Japanese TV - A deep dive

Last year, the film "the Contestant" about comedian Nasubi's (Tomoaki Hamatsu) torturous 18 month saga on the variety show Susunu! Denpa Shonen hit streaming. It's a story that has graced blogs, reddit threads, and "oh my god, Japan's so heartless" discussions online for well over 15 years. Even I myself got sucked into it initially! I remember at the beginning of my Japanese language journey learning about the TV show that "Kidnapped and locked some poor chap in a room for 2 years" [[note 1]]