Midnight Diner: Tokyo Stories aka Shinya Shokudo season 4

For some reason, the fourth season of Shinya Shokudo never made its way to the usual sites and Netflix was offering a free month if you sign up and sign up I did. Midnight Diner/Shinya Shokudo is more than a chicken soup jdorama. Midnight Diner is chicken soup of the highest quality that warms your heart.

If you have not seen this before, I strongly suggest looking for the first three seasons and the movie because there are a lot of characters that cameo from the series' long history. There are even characters that I recognise but I can't remember what their story is about. One day, I will need to rewatch the whole thing.

However, there is one character who makes a welcome return who I will never forget; Erecto Oki!!! Anyone who's watched season 1 will never forget his episode and his episode in season 4 is absolutely brilliant in its writing and simplicity.

There are a couple of other really good episodes that come to mind; Tanmen (Ep 1), American Dog (Ep 2), Omurice (Ep 4), Egg Tofu starring Mr Lan Evo (Ep 5) and of course the Erecto Oki episode Sauteed Yam (Ep 8). The Lan Evo episode's punchline is just awesome.

After the so-so season 3 and movie, Shinya Shokudo is back in fine form and should not be missed by jdorama fans. I am definitely giving Netflix my $12 if they bring it back for season 5. Must watch and Netflix definitely deserves your money for continuing this series.