I know this first aired in 2008 but with the Internet and YouTube it doesn't really matter, we can watch it now. My friend Ryan passed The Supersizers Go onto me and G and last night we watched the first episode.
The premise of the show is a food critic and comedian live a week in the diet of a certain era, playing the part with complete wardrobe and home makeovers. Before they embark on the diet they go to a high-end medical centre and get their fitness and health levels tested to see how fit they are before and after the diet.
I was really excited for the first episode, Wartime, because I'm trying to learn more about what life was like in WWII with rationing and other restrictions. While I learned a lot from this episode, I have to say the hosts lacked respect for the era. I understand that it's supposed to be funny, but seeing them mock the clothing made my heart hurt just a little. Maybe they were trying to lighten up such a dark time in history but I just didn't like their approach.
It's definitely worth a watch as I learned tonnes. I liked seeing the creativity of home cooks in their recipes and loved the fact that vegetables weren't rationed at the time, meaning you could have all the greens one would want. As someone who's not a big fan of bread(!) I wouldn't have minded giving it up, but I would have missed coffee something terrible. A great resource to learn more about Victory Gardens and rationing is The Home Sweet Home Front.
I'll continue watching this first series and probably will delve into their next series The Supersizers Eat as they have an episode on the 1920s.
Hi Laurie, I found you via your guest post and was very excited when I saw you are a journalist!
I'm finishing off journalism school at the moment and basically trying to move towards a more vintage wardrobe. It's definitely a work in progress though.
More than that, I've always been a little bit nervous around having a blog where I post outfit pics when I'm supposed to be this big serious journalist. How do you find it? Do your workmates know about the blog? Would love to hear from you!
http://myorangestilettos.blogspot.com/
I have become obsessed with this show since I discovered it a few weeks ago! The type of humor is definitely their schtick, and for the other eras they cover it works. But perhaps for WWII it really was such a terrible time, and enough in recent memory that the jokes doesn't play quite as well.
What I really take issue with is the description of the clothes of the time as 'unflattering'! Well, perhaps the way poor Sue was dressed, although I'd happily take that adorable striped jumper she wears, but really?! Women looked so much better then, even with years of rationing and shortages of material goods, than anyone I see on a day to day basis about town. And we have everything, and cheaply, right at our fingertips. Think we can learn a thing or two from the war generation :)
@Kerry: I've sent you a tweet regarding your question! I'll likely address this in a blog post :D
@Moxie Tonic: I know what you mean about Sue's wardrobe. I loved the sweater, the apron and the scarf, but all together it just wasn't working. (Giles looked rather dapper throughout, however!)
I agree about how they looked so much better with much less, in fact I wrote an editorial about it for my newspaper haha!
Thanks so much for finding my blog and commenting ladies!