Tokyo and gets a job at one of Japan’s most prominent newspapers, also becoming the first foreign journalist ever to work there.

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Diving deeper into investigations of crimes happening in the city, Jake discovers Tokyo’s hidden part of the criminal world called yakuza and embarks on his own search for more dark details to uncover, counter to the newspaper’s claims about the capital’s absolute safety.

Initially launched back in 2022, Tokyo Vice was quick to garner rave reviews, with the show’s first season landing scores of 85% and 90% from critics and viewers respectively on Rotten Tomatoes.

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The second installment arrived earlier this year and turned out to be to everyone’s liking even more, holding an impressive rating of 93% from both professionals and the audience.

Both seasons of Tokyo Vice are still available for streaming on Max.