Most of the time we watch “content” because everyone is watching. From fear of FOMO, to understand people’s clever tweets and compete with our own. Consumption is the bonding on offer, so we become bonded consumer-labour, shoveling bite upon tasteless bite, stuffing our souls with heavily marketed, lovelessly produced stuff at 1.5x. 

Then sometimes we stumble upon something that connects us to our deepest yearnings. So it was that I stumbled upon the Japanese show La Grande Maison Tokyo (LGMT) on Netflix. LGMT is that elusive thing: a mainstream show not excusing lazy choices with “commercial” wala excuses. It embraces the satisfying conventions of a story about underdogs with powerful opponents, is full of characters with quirks, gruff love, metaphors for life and moments where you choke up. It is also delicate, novelistic, complex and insightful.