On this week’s episode of I’m Obsessed With This, host Bobby Finger welcomes Tobin Low (@tobinlow), co-host and co-managing editor of Nancy, a podcast from WNYC Studios. Tobin spends the bulk of their chat trying to convince Bobby to watch his (and potentially your) Netflix obsession: the Japanese reality show Terrace House. He explains what it is about the show so special in the crowded field of reality television, and why exactly it makes viewers fell all of the best possible feelings. Find out if it worked, and we’ll see you next week with another episode!
On this week’s episode of I’m Obsessed With This, host Bobby Finger welcomes Tobin Low (@tobinlow), co-host and co-managing editor of Nancy, a podcast from WNYC Studios. Tobin spends the bulk of their chat trying to convince Bobby to watch his (and potentially your) Netflix obsession: the Japanese reality show Terrace House. He explains what it is about the show so special in the crowded field of reality television, and why exactly it makes viewers fell all of the best possible feelings.
Find out if it worked, and we’ll see you next week with another episode!
[Music]
Bobby: Welcome to I'm Obsessed With This, the Netflix podcast about the shows and films the viewers cannot get enough of. Sort of like how Terrace House cast members cannot get enough uncomfortably curt introductions with each other. That's my fundamental knowledge of the show. I'm your host, Bobby Finger, and today I'm joined by Tobin Lowe, co-host and co-managing editor of Nancy, a WNYC studio's podcast. Tobin, hello, how are you?
[Music]
Tobin: Hello. I am great. When you contacted me to ask if there was a show I wanted to talk about, I literally screamed and was like, Terrace House. Terrace House.
Bobby: I mean, you use exclamation marks on the thing—I'm going to reveal what you said. We e-mailed you and you said, the first thing that comes to mind honestly is Terrace House—I could talk about Terrace House for days. I recommend it to literally everyone. Please tell me this hasn't already been taken? You lucked out. It hadn't been taken.
Tobin: Wonderful.
Bobby: So, we are in different time zones right now. It's morning for you. It's afternoon for me. I guess it's after—just barely afternoon for you.
Tobin: Just barely, yes, yes.
Bobby: Are you enjoying a beverage right now? Any coffee, tea, water, anything? Or nothing?
Tobin: I'm enjoyed a glass of filtered water because I love you L.A. but your tap water is trash, and, so, yeah, it's a Brita filtered glass of water.
Bobby: Oh, that's nice. How often do you change your Brita filters? Do you the whole—do you do it when it says? Or do you think you forget?
Tobin: I am far too—I care far too much about doing a good job and so when the light turns red, I'm like, change the filter.
Bobby: Mine doesn't have the light. I got the lower tier one. It just has the little sticky thing.
Tobin: Listen, you got to upgrade.
Bobby: It's trusting me and it really shouldn't be trusting me for any of this.
Tobin: Oh, no. If I didn't have the light, I would—it would be like my bedsheets—it would just, like, hang out uncleaned for months.
Bobby: Yeah, like Erin Brockovich would come and test my water and be like, we've got a problem here. We really—you've got a problem, Bobby. So, before we get into talking about Terrace House—which Tobin said he could talk about for days—I just want to ask you what else you've been watching Netflix. Anything fun? Anything not fun? What have you been watching?
Tobin: I—this is maybe the basic answer, but I am deep into the new season of Bake Off—The Great British baking show.
Bobby: Oh, yeah Hm-hmm. [affirmative]
Tobin: Super enjoying that. I like that it, seemingly at least, they've gone against type and cast at least two gays you can root for. Usually they go with one.
Bobby: Just one—there's more than one gay.
Tobin: Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, I'm really looking forward to when it gets winnowed down and we have to choose allegiances.
Bobby: I love that it's weekly. There are fewer spoilers.
Tobin: I do, too. I was a little mad when it first came back but now I'm into it. I like that every Friday it's a nice surprise—which is funny to say because it's basically saying, that's how television works. I love how television works.
Bobby: Isn't it interesting whenever shows are released weekly, who knew?
Tobin: What? What? It's like when Amazon opened physical book stores and everyone was, like—
Bobby: Oh, I saw one for the first time in person recently. It still blew my mind. And it was on a street where there was another book store a block away.
