Yeah, yeah. We’ve heard plenty about how Japanese TV is trash and yada yada yada, but what about shows that you like? There’s plenty of pretty good shows out there if you know where to look and record them for watching them later. It doesn’t really need to be good TV either, I’m just interested in hearing what TV shows you personally like.
TV can be terrible in any country, really. The US is dominated by reality tv. My own country is dominated by a mix between “variety shows”, telenovelas, and celebrity scoop programs. So yeah, how about we talk about stuff we like for a change?
In no particular order here are some of shows that I like:
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* Most of the programming on **Eテレ** – They just have a bunch of really great shows. From **でサインあ**, to **ねほりんぱほりん**, they just have a lot of cool tv shows catering to many different interests.
* **ドキュメント72ｈ**\- mini documentary series where they pick an interesting location and then interview the people there for 3 days. This one is one of my favorites.
* **相席食堂** – Yeah sure, it’s basically one of the many shows where they go to a location, then eat the food and whatever, but at least Daigo is actually funny very consistently and some of the guests are entertaining to watch.
* **戦国鍋** – It’s an older show, but it checks out. I always try to catch a rerun if I see it around.
* There’s other shows that I like, but I can’t recall them at the moment. I also some variety tv shows such as **水曜日のダウンタウン**, **マツコの知らない世界**, and that other one that they do sometimes where it’s a quiz show and the guys “disappear” after they get a bunch of wrong answers.
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You know that show where they do an improv comedy skit and humiliate anyone who cracks up?
It’s usually unwatchable, but just once I happened to tune in on what was apparently the last day for one of the regulars.
The skit had him in drag as the mama-san of a small snack bar and some of the other regulars coming in as customers, each of whom had written a confession of their love for her in a letter they would read as they sat down at the bar.
The letters weren’t the jokes the scenario called for. They were brutal, honest commemorations of the very personal friendships between each of those comedians and the one who was retiring from the show. They were real, but they were also funny as they were written by professional comedians.
It was hard to watch, but also riveting. I didn’t know if I should laugh or cry and neither apparently did they, as a little of both occurred on screen.
Documentaries, especially historical ones, on NHK are well done and interesting.
Same goes for historical fiction on NHK, with excellent production value. Some Taiga dramas are better than others, but they are usually entertaining, though they require quite some involvement to enjoy (50 episodes on average…).
Overall I mostly stick to NHK, at least I am not the product…
NHK produces a lot of interesting documentaries on… everything, really.
World Business Satellite on TV Tokyo is good stuff.
NHK Educational’s morning TV is preferable over other children’s material.
What’s that? Prepare the pitchforks and torches? Are you sure that’s needed?
speaking of matsuko, i enjoy her late night show, 月曜から夜ふかし. her and some ppl in the studio are on their webcams talking to people on the street during nightlife via a reporter. it’s usually interesting and doesn’t have talent or canned audience reactions.
It’s old and finished but I love watching the Edo drama series 暴れん坊将軍 where the shogun helps the Edo townsfolk from the bad guys. I caught it on asahiBS channel and got hooked.
I don’t have a TV anymore, but I would sometimes watch the show 日本人の3割しか知らない. It’s basically a poor man’s QI, but I learned some useful things from it. For example, I didn’t know you’re supposed to turn on the cold water if you’re pouring hot water down the sink, as most pipes are only heat resistant to 75 degrees.
Quite like chiko-chan (チコちゃんに𠮟られる I think), NHK Saturday mornings. Kind of pop science and fun facts but it’s easy watching, entertaining and good for learning Japanese as covers lots of different topics.
Otherwise 勇者ヨシヒコ on Netflix is random as but funny (if you have a weird sense of humour)
I like the comedic duo Sandwichman.
Or that show where they heckle foreigners at Narita airport called You (something something can’t remember the full name). Once in a while some major cringe occurs on that show.
I’m in my 50s and I love Shinapushu. I can’t even speak the language.
I watch a handful of programmes (can’t remember which ones are on which channels, though)-
– Itte Q
– Machi aruki
– Document 72
– Danshi Gohan
– Nehorin Pahorin
– Nodo Jiman
They’re all decent, in my opinion.
Most TV sucks, period. Doesn’t matter country or time period really because it’s meant to appeal to the lowest common denominator. That’s just how the medium is designed. People who specifically point out how shitty Japanese TV is, I assume, are comparing these mass appeal shows with Western shows they’re actually willing to watch. It doesn’t make sense to compare Breaking Bad with Miyane-ya like it doesn’t make sense to compare a Taiga to Jersey Shore.
It’s long since ended but Trivia no Izumi was great. They didn’t just find random bits of trivia, they sometimes acted it out, and also created new trivia which could be pretty interesting as well.
Alice in Borderland is really good. It was produced for Netflix by one of the Japanese media companies but I don’t know which one. Other than that, I mostly only watch BL.
I do wish that JP network TV could use its huge workforce to make some interesting fiction, but honestly for talk show stuff… people talk shit about the variety shows but every country has late night talk shows and (spoilers) they’re all snore fests.
I feel like the subgenre of “let’s at least learn some weird stuff/try some stuff” (Itte Q is the reference point) is fun.
I spent a couple weeks back in France watching a lot of daytime TV (and have watched a lot of TV in the US) and I think the biggest advantage is that channels abroad are not ashamed to just put 4 hours of the simpsons in a row. So much of the “new” throwaway content is soooo bad or just mind numbing.
But really I think many shows here are hit and miss, but a lot of them will have those good episodes that end up being very good mini-documentaries on somebodies life, and watching that I get why people watch. Just the information density can be _sooooo_ low sometimes.
みんなの手話
Just watch anime, none of this 3D nonsense
I dig the new ゲームゲノム show on NHK its fairly short but its interesting.
I like 仰天ニュース
香川照之の昆虫すごいZ! is always a blast whenever I catch it.
There was a show a few years ago about a taxi driver who could take people back in time. He charged a substantial-but-doable amount per minute, so people could attempt to go back and undo very recent mistakes. Twilight Zone-ish but not quite as cynical — it was a really great show.
Some comedy shows are alright – My fiancee and I watch イッテQ every now and again and it’s usually entertaining, but can be a bit hit and miss.
Every now and again there’s a decent drama, but honestly most of them aren’t much good. Better to stick with streaming BBC dramas.
Of course you can’t go too far wrong with a lot of the long-running anime either.
水曜日のダウンタウン (Wednesday Downtown), プレバト (Purebato), ガキの使い (Gaki No Tsukai) are some of my favorites. As you can tell I like Downtown lol
I seldom watch TV regardless if in Japan or elsewhere but there’s always something cool to watch, especially documentaries.
Huge fan of ジョブチューン likely a bit staged but quite enjoyable, especially the combini food wars.
I don’t watch much Japanese TV these days but I used to watch a fair bit of the comedy shows back in the day. 内村Produce was a great show, as was ぷっすま back in the day but 内P was cancelled and the quality of ぷっすま went down hill. After 小島よしお became popular, comedy as a whole in Japan went downhill. It’s fairly hard to even crack a smile watching M1 these days.
脱力タイムズ is amazing. It’s like one of the only shows that has sarcasm.