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This is a unique and very well-done take on Seven Up. It has the added dimension of how much of a learning process this was for Apted (the director), as well as
by Cougher 7y ago
This is a unique and very well-done take on Seven Up. It has the added dimension of how much of a learning process this was for Apted (the director), as well as other aspects that I hadn't picked up from other sources.
I first discovered this series a few weeks ago. I found the idea fascinating and I expected to be keen to dig into it. So I read some of the pieces that I found online and I stopped. My expectation of wanting to dive into this living soap opera turned into a feeling of bleak depression. Part of it has something to do with the blandness of even the happiest of near-endings, and part of it has something to do with the sadness of seeing a seven year old quickly progress in age to that point in life when we're sort of forced to evaluate who and where we are. It was far too quick of a journey for me. Their lives are presented like a history book, that places an emphasis on wars and other human struggles. It's also similar to a newscast: the bad news overwhelms and the good news is boring, so it doesn't get much attention. It's a CV that demands to know "what have you done with your life?" in a series of bullet points that skews toward points of merit.
I suppose that part of my feeling has to do with the fact that I'm at that point in life myself. Family and peers are getting sick and dying. I'll be doing the same. A lot of us aren't mentally prepared for what it's really like to be here. I think I've been working my way through it pretty well, but it takes a lot of emotional and philosophical work that we may not have a lot of experience with.
For me, Seven Up pokes and prods at life's battle wounds without enough attention to the boring bits that may actually dominate a life, which might be where our focus needs to be if we're to attain the contentment that should perhaps be our goal, whatever our class.
- alphadevx 7y agoWonderful post, I wish you well on your journey friend. As a father of a seven year old boy who is already being buffeted by life's challenges, I also find this topic somewhat depressing but you expressed it more eloquently than I ever could.
- Cougher 7y agoThank you! Pardon me for passing on a couple of unsolicited thoughts . . . I probably don't have to tell you, but these moments with your son are better than most of the bullet points that suffice for life accomplishments. Seize as many of them as you can. Your presence is every bit as important as the activities that may make up a list; arguably more. Validate his struggles because they're huge to a young person with such brief life experience. It's practice for the stuggles to come. Provide context and perspective. Speak a bit beyond his understanding. The point isn't that he gets it right away; it's to teach him how to approach life philosophically; how to resolve difficulties through communication; and that one way of expressing love is to listen and understand. The aim is that when your son grows up and faces difficulty, he'll pause and say to himself, "I remember when Dad used to say . . ."
- iainmerrick 7y agoIt’s definitely a very different experience watching it “live”, ie every 7 years, versus watching the whole thing from start to finish. I think I started watching when 35 Up came out. I’m not sure I could bear to go back and watch all the earlier series in full, for the reasons you describe.
- brianmcc 7y agoI've been following it for a few years. Couldn't agree more, it brings about a quite unsettling feeling of melancholy for me, seeing these now quite old people talking about their ups and downs, having seen them so recently as energetic, enthusiastic kids. I think there's something about the sheer pace through youth, adolescence, early adulthood, prime adulthood, middle age, and then into old age, which hits our own understanding of mortality at a very deep level. Deep stuff!
- ChuckMcM 7y agoYou have summed up something that I think of as, the existentialist dilemma, fairly well. If you live long enough, you will get to a point where you internalize that life really is just a journey with a start, a middle, and an end. All of it and none of it is precious. You realize that the change you make happen is more important than what you have achieved or not achieved.
- subpixel 7y agoMy take is different b/c like millions of other people I’ve been watching the series from as soon as I was old enough for it to catch my eye. Let’s just say that was decades ago. Watching a string of these films as they have been released has been more profound, I suspect, than catching up in a condensed period of time. The true art of these films is in what they help us to see about ourselves, as we live our by and large unexamined lives, and demonstrably short, lives.
- hos234 7y agoYup easy to get depressed about this stuff. It would be a better show if they paused it at critical moments and allowed an Allison Gopnik to talk about child development, a Jonathan Haidt to talk about motivation, a John Gottman on relationships etc etc. Lots and lots of teachable moments It's a great show, but to expect people to arrive at healthy/positive conclusions by themselves isn't realistic. There is too much information presented. It's sort of like handing Copernicus, Brahe and Keplers observations of decades worth of planetary motion to everyone and expecting people to work out Keplers Laws and Gravity by themselves. Not going to happen. It requires a whole lot of deep cognition for decades to make meaning out of all that data and that too if you are surrounded by the right people. So whatever it is stirring in you, know that this is the age of knowledge, and use such programmes as jumping off points to go look for the best teachers to process things. It's easy to find them these days and there are so many out there.