The hottest new series on Netflix right now is neither a true crime cheat drama with an exorbitant music budget, nor a trashy dating show starring some of the baddest people to ever appear on TV. It’s not even a bodice-ripping, tense meditation on lust in Regency-era London.
No, the most watchable show on Netflix right now happens to be a Japanese reality series about unsupervised toddlers running complicated, multi-step errands for their parents. It’s called Old Enough! and is even healthier than it sounds.
Old enough! It first came to my (and the internet’s) attention last week when journalist Kathryn VanArendonk tweeted about watching it after it was fed to her by the streaming platform’s algorithm. VanArendonk wrote: “Me: The Netflix algorithm doesn’t know me at all. Netflix: Here’s a Japanese reality show about very, very young children who are sent on ambitious solo errands.”
The screenshots she shared show a little girl with pigtails sternly reminding herself to keep at it and later, having successfully completed the errand, congratulating herself by exclaiming, “I’m brilliant! I’m a genius!” Of course, I immediately opened Netflix in a new tab and watched seven episodes in one weekend.
As a 25-year-old who routinely and ruthlessly charges the UberEats delivery fee to order lunch from the Popeyes, which is less than 120 meters from my apartment, I initially took the show’s title as a personal attack. Sure, if 2-year-old Hiroki can walk down a main street alone to buy hot curry sauce at the grocery store, I’m technically “old enough” to buy my own fried chicken sandwich. But the narrator describes Hiroki as a “little errand genius” and I’m no genius at all, least of all errands. Also, it’s drizzling outside. Go on.
With super-short episodes averaging 10-15 minutes, it’s almost frighteningly easy to lose track of how long you’ve been watching. Each episode follows more or less the same format. A narrator introduces the child by giving their name, age, and the challenge of the episode. Then one of the parents will often explain the errand to the child and provide them with essentials like a backpack to carry the groceries home and a colorful flag to help them safely cross the street before they are sent off.
Sometimes two children join forces and tackle the task together. Errands range from fetching a flounder from the hatchery attached to the family seafood restaurant (though in Hana’s defense, the hatchery is terrifying, and she’s two years old) to navigating busy streets and hiking several blocks to shop at the busy fish market.
“With super-short episodes averaging 10-15 minutes, it’s almost frighteningly easy to lose track of how long you’ve been watching.”
A camera crew follows at close range, mostly trying to hide from the episode’s subject. One of the job requirements to join the production team has to be a heart of steel, because they obviously aren’t allowed to help at all – even if, for example, cute little Hinako spends half an hour uprooting a giant cabbage from her grandmother’s garden, a job , which the narrator points out, usually requires the use of a sickle. It’s simultaneously heartbreaking and funny and delightful to watch Hinako fret that her mother will be mad that she’ll be late walking home in the dark lugging a cabbage with roots and all that almost is as tall as her 4-year-old frame.
Old enough! is new to American audiences, having only recently landed on Netflix, but has been a popular series in Japan for over 30 years. There are currently 20 episodes from different seasons available to stream in the US. Apologies while I forego all my own errands to see every single one.