Shifty

I would give this a 7/8 marker but you are not allowed to give ranges.

Of these types of documentaries that I have seen. Ken Burn's one on Vietnam was exceptional. Likewise, Adam Curtis's Hypernormalisation.

Being born in 82, I hoped this would further my understanding of the period of when I was just a child and not interested in politics , up to when I was a young adult.

It did that on some level. Many things were hard to tolerate on an emotional level.

The ghost of greed being ever-present. (who woulda thought that nationalising industries would enable them to be honourable?).

The issue that I truly struggle with is the total lack of a positive narrative.

As a 90s teenager and young adult in the millennia... the advance in tech has been exceptional, perhaps to the point of being detrimental in the long-term.

However, despite all the disparity. There has been a lot of levelling up that could eventually be a positive world-force.

I would not be human if I just lived in despair.

Hey, I don't post very often and I'm of this time that's covered in the series so I thought I'd watch. It became clear fairly quickly that this is a personal journey by the director through these times. Many important parts of uk history in the 80s/90s are ignored and some very trivial items are given weight way beyond their real significance. I'm no fan of thatcher by any means but the focus seems misplaced again concentrating on lesser evils than the more significant decisions that screwed our Youth and future. One very minor spoiler that almost seemed personal was the directors fixation on Ozzie Osbourne and his abuse at the time of his wife. It's worth a watch for nostalgia but there's no balance, just a personal dig through the archives from the director.

Although I got quite annoyed at the many music inserts during this series and found some parts either tedious, repetitive or just irritating, overall this series is worth watching. Lots of historical information that with hindsight is proving to be very prescient and accurate. It's pretty clear that politicians, financial institutions and those who benefit from them, and the upper class system is still thriving and becoming even more abhorrent. Today's many issues and problems can be traced back to so many events and characters and players who made headlines during the period this series covers. Not a pretty picture and certainly a warning of things to come. Well made generally but also a bit too chaotic at times.

Using archive material from the Thatcher years, Adam Curtis demonstrates a myth that many on the Left will be uncomfortable with; far from being an underhand experiment, Mrs. Thatcher made it clear from the start what her project was all about. The destruction of the Welfare State. The destruction of solidarity. The decimation of the right of the people to be protected from capitalism. But the Left were more interested in making speeches to each other and ideological purity. The media colluded with the Tories, and the hard earned gains of the working class were lost.

Brilliant and unsettling work from a dwindling pool of sharp and empathetic film maker.

The opening scenes are worth the license fee on their own.

Shifty is great, shifty is brilliant, shifty is astounding. And then what?

I grew up in the years Shifty retraces, so how biessed am I? Everything illustrated here, i lived through. Every urgence depicted, i fought through. Every exhilaration depicted i danced through. So i accept i cannot watch this documentary/exploration without a pre-defined view. Adam Curtis either tells me we're going into thatcher years again, or we just need to mind what they were.

This is the kind of work that should be aimed at our younger generations. What do they expect of our powers? What do they believe are our goals? England chose a way should the western world follow?