Victorian Slum House = A+++

[chocolatepot]

I've watched the first two episodes, and when this comes to PBS you have to see it. While it's first and foremost, like Coal House - which sadly seemed to get completely overlooked when it aired, and IIRC I wasn't even able to see the whole thing - a way to show how hard poverty was in the 19th century, how it affected the way people interacted with each other ("I'm not taking food out of the mouths of my children to feed hers"), and how it affected people at different levels of it (while the shopkeepers have more space and more creature comforts, they're still right on the edge in terms of income:expenses) ... it also is saying a lot about the present day. The narrator in the second episode talks about how in the 1870s recession, aid to poor communities diminished just as they needed it most, meaningful look. Everybody's selling their goods to try to make rent in a little marketplace, and the producers interview two gormless hipsters who are all, "We just know the East End as a cool, trendy place, it's weird to remember that it used to be all slums!" The participants talk a lot about how they work really hard and then have to pay the rent and it's all gone, how it's a grinding cycle.

Maybe I'm reading too much into it, but it really feels like they're making a statement about present life.

Comments

[author_by_night]

Where did you find the first two episodes? Sounds interesting.