This is such a great show.  On Netflix, I just finished a 2 part show that stars Cheuk Wan-Chi who is an Hong Kong comedian and media personality.

I’m very impressed with the translators who did this.  Both shows were in Cantonese but the subtitles were translated so well that the jokes and witty comments were spot on funny.   At the same time, some of the references she uses were lost on me because she’s from Hong Kong.  The crowd definitely understood so there’s a slight cultural gap.

Either way, it’s a great show.

Netflix clearly has interesting shows like House of Cards.

But have you watched Million Yen Women?  This is a Japanese 12 episode TV show.  The plot starts off with those “too good to be true” TV tropes where 5 random female protagonist rent a room from the male protagonist.  The male protagonist is a struggling author while the 5 female protagonist have various professions.  These kinds of “too good to be true” TV tropes are widely used and they usually end up as romantic comedies.  But I assure you, this show is not quite romantic nor comedic.

Admittedly, the first four episodes were pretty slow as the plot dabbled with the background of the women and man.  At episode five, the plot picks up and takes you for a ride all the way to the last episode where it has a very short denouement.  I think it ends pretty nicely despite the various unexpected plot twists.  I certainly didn’t expect three of the major plot twists to occur.

The character development is pretty significant for such short series.  The male protagonist’s character development is the highlight of the show but the development of the five female protagonist shouldn’t be discounted either.  Their interactions with each other gave a sense of realness which is a testament to the show’s great acting, writing and directing.  I certainly was attached to one of the female protagonist.  The writers gave her such a great thoughtful personality that she was extremely likable.

It’s a great show.  Spend 5 hours and watch it…

There’s this awesome PBS show called “The Mind of a Chef” that’s being shown on Netflix.  According to the website and wiki, it’s a documentary about a chef and his/her inspiration into cooking.  I’m currently watching Season 1 which stars David Chang of Momofuku Restaurant Group fame.  One of his restaurants apparently is a 2 Michelin Star restaurant.

Of the 10 episodes I’ve watched so far, his love of ramen is evident.  It honestly makes me want to go out to have some ramen and tsukemen at some of the local ramen shops in the neighborhood.  But as the show dives into his inspirations, I find his passion for cooking is amazing.  I was surprised that he even lectured at Harvard in the pork/buta-bushi episode.  Granted most of the biology was covered by microbiologists at Harvard but to go so far as to try to understand the process of what makes pork/buta-bushi unique at a scientific level shows passion.

I’m almost done with season 1.  I’m going to go find myself a hearty bowl of tonkotsu ramen…

I’ve heard of Dan Ariely from Freakonomics.  Freakonomics talks about his Behavioral Economics research quite “freakwently” (see what i did there!?) on a number of different topics that range from lying, dating, paying taxes and even quitting.

Imagine my surprise that there’s this Netflix documentary called (Dis)honesty: The Truth about Lies.  This documentary is an in depth dive about lying.  It’s like an extended TedTalk (a TedDoc!).  Ariely will talk about some principle from his research followed by real occurrences of the principle in action taken from society.  The behavioral experiments in the lab leads to more discoveries about the social interactions and gives potential insight on why lying/cheating/dishonesty happens.

• Viral Marketing Campaign.
• Mom lies for trying to send kids to a better school district.
• Stock Market Insider trading.
• A wife using Ashley Madison to find attention from another man.
• NBA gambling.
• Accounting Fraud at MCI.
• Honesty Shops in India.
• Nudge Unit in UK.

This is a pretty great documentary about lying and dishonesty and their effects on the person committing the act of dishonesty.

Just finished the latest season 5.  With Claire’s ending, it’s going to be an interesting season 6.

So Season 5 of House of Cards is out on Netflix.  Some people have probably already finished it.  I’m still in the middle of the season.  With the events happening in the TV show, it got me wondering… how would political podcasts interpret the poll results and election outcome?

This Netflix documentary called Steak Revolution is amazing.  The show documents the many different ways beef is valued in different parts of the world.   For example, the French do not like to have their steaks marbled while Japan prefer to have their steaks to be nicely marbled.  The difference lies in how each culture views beef and views fat.  That’s pretty fascinating.

As a side note, I should try Peter Luger’s one of these days.  That steak house was mentioned multiple times by breeders, butchers, chefs and beef connoisseurs as where they ate the “best steak” ever.

For the past few days, I’ve been watching this Netflix show called Terrace House: Boys and Girls In the City.  The show is an unscripted Japanese reality TV show about 3 men and 3 women living in a house while cameras record their interactions.  It’s almost like America’s MTV Real World show that somehow doesn’t devolve into screaming matches and one-upsmanship.  I think Japan is probably the only place where politeness and courtesy is still respected while in the middle of heated arguments.

Aside from the show itself, there are a group of commentators that comment on the events in the show.  They’re mainly interested in the human relationships between the different housemates.  Sometimes the commentary is hilarious as they try to dissect the thoughts and emotions of the housemates interacting with each other.  The raw emotions the housemates experience seems to be real.  Some of the facial expressions cannot be faked especially when housemates announce suddenly that they’ll be leaving.  I don’t know how much footage gets recorded but every week gets edited down to approximately 30 minutes.

My favorite housemate would have to be Misaki.  She has a great smile.

On Netflix, there is this short “slice of life” TV series called Samurai Gourmet.  It’s a pretty short show (about 20 min per episode) about a retired Japanese salary man (re)discovering the pleasures of eating out at different restaurants.  The lead actor’s facial expression is clearly exaggerated when he eats at these different restaurants.  But this exaggeration helps drive the nostalgic experiences and memories about eating the food.  This adds to the “slice of life” feeling that drives show.

The interesting twist in this show is the appearance of 18th/19th century wandering samurai.  The samurai motif comes into play at critical junctures in each episode that ends up deflecting the “artificially built up tension” and have it resolved in a positive manner.  It’s interesting to note that I think Japan is the only place where where loud, rude, obnoxious guests would later apologize for their behavior to bring about a happy ending.

If you have Netflix, it’s worth maybe 2-3 hours of your time.  If anything, the food porn isn’t too bad.

Finished Bill Nye’s Save the World on Netflix.  The episodes about diet, space exploration, sex, vaccinations and designer babies were pretty fascinating.  As I watched these episodes, I come to a realization that what Bill Nye is doing isn’t trying to “save the world” but is trying to make us think about the episode’s theme from a variety of viewpoints.

In each episode, there’s discussion about the non-traditional (for lack of a better word) way of thinking about the topic or exploration as to why the theme is benefiting people.  He doesn’t try to force the audience to blindly accept the mainstream popular opinion but tries to get the audience think critically about each topic.  This approach is admirable.