Classroom dramas have more to do more with teaching values than with teaching subjects, and "Suzuki Sensei" ("Teacher Suzuki"; TV Tokyo, Mon., 10 p.m.), based on an award-winning manga, is no exception. With his severe glasses and string tie, Suzuki (Hiroki Hasegawa) telegraphs his unconventional approach to public-school teaching, an approach he developed while studying issues such as vandalism and bullying.
In episode one, Suzuki quietly manipulates the system so that a particular female student named Somi (Tao Tsuchiya) is assigned to his homeroom class for the new school year. He also starts dating a woman named Asami, and their relationship goes smoothly until the usual problems flare up at work.
Weight loss is the main topic of Nippon TV's new comedy-drama series "Rebound" (Wed., 10 p.m.), which uses prosthetics to change normally skinny actresses into overweight characters.