7 Up

I just caught up on Up. This documentary series tracks the lives of fourteen English school children every seven years since age seven (1964). Because I have a voyeuristic nature, I watched all of the discs no problem, while Brian declined the "depressing" footage. What struck me was how many of the subjects asked, "What is the point of this program?" To me, raised on reality tv, the point is peeking into other people's private lives, that simple. The producer's intent is to show how socio-economics predetermine Britain's future; this is evident in the first installment especially. And mostly it does, the rich stay rich, the not rich stay... not rich, but there are a few surprises. The two characters that touched me most are, Nick, a shy boy on a small farm who, despite the editor's suggestion that he would turn out to be pretty pathetic, grows up stable and super smart, and moves to America to teach engineering at a university, and Neil, a bright eyed, high spirited boy who goes nowhere and becomes mental and mostly breaks my heart. 56 Up is expected in late 2011, early 2012. Will you be watching?