Tobin: Hm-hmm. [affirmative] When is Netflix going to open places where you can rent DVDs?
Bobby: They're just going to buy all the Red Boxes. They're just going to slap a new look—it's already red. They'll be fine.
Tobin: Yeah—lightly branding.
Bobby: I still do the DVD—
Tobin: Do you really?
Bobby: Yeah.
Tobin: Wait, wait.
Bobby: Yeah, it's wild. I still do it. Because there's more on there, Tobin. They've got everything. They've got all the movies.
Tobin: I didn't even know you could do that anymore.
Bobby: You can still do it. The times they are a 'changin—but DVD.Netflix.com will never die.
Tobin: I learned something today. That is wild—
Bobby: It's the cheapest way to rent, like blue rays and stuff and a lot of stuff that you could, you know, spend—now it sounds like I'm—I mean, technically this is a branded podcast, but I feel like I'm going hard that this is not a genuine feeling? It really is—it's a cheap way to rent movies if you rent at least like two a month, then it's worth it.
Bobby: Wow. You're blowing my mind right now.
Tobin: Yeah, yeah.
Bobby: Okay. I'll look into it. And they just come in the mail.
Tobin: I wouldn't even know how to play a DVD anymore, but I'm going to look into it.
Bobby: It's tough. Everything is very tough. It exists. I can't say that it's for everyone, but it exists.
Tobin: Okay, okay.
Bobby: And, I think with that, we can get into Terrace House. This is a unique episode because this is the first time I've had a guest on to talk about a show that I have not watched every episode of. Or a title that I've watched. In fact, I've only seen one and it was in preparation of this because, Tobin, can you guess how many episodes of Terrace House there are?
Tobin: How many there are total of—
Bobby: Total—of all of the—
Tobin: . . . those seasons run so long—
Bobby: Total. Of all of the franchise. All the franchises, all the things. Do you know how many there are?
Tobin: I'm going to guess—is it in the 70 – 80 ball park?
Bobby: Oh, you wish—or I wish—245. By my count, there are 245—maybe they're not all available on Netflix, but if you go to the Terrace House Wikipedia and you start looking at all the franchises and you count each one of them—
Tobin: Okay, that—
Bobby: Two hundred forty-five. There's Boys x Girls; Boys x Girls in the City; Aloha State; Opening New Doors, and Tokyo 2019 to 2020.
Tobin: Yes, yes.
Bobby: Which is the one I watched—I watched the first episode of that—
Tobin: Right.
Bobby: . . . to sort of get the feel of what the show is like because I've been told by so many people what it's like, but I had to experience it for myself. Why don't you tell us, what is Terrace House?
Tobin: Okay, so the short version of saying what it is, it's kind of like the Real World of Japan, but that would be sort of underselling it because it's not overtly dramatic or sort of doesn't have the histrionics of your typical season of the Real World. It's a much slower burn, so if you like sort of, like, "sense and sensibility" level drama of, like, will they/won't they—
Bobby: And, like, manners.
Tobin: . . . like a chaste kiss here and there, like Terrace House is the king of that sort of slow build of drama. So, I would say you—having only seen one episode, this is always the wild way of having to recommend Terrace House, you have to give it at least 10 episodes before you know if it's for you or not.
Bobby: Ten. Okay.
Tobin: Because it's a slow burn, it is. Admittedly it's a slow burn. But—sorry, oh and to go back to explaining it—basically it's a show where there's this—they rent a fancy house for three guys and three girls to live in. And they start as a cast together and then as the show goes along for various reasons choose to leave and then they bring in new people which is always exciting because the underlying goal of the show is to meet somebody and couple up. Not everyone comes in overtly saying they want that, but it's kind of like, you go on Terrace House to meet somebody and possibly have a romance.
Bobby: Okay. How often does that—does that happen a lot? Or is it sort of, like, a Bachelor thing where that's, you know, the idea behind the show but love rarely—or true love—rarely happens?
Tobin: The ratio of relationships is pretty high. I think because everyone goes in—well, so, for example, on a Bachelor, on a Real World—yes, people may say they're going in looking for a relationship, but some people are just looking to hook up, or some people are just looking to have fun, you know, and, so—
Bobby: Okay.
