IN HARUKI MURAKAMI'S 1Q84, the protagonist, Aomame, a martial arts instructor, is forced to live in a safe house. Tama-ru, her bodyguard, suggests that she read Proust's In Search of Lost Time: "This would be a good opportunity to read the whole thing." "Have you read it?" Aomame asks. "No, I haven't been in jail, or had to hide out for a long time," Tamaru says. "Someone once said unless you have those kinds of opportunities, you can't read the whole of Proust." I would give similar advice to the prospective viewer of the Japanese reality television show Terrace House, which has been available to stream in the United States since 2015. The fourth season, "Tokyo 2019-2020," began recently and will run for the next year. If you're going to watch it, it helps to be marooned: It's not just that the seasons sprawl to as many as 49 episodes; it's also that the show, like great French literature, requires total immersion in order to appreciate its intricacies. I started watching the second season, "Aloha State," when I was incapacitated with the flu and alone in my apartment for five days straight. By the time I recovered, I had finished all 36 episodes and made headway on the first season, "Boys & Girls in the City."
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