Currently watching: Bloody Monday

I’ve seen this described as “Japan’s 24” and since it’s coming back for a second series I thought I’d give it a go. It’s a tense thriller based around a terrorist organisation getting its hand on a virus which they intend to use on the Japanese public. The police have enlisted the aid of a genius hacker who isn’t yet out of high school and whose dad, just to make things awkward, has gone over to the side of the terrorists.

It’s certainly a cut above the other suspense-led programmes I’ve watched such as Boss, Majo Saiban and Team Batista no Eiko (which I gave up on) for the simple reason that the main characters are under genuine threat, although you may want to wait until the cliffhanger is resolved in the next episode before discovering who has actually died.

Perhaps its only failing is the title itself. It’s certainly difficult to give any phrase a sense of evil portent when you’re so clearly mispronouncing it. But that’s a minor thing. Overall this is a compelling adventure, perhaps somewhat improbable at times but it’s certainly a lot easier to suspend disbelief than with others of the same genre.

Currently watching:Team Batista no Eiko

This drama is set around the promising idea that there is a serial killer amongst the staff of a prestigious surgery team. Their previous excellent record in an extremely delicate operation has been ruined by a recent series of failures, beginning when a new nurse joined the team. Is she responsible, or is the killer using the change of staff to deflect suspicion from him or herself?

The main character, Tamaguchi, is the optimistic trusting soul who can’t believe there’s a killer. He’s been teamed up with a grumpy cynical policeman who doesn’t stand on ceremony and enjoys annoying the pompous hospital directors. The doctors themselves all appear to be hard-working saints. So far, so predictable.



I’m hoping that the murder mystery will take over. After episode four, in which nothing really happens, that’s a pretty slim hope but we shall see. There is scope for some nice double crossing and subterfuge but equally it could go completely the opposite way and it could end up as another “doctors are nice/everything’s fine” kind of drama. I’m not convinced by its handling of the two different styles: life-affirming hospital drama, and tense, suspicion laden murder mystery. The storyline veers one way then the next and neither really convinces.

Part of the problem could be that none of the leading characters are directly at risk. The only people being killed are patients, who don’t have time to establish themselves. The only way to get the audience to empathise is to use very obvious emotional touchpoints such as an estranged son, or doting wife, which leaves them pretty one-dimensional. Unless something happens soon to rachet up the tension, I can’t see myself seeing this through to the end.