Terrace House

Thursday, June 18, 2020

Terrace House is a Japanese reality show on Netflix. It was easily my favorite show on that platform, and the one I looked forward to watching the most when new episodes were released.

The basic premise of the show is they put 6 young people together in a beautiful house. It's always 3 boys and 3 girls, usually between the ages of 20 and 30. You watch them live their lives as they go to work, or to school, and pursue their dreams. All this while getting to know one another and making new friends, or lovers, or sometimes, enemies. Every so often someone will decide to leave the house, at which point a new cast member is brought in but always maintaining the 3 girl to 3 boy ratio.

There's also a usual cast of commentators that watch and comment about whatever's happening a couple of times each episode. Some might say these commentators are what make the show. They are often hilarious and it's so satisfying when they notice the same things about the housemates you do.

What I love about the show is seeing how different Japanese culture is from the West. I also enjoy watching how these young people encourage one another, talk out their differences, and the fact that they generally feel like real people having real life experiences. It's a subtle show, and not for everyone, but it does have a cult following of passionate fans. I started with the season called "Opening New Doors" and went on to watch all the other iterations of the show thereafter. Check it out if you're interested in a different kind of reality show experience.

Unfortunately, I don't know if the show will be continuing as one of the housemates in the most recent season committed suicide after getting a lot of abuse on social media. It's a sad situation that demonstrates how the people that go on Terrace House are real people genuinely trying to find their way in life as opposed to similar shows in the west where what you see are a group of young people just getting drunk and partying on a daily basis.