28 Up

They got lower thirds! Just like I thought.

28 Up was strange in that I don't see where they can go from here. The questions have started to get a bit repetitive and they now all seem to be fully formed adults. We're going to see them at 3 more stages in their lives and all I can think that will happen at that time is more children and/or divorce, which will be sad to see.

Most of these kids (who are now older than me, so I guess they're not kids anymore) are married in this one. Which at 28 makes sense, but most of them got married at or around the age I am now. Which makes me feel weird. But also, a lot of these, or I'd say most of these 28 year olds look and act like I thought they were going to be in 35 Up. So I can't imagine how old they're going to look for that one. It does make me wonder, though, at what point they stopped contacting their parents are started contacting them. If this was the US, I'd guess they'd have to wait until this edition, 28, before they wre fully adults. But for some reason I feel like in the UK, 21 would be considered adult and they got with them directly then.

One thing that I think is strange about this whole thing is what it does to its subjects. I was wondering how they were going to work around some kids not being able to or wanting to do the interview some year and I guess this was how since two subjects opted out this time around. They just use more b-roll from the past editions to fill time. I didn't like it. It didn't really show any progression of the characters, of where where they were at the time, just where they came from. I hope they show up in the next one.

So interesting, besides his voice during the interviews, which is very apparent throughout the entire doc, Michael Apeted isn't present in this thing. We watch them do activities, but he never participates. He's not on camera. When he's almost on camera, he's in the shadows and you can't make out his figure. Still with that pervasive voice over though.

One thing the focused on was the differences between classes and therefore the different styles of education. This is something that is mostly a glaring issue in the UK, not so much in the States. Some of the private school posh students dropped out, but the guys still put so much worth in their education and would still support even lower classes sending their kids there. Others would disagree. One of the girls riffs that she doesn't even think of her class until the program comse around every 7 years. Which is really interesting. Like a self fulfilling prophecy

Also, I'm completely in love the sole black dude at his 21 and 28 year old state. I'm totally bummed to have to witness him become my mother's age.