Japanese detective shows dwell on procedure and deduction, but the new Fuji TV series, "Bitter Blood" (Tues., 9 p.m.), adds an action component: If the preview trailers are any indication, Japanese police detectives get into a lot more fights than previously thought.
Some are intermural, since the bitter blood of the title is between veteran cop Akimura (Atsuro Watabe) and rookie Natsuki (Takeru Sato), who are assigned together after Akimura's partner is killed on the job. As it happens, they are also father-and-son, though they haven't talked to each other since Akimura divorced Natsuki's mother when the latter was 13. He's resented his father ever since, and that resentment comes out in their work situation. Akimura is strictly by-the-book, while Natsuki has a more idiosyncratic approach to solving crimes, though maybe he's just trying to get under his old man's skin.
Detective work of a more conventional kind is the theme of "The Long Goodbye" (NHK-G, April 19, 9 p.m.), a five-part adaptation of Raymond Chandler's classic mystery novel. Transplanted from 1950s Los Angeles to 1950s Tokyo, the reimagined story takes advantage of Japan's postwar situation, when people's sense of value was changing in significant ways.
With your current subscription plan you can comment on stories. However, before writing your first comment, please create a display name in the Profile section of your subscriber account page.