Thrillers about investigations into government corruption generally don’t get too deep into the details about the corruption itself. Netflix’s new series The Journalist is about a reporter investigating a corruption case that reaches to the highest levels of the Japanese government. Anna Matsuda (Ryoko Yonekura), a reporter for the Touto News, is seen peppering a representative of the prime minister with questions about various corruption scandals. Law enforcement. Shinichi Murakami (Go Ayano), assistant to the First Lady, is in the Finance General’s office, showing him a sweet deal for land that where the First Lady plans on opening something called the Eishin Academy. He says it’s the PM’s wish to have the office approve that deduction. Meanwhile, a young man named Ryo Kinoshita (Ryusei Yokohama) delivers the newspaper, even though he admits to his co-workers that the doesn’t read it. When word of the land deal and winning construction bid leak out, Matsuda is reassigned from the dead-end corruption story she was pursuing to the land deal story. She pursues Murakami to ask him if he knows anything about it and he tells her he can’t talk. In the meantime, the PM is telling parliament that he has no involvement in the deal. Murakami’s boss tells him to put a muzzle on everyone involved. In order to really enjoy The Journalist, you have to be into government corruption scandals and their investigations, which can sometimes be a bit dry and pedantic.

– Compilation