Generally speaking, Netflix shows are garbage to talk about. Even if I like a show on Netflix, I don’t really have much to say about it outside of “it’s good.” Or (more realistically) “stick around until episode 7.” It’s a consequence at the confluence of Netflix’s all-at-once approach to dropping shows and its lax approach to plot and pacing—conversation often revolves around “spoilers” and holy-shit moments, disposable talking points that don’t actually mean anything once you get them out of your system. So I don’t really talk about Netflix shows. Except Terrace House: Opening New Doors. I can’t stop talking about Terrace House.

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This is a Japanese reality show that’s kind of like The Real World, wherein a group of young people all move into a house together and we watch what happens. The comparison stops there, though. Terrace House is largely unique in its style and approach, completely removed from anything you might be accustomed to from American reality TV. This makes it immediately stand out, sure, but it’s also structured in a way that makes it incredible television that you get really invested in right away.

The way it works is like this: Six people arrive in a house together and introduce themselves to each other. We see all of this. It’s awkward and spacey, and you start to wonder why people love the show, but then you keep watching. And then Terrace House starts to do things that you really don't see anywhere else, things that really get you hooked.

The first new thing Terrace House throws your way is the presenters. In addition to the cast of housemates, every season of Terrace House has a set of commentators that are watching the show along with you. They hang out in a studio and introduce every episode, and every now and then the show will cut back to them and they’ll talk about what we just saw the housemates do. This usually results in some savage burns about how bad one of the housemates is at cooking, or how well a date went. They'll bullshit and joke about the last ten minutes of footage in the same way you would if you were watching with friends at a party—which, consequently, makes the show even more fun to watch with real company, because it feels like you're all making bets in the most low-stakes sport imaginable,

That's another thing about Terrace House: None of the participants are explicitly performing for the camera. They signed up for the show and know all it entails and mention it to one another, but never to the audience. There are no talking heads, and while the production is almost certainly authored to an extent, the show works hard to establish a verité approach. Conversations are mellow, and even at their most confrontational no one really yells. Sometimes participants just sit in silence. Sexual tension is definitely a thing, but it's mild. You'll wait for several episodes before a pair even goes on the friendliest of dates. And while they're all on a show together, they continue to lead relatively normal lives. They go to work and school, study and meet with friends, practice with their hockey teams or bands—some of this you get to see, some of it you don't.

The result of all this is you becoming heavily invested in the most minute happenings imaginable. You'll lose your mind when one participant just smiles at another. You'll feel extremely upset when one of the residents is rude to someone else. And you'll start rooting for all sorts of stuff you didn't think you'd root for: for one person to win their hockey game, for two people to finally date, or for someone to very politely tell another housemate that they, frankly, suck (who can relate?). Terrace House's greatest trick is in constructing a reality where you judge people and situations on television in a way not that far removed from how you do it in real life.

And the best part of it all is this: The show is still actively going on. The current series, Opening New Doors, is being released on Netflix in four eight-episode parts, the second of which was just released last month, and the third likely to come at summer's end. Even if you take your time, that's only 16 episodes of television—the good news is that there are two previous Terrace House series on Netflix, subtitled Boys and Girls in the City and Aloha State. Watch them while you wait for more Opening New Doors and tell all your friends to watch it too, because Tsubasa Sato is the best character on television and I really want to talk about it.