To avoid spoilers and repeats, skip to 1:45
This week; the 1990s.
Can history that is so recent be interesting to watch being experienced by kids?
We’ll see.
For starters the music will be terrible this episode.
I barely remember the 1990s, it wasn’t a very memorable decade but somehow the children seem to think it was interesting.
The presenter thinks that this decade did more to shape the way we live today than any other.
I seriously doubt that.
Sure there were a few inventions that had a huge impact, but as a historian I see plenty of historical events that had a much bigger impact.
Goodness me, schools surely haven’t gotten much better through the decades visually speaking.
Then again, what has?
The building, the fashion, god all so depressingly ugly, boring and bland.
Having a lesson about football is pretty much the worst thing I could have imagined in school.
Had I been forced to sit through that, things would have gotten out of hand.
School food looks delicious.
I’m so jealous we never had any of that.
So weird though to hear kids talk about food not being nutritious or healthy.
When I was a kid we couldn’t care less about that, it had to taste good, that’s all that mattered.
And I’m glad we didn’t care.
Ah the good old Game Boy, I thought it was an 1980s thing, either way, I spend a lot of time with it.
Such a shame though that they add another clearly staged scene here.
The kids get caught with the Game Boy and it is confiscated.
More fakery.
And just when I’m about to say; They better not now show the teacher playing with it… they show the teacher playing with the Game Boy.
So predictable, so silly, so fake.
There is already too much about this show that isn’t real enough, not immersive enough.
And then they start adding dramatized scenes!
Not good.
Modern art, also not good.
I was hip and young back then but wasn’t impressed at al about this so called exciting new wave of art.
I wanted to learn how to draw properly in stead I was given lessons on how to express myself and make modern, impressionist art.
I guess I got the exact opposite of what the kids in the tv show got, I got what they wanted it and didn’t want it.
Computer lessons… no sir, it is not like Wikipedia, Wikipedia hasn’t been invented yet!
Immersion is more difficult than it seems I guess…
It is difficult to get excited or be interested in much of what is being discussed in this episode as much of it is very limited to just the UK.
Which of course was the same with previous episodes but because it was history it was still interesting and often easier to compare to what things were like in my country.
Having said that, as an young Anglophile I do remember being very excited about watching Comic Relief.
The pupils are doing an 90s fashion show.
I have no idea what 90s fashion looked like and seeing it shown really doesn’t ring any bells either.
Mind you, I never was very interested in fashion even when I was hip, young and modern.
More computer lessons, internet has arrived!
This does bring back memories.
The modem, the sound, the speed and lack thereof…
Rather cute to see the pupils make an 1990s website.
I remember spending so much time trying to figure out HTML so I could create my first website.
I also remember the Tamagotchi, I bought one for my little sister when it was new and expensive.
Please not another staged scene…
Oh dear… teacher catches them playing with an electronic device… I’m sure that’s totally spontaneous and real, not at all fake.
It is difficult to realise that all this is over 20 years ago, it feels way too familiar.
Either I’m getting old or our society just stopped changing so much, or both.
And with this we come to the end of the journey through time.
One more special assembly is organised to conclude the experience.
I love that one of the kid has realised that nothing is really modern and new because it has all happened before.
As much as I’ve complained about the show, it has clearly been a great experience for the pupils, they seem to have loved every minute of it.
Great bunch of kids.
And the show is popular so many have seen it and learned about the past and perhaps even got interested in history as a subject.
There’s one more episode, a look at what school will be like in the future.
It is a fun and interesting episode that looks back on the series but also give the children a chance to experiment with what the future may bring.
A good idea and nice way to end the series but because I only really care about history and how well it is recreated in the show, I won’t be writing a review about that episode.
Conclusion;
The idea for the show isn’t original, it has all been done before.
The children and teachers are pretty nice and enthusiastic, they clearly had a great time.
The recreation of the past differs, some bits were done really well, some not so much.
The level of immersion was sadly very low, of course the kids just went back to 2019 after filming was done but there were also many moments when teachers stepped out of their role to discuss what they were doing in the past tense and the presenter also kept showing up, creating this connection with the present.
This therefore wasn’t really a Living History Reality show but more of a show that just happened to have a historical theme.
Especially the staged scenes didn’t do the show any good.
Historical Reality Television 