Sometimes the Side Chick Ain't Even a Chick...It's Terrace House (Netflix, 2019-2020)

Unfortunately I don't have very much to report this week!

Last week in my museums class we visited the National Gallery of Art and got to go to the conservation studio. It was super cool, but I felt really nervous because all these Masterpieces that were being touched up were just out and about on tables and easels, and I was really nervous I was going to bump into one! It's so weird to think that a conservator's job is to paint on extremely valuable, one-of-a-kind unique works of art. The woman we met made it sound so casual, since they are very careful to use materials that can be removed with different solvents without damaging the original paint, but it all just blew my mind.

I wish I could have taken a picture, too, because they had all these massive tubes to help with the fumes from the chemicals and it all looked very Willy Wonka-y to me.

Other than that, the main new thing from me this week is that I've been watching a lot of the new season of Terrace House. It's my first time watching the show and I don't know if you all are already familiar with it, but I was not so I'll explain a bit:

Basically it's a Japanese reality show that's kinda like Big Brother, by which I mean it's some 20-somethings living in a house together. Past that, the similarities to Big Brother basically end. On Terrace House, there are 3 boys and 3 girls, and the goal is that they each find a romantic partner (of the opposite sex I assume). BUT there's no punishment if they don't find a partner AND there's no real reward if they do find a partner (other than, like, true love I guess) AND they can choose to leave the show pretty much whenever they want. If someone leaves, they just get a new person of their same gender to fill in.

(peep Shohei on the stairs) They all get to live in this super nice house and drive nice cars provided by the show too, seems like a sweet gig

Other than that, it's literally just watching people live their lives. There aren't any competitions or challenges built into the show's structure. The participants are allowed to leave the house whenever they want - in fact, they're all still working their day jobs so they have to. You spend a lot of time watching people go grocery shopping, cook, get ready for bed, and talk about mundane stuff. It's incredible.

It's also really different from American reality TV in the sense that they don't do confessional-style interviews. We literally only get to know these participants in the form of how they interact with other people on the show. We don't get to hear what they're really thinking unless they confide in someone else. Instead, there's a panel of six comedians that the show will occasionally cut away to who comment on what's happen and say what they think is going to happen next. My sister says she finds the commentators bizarre, but you kind of get used to the occasional change in scenery as the show goes on.

In this house we love and support Kaori Watanabe

All in all, I would highly recommend Terrace House. It's starting to spice up this season, and the new set of episodes are probably going to hit Netflix in the next couple months for international viewers. The season's going to go through the end of Summer 2020 and I'm really curious to see what's going to happen when people start leaving the house!

Oh also Halloween is soon! If you're looking for something Halloween-y to watch I cannot recommend Over the Garden Wall enough, check it out! I have a plan for a costume but I'll wait to talk about it until next week. Have a super spooky Halloweek friends :^)

And here's my favorite Halloween TikTok for your troubles (this one has a few layers)