Tobin: . . . there's like varying degrees of goals. On Terrace House, you are there for a relationship.
Bobby: Okay. Nothing is casual on Terrace House.
Tobin: Exactly. So, everyone who's there to meet somebody is there to get a partner.
Bobby: The excitement factor may be lower, but the stakes are higher?
Tobin: Yes, I think that's a good way of saying it, yes.
Bobby: Okay. Okay. So that's a pretty huge difference from the other ones. Because—and especially the Bachelor which has morphed into a show where people prefer the more shameless hookup-y version anyway—Bachelor in Paradise—like, no one really expects actual romance or lengthy long-term relationships to be the end result of Bachelor shows—or really Love Island—so this does stand alone, I guess, because these people are serious about love.
Tobin: Yeah, right.
Bobby: Are they always straight?
Tobin: So last season—
Bobby: Does it get gay?
Tobin: . . . last season they had a—one of the guys that came in sort of mid-season—he was bisexual and he came on the show to sort of—they do this funny thing where, when they get onto the show, the rest of the cast will tend to ask them, what are you here for? What do you want to accomplish? And usually, it's I am here because I've been single for a while, I want to meet somebody. The bisexual guy who came in last season, he was sort of, like, I believe that I'm bisexual but I am not sure so I'm sort of here to figure that out, which was an interesting game changer. And the way the show had him play it out was bonkers and I won't spoil that for you, but, it was—let's say it was a wasted opportunity.
Bobby: Oh, no. Okay. But for the most part these people are straight?
Tobin: Yes, for the most part they're straight and I think one of the things is the show is kind of an interesting window into what I am assuming is sort of a very traditional way of courtship—which is this long game of they will express interest in somebody and they'll hang out for quite a while before somebody finally says, I am interested in you. Or, I like you. And then—
Bobby: Hence, you saying I need to watch 10 episodes before I get to heaven.
Tobin: Exactly. And then it will be another couple episodes before they go on a date and then it will be another couple episodes before they kiss. But the result is, it's built up in this way of your—when they finally do—when a couple gets together on Terrace House, it's, like, I fell in love. It's, like, I am the happiest person in the world when a couple finally makes it work, on Terrace House.
Bobby: What does "making it work" look like? Because when you make it work, do they just leave the show? Or do they stay on? And just flaunt their love in front of everyone.
Tobin: Generally speaking, once a couple is official—they're boyfriend/girlfriend—they will stick around for probably another episode or so, but usually if they have made it official, they decide to leave to figure out their relationship in the real world.
Bobby: And then they're like "bye-bye" and then their space gets filled, typically?
Tobin: Yes, and then new singles come in and it's thrilling.
Bobby: Because, by this point, dynamics are already established, I would assume, and then the new people are sort of, like, they are these outsiders who throw everyone for a loop. Is that part of the drama?
Tobin: Yes, and I would say, I think the casting directors, or whoever casts Terrace House, should win some kind of award—I don't know, like, whatever the Japanese equivalent of the Emmy's are—because they are masterminds at snowballing the season. So, it tends to be that the first six people they throw in—in the last couple seasons the first six people they throw in have been the slowest acting so you really get to know them, you really get to know their dynamics. It takes a while for it to get going and then as people leave, they introduce more and more folks who seem to be bolder and a little more dramatic and so the way a season builds and crescendos is like candy. It's so good. They just are masters of introducing somebody who will be trouble for the rest of the cast.
Bobby: How are you trouble in that house?
Tobin: So because everything is sort of a slow, you know, like the courtships are long—when a new person comes in, they can really disrupt a thing that has been building for a long time.
Bobby: Okay.
Tobin: And, so, you as a viewer are like, oh no, oh no, these two people, they've been trying to get it together for, like, five episodes. You, new girl, can't come in and fuck this up for them—please don't, please don't, please don't. But then it's really—I mean it's interesting. And also, because it takes so long for them to get together, there's a lot of time for couplings to shift because nobody is in all the way with anyone else for a while, so . . .
Bobby: Okay.
Tobin: They've had situations where a new guy comes in and he asks all three of the girls out on dates. And he—
Bobby: Just all at once?
