56 Up (2012)

☆ ☆ ☆ ☆

56 Up (2012) – M. Apted

Well, perhaps the most interesting thing to be discovered here is that people just don’t change too much between age 49 and age 56.  However, that makes this latest instalment in the incredibly long running 7 Up series (that tracks the same 12 or so British children drawn from different socioeconomic backgrounds across time, checking in every seven years) somewhat anti-climactic.  After all, we’ve been waiting 7 years for this one!  The only real surprise is that Peter returns after being absent since 28 Up.  Of course, everyone does look older and their kids have grown up.  Some have been affected by the global economic crisis and the UK’s response.  A few comment on the ways that they’ve been portrayed in previous episodes and their response to the public’s response (basically, no one feels that they’ve been accurately portrayed as whole human beings).  A few people challenge the idea of economic determinism that guided the original program’s design (although it feels fairly apparent that SES status does affect opportunities in this small sample).  As always, the really impressive thing about this series is the way that it gets you to think about your own life and your particular developmental trajectory and the societal changes that impact on it.  So, where was I in 1974, 1981, 1988, 1995, 2002, and 2009? Turns out that that could be some very interesting television.  I bet it is the same for you.  I wonder if we will see the same continuity present if and when the series returns in 2019.