This Japanese series is the TV version of comfort food

Diners sidle up to the counter in Netflix’s Midnight Diner: Tokyo.

Netflix

Since the strikes began in Hollywood, the usual torrent of new shows has slowed to a trickle. People keep asking me what older shows they should watch. Was there anything great that they might have missed along the way? You know, something they would love as much as they loved The Bear.

I always recommend Midnight Diner, the strangely addictive Japanese series whose 24-minute episodes unfold with the lazy looseness of happy hour. Now, the show is anything but hot or zeitgeisty. It first appeared on Netflix seven years ago and hung around for so long that, a few months back, the streamer stopped showing the first three seasons, leaving its huge, loyal fan base bereft. You see, part of Midnight Diner‘s appeal is that it’s one of those timeless shows that’s always there for you. Suddenly, it wasn’t.

Happily, the show is now back on Netflix in its entirety, and like millions of others, I haven’t been able to resist re-watching. The show’s setting is a dimly lit alleyway in the teeming Tokyo neighborhood of Shinjuku. There you find the Midnight Diner, a small, all-night joint run by the chef known only as Master, played by a quietly charismatic Kobayashi Kaoru, whose stony countenance is broken by flickers of amusement and compassion.

Master’s counter is filled with regulars, including an exotic dancer named Marilyn, the cheery old boozer who’s her biggest fan, a besuited salaryman who moves like a bird, three high-spirited bachelorette office workers and a self-styled monk who utters nonsensical aphorisms.

The episodes have the simplicity of folk tales or dinner party anecdotes. In each, we meet new characters — cartoonists,…