Terrace House, a Japanese reality show, stormed Netflix and became one of the most popular reality shows. How fun is it to watch six strangers living together underneath the roof?
Sometimes I wonder why are people so obsessed with “Keeping up with the Kardashians”. What is the fun watching living their lives? Until I started watching Terrance House then I started to understand why are people so obsessed with reality TV shows. Imagine “Friends” but then more heart-warming and less of that dirty jokes, this is Terrace House for you.
Or, according to News Republic, Terrace House is a show about “six strangers living together, [three females and three males] and we observe how they interact. All that we’ve prepared is a beautiful home and automobiles. There is no script at all”. On top of that the show has commentators that act as a bystander of the show.
The reality show was such an attention grabber that even the New York Times wrote an opinion article for the show. The writers of the article described the reason why this reality show is so addictive is because “it has featured an unlikely love match, the return of one of the show’s memorable figures, several people suffering from romantic butterfingers and a surprising acceptance of acid jazz as viable pop music.” There are many spoilers in the New York Times and I will spare you from them.
In another article by the Ringer, compares the Japanese reality TV shows to many other American shows, saying, “What if I told you that there was, right now, on American television, a series vaster in its narrative breadth than Game of Thrones, more acute in its characterization than Mad Men, funnier and more morally searching than The Good Place, self-aware to a more gothic depth than Keeping Up With the Kardashians, scarier than American Horror Story, and almost as labyrinthine a diagram of the society it depicts as The Wire.” Yes, what if there is really a show like this.
Terrance House also breaks many stereotypical images of Japanese women. We see many women stepping out from their comfort zone and chase after the person they love. The feelings in the show are so raw and so natural that you can feel them even though you are a screen away from the housemates.
The special thing about Terrance House, compare to other American reality shows, is the polite and innocent approach they have towards love. In the Guardian’s article, the writer describes watching Terrace as a “meditative experience”. It represents the truth and unscripted world that we are living. The article pointed out that “For those who hold the basic tenets of reality TV dear – that the truth is more compelling than fiction, and the interaction between people is a limitless source of entertainment and fascination, regardless of their status – Terrace House is a profound joy.”
The Guardian’s article also criticises how the relationship in the show moves “at a snail’s pace”, which is undeniably true because I also fell asleep while watching the first episode of it. However, to think about it, when was the last time you did not rush into a relationship? When was the last time you took your time to know someone and be attracted to who they really are? This reality TV show brings out people’s insecurity yet being able to find someone to appreciate them. This is not a perfect world. A reality show means it is showing the real world. And Terrace House did abide to the biggest rule of a reality show.
