An intriguing premise that descends into idealistic fodder.

Burn the House Down is a Netflix Japanese drama series which follows Anzu (Mei Nagano) as she goes on a revenge/reparation path by becoming a housekeeper for Makiko Matarai (Kyoka Suzuki), the woman who made her lose everything.

Based on a manga series of the same name, Burn the House Down doesn't hold all cards too close to its chest as we're immediately told why Anzu is on the path she is. While she was a teenager, her family home burned down, and while her mother prostrated on the floor in apology for leaving the stove on, her mother's best friend Makiko had a joyful expression on her face. Witnessing this, Anzu decides that Makiko must be at fault for the fire and vows to find evidence. Thirteen years later, she's making good on her promise by infiltrating the Mitarai home as a housekeeper.

After the fire incident, Anzu's father, Osamu (Mitsuhiro Oikawa) gets a divorce and remarries Makiko. Their new family move into a rebuilt version of the burned-down house. At her new job and under a different identity, Anzu meets her childhood friend, Kiichi Mitarai (Asuka Kudô) who is now a shut-in. Using the knowledge she has of him and her cooking skills, Anzu slowly thaws Kiichi's heart but things don't go quite as planned.



Meanwhile, the other Mitarai siblings, Anzu's younger sister, Yuzu (Yuri Tsunematsu) and Kiichi's younger brother, Shinji (Taishi Nakagawa) have formed a connection and it's the cutest part of this show. Shinji is open about how smitten he is by Yuzu and while Yuzu is using him to get information for her sister, she seems to enjoy his company.

The plot for Burn the House Down is pretty straightforward - they suspect that someone burned down their first home and they want to find out who. In the course of their investigation, we see relationships form and also get a sneak peek into how hungry for adoration Makiko is and how much of a snivelling coward her snatched husband, Osamu is.

The journey for this semi-revenge series is fun but the destination and climax leave a lot to be desired. Everyone gets a happy ending but it's not quite the right one. Somehow on the race to the finale, Makiko suddenly becomes the type of mother willing to sacrifice everything for her child. It's a very odd choice given what we witnessed over eight episodes. And the couple that ends up together is the one that had several violent outbursts making it kinda hard to root for.

When the mystery is solved, instead of Anzu "finding herself" and figuring out what she truly wants for her life just like every other character does, she instead dedicates her life to taking care of yet another person and managing another person's affairs. It's unclear why everyone but her got their own character development.

Verdict

With eight episodes spanning six hours, Burn the House Down has ample romance, secret plotting, mystery and a talented cast that breathes life into it. The ending is not very satisfying but it's still an engaging watch.


Burn the House Down is currently streaming on Netflix