Now that I'm several episodes into The Hot Spot 2025 (Hotto Supotto) from Japan on Netflix, I'm even more fascinated by it.
I'd love to know how it's been received in Japan, if anyone has read Japanese reviews.
If you check it out, take time to sit with it until the full weirdness manifests. It's so much more than it seems at the start.
And if you love Roy Andersson's films, The Hot Spot is really worth checking out. 2/n
I am watching The Hot Spot 2025 (Hotto Supotto) from Japan on Netflix and the series is like a cross between David Lynch and Roy Andersson, while being extremely Japanese.
Much like watching A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence (En duva satt på en gren och funderade på tillvaron), you need to embrace this on its own terms and suspend your expectations until you sink into its rhythms. 1/n
It's hard to say no to a wholesome show that's about a 54 year old normal single childless man enjoying his life. I don't think I can think of another off top of my head, but here we go. There are no toxic positivity, nor condenscension. Just, wholesome.
I have completed The Hot Spot. When I say that I don't usually like slice of life, I think what it really is it's that most slice of life completely miss the spot for me. Partly because we are mostly saturated with American shows and America is the ultimate Uncanny Valley for me, where we speak 90% the same language but the general daily lives are just off enough that we can never really get on the same wavelength. Partly because I feel that most of the time it's easier to be overdramatic in a typical soap-like fashion where the shows can be so unintentionally over-the-top that it felt like missed satire.
Azumanga Daioh is one of my I Get It slice of life. So is Australian Utopia, that is just slightly too real at its comical cynicism that if I watched it on a bad day it kinda ruins my day.
Bakarhythm excelled at the other kind. Sure, there's an alien who has special powers, but it's anything but a superheroes show. It's a little town filled with people who just wanted to get on with their lives, and the way they interact with each other is exactly what pleasant daily interaction with coworkers and friends feels like. While Bakarhythm's previous Brushed Up Life is more dramatic, The Hot Spot is just, wholesome slice of life until the last episode, and even then the drama is almost an afterthought to the banter of a group of friends.
I think, the fact that I intuitively know what it feels like watching it, speaks volumes on how lucky I am to be surrounded by the kind of peole that I do.
Based on the audience commentary, the other vibe I'm getting is even the allos are sick of forced romance being shoved into everything. A particular selling point by allos to each other is there are no romance in this entire ten episodes, so.
I can't wait til next Bakarhythm's work.
#TheHotSpot #JDrama #TV Show
Oh mann, #TheHotSpot ist so eine faszinierende Netflix-Serie.
Spannende Prämisse (Co-Worker der Protagonistin ist ein Alien) und dann passiert... nix. Nie :D Manchmal wird was angedeutet, dann könnte es schon fast spannend werden... und dann passiert wieder nix.
Aber das alles vor wunderschöner Kulisse (verschlafene, angestaubte Stadt mit Blick auf den Fuji und Natur). Alle Protagonist_innen sind working class (yay) und haben die alltäglichsten und realistischsten Unterhaltungen und Beziehungen.
Ich habe mich selten gleichzeitig so elegant amüsiert und gelangweilt. Absolute Schau-Empfehlung.
The Hot Spot 's central character legit is either aroace or aroallo, and at this moment I want more aroallo characters than aroace lol.
While the whole "this aroace is an alien" can go badly, given this is Bakarhythm, let's just say it's glorious
I’ve been watching ’The Hot Spot’, a Japanese show on Netflix about a middle-aged single mother who works at a hotel and reconnects with a pair of old friends.
It’s low-key and charming.
Also, there may be an alien involved.
It stars Mikako Ichikawa (Shin Godzilla).
The Hot Spot ホットスポット is definitely my favourite new Japanese TV series this year. On Nippon TV and Netflix (and probably some other streaming platforms), the premise is that a single mother living in a small Yamanashi town in the shadow of Mount Fuji discovers that her co-worker at the hotel she works at (who looks about as un-alien-like as you could imagine) is in fact an alien.
But thankfully it doesn't turn into some sci fi thing, but stays resolutely anchored in the everyday and mundane, with much of the time taken up by extremely funny chit chat. Can't be sure where it's going, but I hope it stays as hilarious and down to earth as the first few episodes promise.
Shaula Evans
schokopflaster
Tom Roberts
マリオ (Mario Menti)
The Japan Times
Dale
Raurquiz