Tobin: All at once. Also, there's this bizarre thing where they'll ask each other out, like in groupings, so—
Bobby: To make it a little more casual seeming? Or—
Tobin: It ends up coming off more dramatic. It ends up coming off like, if we were in a casual hang on the show, and we were having a completely banal conversation, and then out of nowhere—in front of everyone—I was like, oh, Bobby, would you—let's get food sometime.
Bobby: Okay.
Tobin: And you would be like, yes, let's do that. And then I would leave the room and then everyone else was like, I think he just asked you out.
Bobby: Oh my God—and then that becomes drama?
Tobin: Yeah, and that becomes drama.
Bobby: Oh my God. What's the most dramatic thing that's ever happened on Terrace House? Have you watched everything? Have you watched everything that's available on Netflix?
Tobin: Yes.
Bobby: Like Real World drama is typically—it's incredibly kinetic, right? Like, things are being thrown and smashed and beaten up—how does tension manifest on Terrace House?
Tobin: Okay. There are sort of two tiers of drama that I love on Terrace House.
Bobby: Okay, lay them on me.
Tobin: The first tier is, like, basically Terrace House can make a meal out of anything—
and because not much is happening all the time—so, if you watched Boys and Girls in the City, which was the first season available on Netflix, there was a multi-episode arc around the fact that a girl had cooked and eaten a very fancy steak that one of the guys had been saving.
Bobby: Like, there just was a raw steak in the frig?
Tobin: Exactly.
Bobby: Okay.
Tobin: He had been given it as a gift by a client and she went ahead and cooked that and they were sort of together at that point so it was like a spiteful thing. And they talked about that steak for probably two episodes—it was a thing. And, so—
Bobby: It was like fancy beef?
Tobin: . . . for people watching—yes, it was very fancy beef.
Bobby: Okay. Oooof . . . don't mess with someone's fancy beef.
Tobin: It was—yeah, and there's multiple examples of something seemingly so meaningless becoming an entire story line on Terrace House. And, honestly, you really end up caring. I was like, I was in it and I was like, I can't believe she cooked his steak. I can't believe she did that. That was so shitty.
Bobby: When a season ends—because I know they have—each franchise has its own cast and, like you said, the cast changes in and out—but do you get this sense of closure at the end of every season? How does it come to an end? Does everyone get a story line resolved even if that story line isn't necessarily romance?
Tobin: It depends on the season. Generally speaking—again, whoever runs the show, give them all the awards, because they—
Bobby: Just everything.
Tobin: Yeah, everything. Somehow they always orchestrate it so that, towards the end of the season, when they're about to close up the house, there's at least one major relationship you're following that will find its conclusion by the last episode. And sometimes it's that two people—one person is into the other and it's a long courtship and then the other person says no—or, sometimes its, they do get together and that's the celebratory ending of the show.
Bobby: Hmmmm. Okay.
Tobin: So, that's—I guess that's another tier of drama is just will they/won't they? Somehow a rejection on Terrace House hurts more than anything I've ever experienced in my own life.
Bobby: Something that I hear from everyone who watches Terrace House is that everyone is fairly polite and that's sort of how it's differentiated from reality shows, I think, we're more used to—specifically American reality shows or British—like super trashy British reality shows—but there always seems to be a kind of nastiness in that politeness, too. Like, somehow the quieter—it's like when someone says, I'm disappointed in you, you know?
Tobin: Yes, yes.
Bobby: I feel like that's the tone that Terrace House is bringing to drama.
Tobin: There's a quieter devastation to all of their interactions and then I would also say because they operate on that plane—most of the time—when you do get a scene where somebody sits down with somebody else and says, I have this problem with you, and they address it really directly, it feels like, oh shit. What—this is bonkers—what is happening—like, it just reads so much higher because it's not what they're doing, like, 99 percent of the time.
Bobby: Right.
Tobin: And it's so good. And, then, I just want to make sure I fit this in: like, the other tier of drama that is fascinating about Terrace House, is that they—it's a very manicured show and so the times that they pull back the curtain and sort of reveal that it is a reality show, are fascinating. So, on more than one occasion, they've had a story line where you're following all six of them; they're doing the super chaste dating thing; they're just hanging out; nobody's kissing; nobody's whatever—and then the housemates will force one of the couples to sit down and be, like, we know you're making out off camera and you're just pretending for the cameras to be good boys and girls. We know—
Bobby: Oh, they recognize that?
