So my fiancee and I have been watching a lot of Japanese programming on Netflix. We watched a show called Rea(L)ove, which was a dating show that lasted only 3 days and the basic concept was that each contestant had a ‘dark’ secret that they could be forced to reveal at random times whenever the production decided. It was very low budget but also hilarious.
We then moved onto ‘Ainori Love Wagon’ which is a reboot of a show that originally only aired in Japan some time ago. Basically a group of people go on a poor mans trip through Asia and spend 2 weeks in each country, they have the opportunity to declare their love for others on the trip and can be accepted and sent home with their new love, or rejected and sent home alone. Again very entertaining.
We then stumbled upon Terrace House. Higher production value and something that we noticed had 3 different series. The concept is that 6 people live in a house (3 men, 3 women) in communal living but go about their day to day lives as they normally would. They have cameras in the house and just follow what occurs. The idea is that you are there to achieve a goal set by yourself and they are not coerced or forced to search for love but one of the ideas of the show is that when you put a bunch of young single people together, stuff is going to potentially develop. They can also leave the house whenever they feel it is the right time to leave, and a replacement housemate is brought in.
The first series ‘Boys and Girls in the City’ is set in Tokyo, the second series called ‘Aloha State’ is set in Hawaii(large Japanese population), and the third series, which is still ongoing, is called ‘Opening New Doors’ and is set in Japan once more.
I made this thread in order to see if there were any others who had watched or are watching the show(please no spoilers in this thread), and also to encourage others to take a look at the show and see if it is something you would enjoy. I highly recommend it because it’s a seemingly authentic look into a dating culture that is very different to Western countries, and also just a fascinating look into how cultural differences shape the way we interact in general. I think it’s also a very refreshing take on reality TV because it feels very real and seems to have very little, if any, production interference.