Tobin: . . . like, you guys are hooking up. What's that?
Bobby: They recognize—they'll make that recognition, then? In front of each other? That's wild.
Tobin: Yeah, they'll call it out to be like, you are doing one persona for the show and the cameras and then we know you guys are, like, sleeping with each other at night.
Bobby: Oh my God.
Tobin: And that feels like—like, again, because they're not operating on that field 90 percent of the time—when it does happen, I lose my damn mind.
Bobby: When you watch Terrace House, do you watch it alone? Do you watch it with people because, is this a show that's more fun individually? Because it is—there are captions, it is a show that you probably have to pay more attention to.
Tobin: Right.
Bobby: So, are you doing this alone or is this—I know people who get together and they watch Terrace House when new episodes are dropped. Or do you prefer to do it in your Terrace House club?
Tobin: I watch alone because I tried to get my partner to watch it with me once and he was out after one episode.
Bobby: Did you say, no, you need to watch 10.
Tobin: Yeah, exactly.
Bobby: The rule is 10.
Tobin: Watch 10. I tend to watch it by myself. I think it feels like an okay show to watch by yourself because—well, you must be familiar with the panel of watchers?
Bobby: Hm-hmm. [affirmative] That's where I was going next. What's up with those people? Why are they there? Because I watched one episode and it was like, okay, and then here are these people—because I'm trying to—there's this huge learning curve where okay, they're shoving these people into this house and everyone's being polite, but they're also asking, like, what do you hope to get out of being on Terrace House? And then they're like, well, I'd like to find love . . . and then there was this one guy who was, like, oh, like, I'm shy—I need to learn how to talk to girls—I'm on that season.
Tobin: Hm-hmm. [affirmative] Hm-hmm. [affirmative]
Bobby: And he's always blushing. And then it cuts to these strangers in a room, sipping water and making fun of everyone. And I was like, no one told me about this. This adds a whole new level of enjoyment to this show. Who are they?
Tobin: It really does.
Bobby: Are they always the same?
Tobin: Yes. Well, so, it's always the same except they changed this—it used to be that the young boy who's with them, who's like a teenager—they used to switch him out every couple episodes, weirdly, so it would be a different teenage boy.
Bobby: What?
Tobin: And I don't know why. They never add anything. They never say anything.
Bobby: Because the adults—the older people—are, like, very domineering.
Tobin: Yes, yeah. They're the ones you're in it for. They're the ones who are adding all of the commentary.
Bobby: Okay.
Tobin: When I first started watching the show, I had a similar reaction where I was like, what are they doing here? Why do I need these people to tell me what I just watched? And then, I think the more you watch it, the more at least I really appreciate cutting to them so that they can interpret what just happened and the dynamics because you can get very lost in the—if you're watching it from an American's perspective, you're like, nothing just happened. They're not saying anything. This is very boring. And then you cut to the panel and they're like, oh my God, I can't believe he just said that thing to her.
Bobby: Okay.
Tobin: That was nuts. And then you're like, oh I see, okay. They are—
Bobby: They're highlighting the things that—
Tobin: Exactly. They're doing some cultural translating of what they're focusing on; what's the drama; what's the "T." And its very helpful, I think, the more you watch the show.
Bobby: Is it ever explained why them or are they just random viewers? Are they comedians that are famous in Japan? Do they have some sort of other cultural context—
Tobin: Yes.
Bobby: . . . or are they just people?
Tobin: I think they're a mix of hosts, comedians, entertainers . . .
Bobby: Okay.
Tobin: Oddly enough, the woman who they often refer to as sort of the cute hostess—she's the most, like, pure and adorable of them—
Bobby: Okay.
Tobin: She starred in a very graphic Japanese horror film and that's, I think, her big claim to fame.
Bobby: It says, I'm on—I found Reddit—Tori Chan, starring in an extremely horror movie called Tag available on Netflix.
Tobin: I'm pretty sure that's it. That must be it.
Bobby: And it's—the sole survivor of a freak school bus accident, a shy Japanese high schooler, finds herself in a surreal and very violent alternate universe and the key art is just girls running around in terror while there's flames erupting all around them.
Tobin: Yep.
Bobby: Okay, that's her.
Tobin: That is her.
Bobby: Cool. It's sort of like Talking Heads on a VH-1 show, to give an American parallel, basically—like, B, C list names—
Tobin: Yes.
Bobby: . . . personalities.
Tobin: Yes.
Bobby: I love—that's such a great category of celebrity.
Tobin: It's what I aspire to, really.
Bobby: My co-worker, Christine, who works on this podcast as well, she's a big Terrace House watcher. Loves it. Has seen every episode. Watches it immediately. She's among the people who have said, Bobby, you would love this. Watch it. And I'm like, in time, in time, in time and then I never do. She said the current season is in Tokyo—which is the episodes that I watched—and she said the season immediately prior to this one was set in the countryside, a sleepy little mountain town, and she was like, I want to know what you think about how the vibe has majorly shifted between these two seasons. And, like, season-to-season she says the vibe shifts based on the setting?
Tobin: I have noticed that, since they moved it back to Tokyo, this starting cast of six came to play. They immediately started—they were much more active from the beginning which is to say that one person got asked out on a date in the first episode. But usually—for example, the season she's referencing that happened before this, where they were more in the countryside, I think it attracted a different kind of cast member. It was a little slower. It took longer for them to find the couplings and for things to build and it was a different vibe. This cast I'm liking because they are a little more on it, things are happening. We're only a couple episodes in and I'm hooked on who's going to date whom? And then in terms of like how the different seasons have vibes—I think if you wanted to, you could skip Aloha State—they did a season—
Bobby: Okay.
Tobin: . . . in Hawaii and I think it's generally agreed it was not as good.
Bobby: What was different about it?
Tobin: I think what was different is that they got some folks on it who were Japanese born but maybe raised in America or Japanese born and had spent some time in Hawaii. And, so, there was a little bit of the American sensibility bleeding in in terms of how these people operated on a reality T.V. show.
Bobby: Okay.
Tobin: And it was very slight but it was enough to feel like it wasn't exactly Terrace House. There was one cast member who joined who bordered on saying, I didn't come here to make friends, you know what I mean? Like, there was a little bit of that energy came in and it was sort of a bummer because I don't think that's what Terrace House is about or what its strength is as a reality T.V. show.
Bobby: Okay.
Tobin: So, Hawaii is not as good—the Aloha State season is not as good.
Bobby: Okay, so I can skip, you know, 20 episodes and that will just leave me 215 or whatever.
Tobin: Exactly.
Bobby: Great. Amazing. That's actually helpful. And Christine also says she wants to hear you talk about their fashion. Is fashion a major element on this show?
Tobin: [Gasps] I mean, yes, in the sense that they all—
Bobby: They all seem very stylish—the people I saw. I was, like—
Tobin: Effortlessly slouchy.
Bobby: . . . oh, they're cool.
Tobin: A lot of them are giving you like Muji meets Eileen Fisher moment. I feel like there's a lot of flowy linens happening. What else is happening? I mean, like—
Bobby: Seen some Supreme stickers.
Tobin: Yes, yes, yes, yes. There's also a lot of good, casual athletic wear is happening. Sort of aspirational hoody and, like, slouchy jeans, sort of going on.
Bobby: Muji meets Eileen Fisher just sounds like what I'm aspiring to.
Tobin: Hard same.
Bobby: The other question that Christine had was, ask Tobin to talk about the fact that everyone is an aspiring model now.
Tobin: Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God, oh my God. I just tweeted about this the other day because, unless there's some—and please, feel free to correct me if I'm wrong, whoever listens to this, or . . . like, whoever knows if this is true. Maybe the Japanese economy is just different but everyone on this show walks in and is like, well, what do you do for work? And they're like, I'm a part-time model one day a week. It's like, how are you surviving? It's like, unbelievable. Or they work at a skate shop for two hours every five days.
Bobby: One of the guys was like, I'm part-time retail. And, it's like, but what about the other part?
Tobin: Yes, exactly.
Bobby: Is there another part?
Tobin: It's really remarkable, but, yeah, everyone comes in—or a lot of them come in and they are part-time models, part-time actors—that seems to be very popular. I mean, I think the thing that's true about this show is a lot of them do come on to raise their profile. They will walk away probably with tens of thousands of Instagram followers from this show.
Bobby: The ultimate goal of every reality show contestant, regardless of location, right?
Tobin: Right.
Bobby: Up your Instagram followers so that you can start to expand.
Tobin: Right, right.
Bobby: Do you follow them on Instagram? Are they fun to follow or are they kind of boring? Because I feel like a lot of reality show stars, when you follow them on Instagram, you're like, wait, why did I do this?
Tobin: So, this is a pro-tip: wait until the very end of a season to follow them on Instagram because they are out there living their lives way in advance of the show. The show is generally paced about, I would say, five or six months behind real time and then they release them in batches. So, the show will still be filming while you're finishing batch number one and there will be a cliffhanger where you're waiting for batch number two to come out. But, in the meantime, they've continued to film and live their lives on Instagram. So, if you follow them on Instagram, you're going to spoil the whole thing for yourself.
Bobby: Does viewer response inform their decisions and behavior in the second batch? Do you know what I'm saying?
Tobin: You can't see, but I'm raising my hands right now because I'm so glad you brought this up.
Bobby: That seems sort of weird but also really interesting—that you release it in a batch, then you—people can start commenting. Then they can adjust their behavior or comment on what people are saying about their first batch. Does that happen?
Tobin: A hundred—okay, so this actually just happened last season and it was fascinating because, yes. So, the people in the house can watch themselves on the show. They can watch the previous batch of episodes—
Bobby: Oh my God.
Tobin: . . . and also sort of be privy to Internet response. So, they genuinely had a cast member who was getting torn apart by the panel and the viewers for her actions and her storyline did become, like, I didn't know that I appeared this way to other people. I'm going to try to be different because I just didn't know which was really interesting to watch play out and especially in a way that only reality T.V. could kind of play it out. And it ended up being just really good television. And, of course, she was still a villain at the end of day, but . . . that moment of realization was really good. It was really good T.V.
Bobby: Wow, okay. You're doing a really good job—so, the point of this episode is to convince me that I should become obsessed with this show and you're like, you're taking me there. I'm 90, 95 percent certain I'm going to really go hard on this show.
Tobin: I was going to say before when you were like, oh my God, there's only four seasons but there's so many episodes—that's kind of like a misdirect on their part for saying it's four seasons because by the time you get to the third batch of a "season," it's like a completely new cast.
Bobby: Right, okay, I see.
Tobin: So, the show will have completely changed tone and dynamics and everything.
Bobby: One of the seasons that I'm looking at it says there are 36 episodes but there's also four batches.
Tobin: Right, right and, so, in those four batches you probably have three or four—probably more like three—completely new casts, like, where everyone has switched out. I guess what I'll say is, I am thrilled they're going to do a lot of them. I will watch this show for as long as they're willing to make it and I don't worry about the fact that it's going to be so long because the turnover rate will make it essentially a new show by the third mini-season of this season, so, I'm in.
Bobby: And, these people work, right? Like, it's not like this is—they do their other day jobs, whatever those might be, while they are filming this show?
Tobin: Yeah, so, for a lot of them it makes sense to live in the house because they're job either can move near there or they can continue training for whatever it is they're training for. They continue their work.
Bobby: That's sort of like how the Real World used to be in its early seasons. These people like the Real World Boston or the Real World New York or Miami—whatever it was, not Miami, that was too late—but it was like, they got people who lived in New York. They got people who lived in Boston. Those people kept going to their jobs while they lived in this house and it truly was more about, like, the social dynamics between people who were a little different, and who just had to be roommates. And then it turned into this, like, all about the drama and, you know, it devolved from there. But this sort of has early Real World vibes, but they maintained it.
Tobin: It does. It does, and I hope that Terrace House never hits its New Orleans season because I feel like New Orleans was the turning point for Real World.
Bobby: I absolutely agree and it's also my favorite season.
Tobin: It is the best season.
Bobby: Because they still had a job. I think it was the last season where they had a job or the last season where their job sort of mattered, you know?
Tobin: Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Bobby: They worked at the cable access channel.
Tobin: Right, right.
Bobby: And they had to do work. They had to each direct an episode, blah, blah, blah. If this has any similarities to Real World New Orleans, I'm in. I'm absolutely—
Tobin: I'm not joking—once every, let's say six months—out of nowhere I will get stuck in my head that fucking song that guy wrote—
Bobby: David?
Tobin: . . . where it's like—
Bobby: Come on be my baby tonight?
Tobin: Yes. Come-on-be-my-baby-tonight . . .
Bobby: Where he literally, like, "scats" and they're all like, David, please stop.
Tobin: Yeah, yep, yep, yep. It was a great cast. It was a really good cast.
Bobby: Would you ever be a contestant on like a—on a specifically Terrace House type show? Like a fly on the wall, you know, reality show of manners-thing. Or would you be willing to put yourself out there like that?
Tobin: I am going to say no because I'm afraid I would ruin it because—the thing that I think makes a good Terrace House cast member is patience of just, like, just doing enough to move the needle a little bit on the drama, but also being able to wait it out and really sink into the will they/won't they sort of energy. And if I went on the show, I think I would just look at everyone and be, like, why the hell are you not just talking about this thing? Like, you like him; he likes you—just effing talk about it.
Bobby: Let's stop dancing around this.
Tobin: Yeah, which ironically I will say, my favorite cast member of all time from last season, her name is Sayna—for folks who watch the show, she's, like, a queen. She did do that. She came into the show and just stirred ship up because she was like, you two like each other. Why are you not talking about it? It was great.
Bobby: And I guess everyone—every season needs someone like that or would/could be helped by having someone like that who cuts through all the bullshit, I guess
Tobin: Yes.
Bobby: But I guess not cutting through the bullshit is what makes the show fun to begin with. Because you're like, when are you going to cut through the bullshit?
Tobin: Well, and can I add one caveat to speaking of cutting through the bullshit? You should be prepared when you watch the show that there are some very old school, patriarchal, misogynistic tones to it.
Bobby: I saw a little bit of that on the episode that I watched, where this guy was like, I really just want—what did he say? I want a girl who will be with me when I get home and not call me when I'm out drinking with my boys.
Tobin: Right.
Bobby: And they were like, cool, cool, cool, cool, cool, cool.
Tobin: Right, and then you cut to the panel and the panel's like, oh that's so romantic. She would probably be a good match for him. There's that energy, certainly, and any person should be aware of that when they go into this show.
Bobby: Before we end this, sell our listeners, why will you be obsessed with Terrace House if you watch it?
Tobin: It somehow manages to capture the highest highs and the lowest lows of romance without being cruel. So, if you want to feel all of the feelings of your favorite romcoms, romance novels, sort of like Elizabethan dramas, Terrace House is the show for you.
Bobby: That is the best pitch for Terrace House I have ever been given and, let me tell you, I've gotten dozens of them. You have convinced me and I really appreciate you talking to me about Terrace House. Is there a terrace? What's the terrace?
Tobin: You know, good question, I don't know. I think we'll find out when you have me on for six more episodes where I continue to talk about Terrace House.
Bobby: Yeah, the next six episodes will just be Tobin on more Terrace House. It's very obvious that you could—you were not lying with that e-mail at all, by any means.
Tobin: Yeah. I've thought about this show. I've talked about this show. It's a real problem.
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Bobby: Terrace House—all 8,000 episodes of Terrace House—are streaming now on Netflix. Thank you for coming to talk to me about this, Tobin. I really appreciate it. You've sold me.
Tobin: Great.
Bobby: So many people have tried.
Tobin: My dream has come true.
Bobby: And you actually succeeded. I will e-mail you about this in no time, I'm sure, when I've downed a few more episodes.
Tobin: Yeah, I will literally answer a text at five in the morning if it's about Terrace House.
Bobby: I feel like most Terrace House viewers are eager to talk about Terrace House whenever and wherever they possibly can.
Tobin: One hundred percent.
Bobby: That's great. Well, have a great one. Thanks for coming on.
Tobin: Thank you.
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