The 1900 House | A truse story of Women's rights

The 1900 House | Good, and aware of its flaws

DVDs:

The 1900 House

	The 1900 House PBS (Direct), 2003 average customer review:based on 35 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Viewers time-travel vicariously in this four-part "docu-soap" that transplants a modern family from 1999 to 1900. The series clearly evinces the radical changes in domestic life wrought by the scientific and technological innovations of the last 100 years. The Bowler family are taken back in time to the spring of 1900 in Greenwich, a suburb of London, England. For 3 months, they live as a family in 1900 would have lived.

A truse story of Women's rights

This started to be a story about how a modern family would cope in the 1900 to show how much life has changed. It ended up being a real leasson on Women's Lib during that time.
In 1900 women were harshly restricted to the home not only cause of morality, but because there was so much work to do. Aplliances and new inventions like the washing mashine helped to liberate women all over the wold. They need to put THAT on a coin.

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Good, and aware of its flaws

The idea is to find a modern British family, restore a house to Victorian middle class condition, and make the family live there for 3 months. Will it be fun, like camping? Like being in a play? Or will it be a drag?

From the beginning, the producers make it clear that this is more of a thought experiment than research. It was impossible to find a really accurate, correctly working coal stove. They couldn't make everything in the house accurate to 1900, or modern health laws would have to be flouted. They coudln't take the younger kids out of school, and the husband had to continue his job.

So the only ones with a complete 1900's experience are the wife and the teenaged daughter. (Did anyone else notice that she was 16 and NOT in school? That, as I understand, is normal for Britain but weird for an American middle class family.) Wait a minute, the wife and daughter didn't have an authentic experience either, cuz in real life they would have had people next door to talk to, relatives to visit, etc. etc. The situation was set up perfectly for the two of them to go bananas over the course of 90 days.

I read with puzzlement the reviews that complained about their complaining. Well, of course the wife and oldest daughter complain! They are the only ones whose lives have changed completely, all day and night! The twins, in particular, had very little change. They had each other to talk to, never had to wear corsets, and got to go to school each day. They didn't have to give up socializing as the eldest daughter did and got to see outside friends every day when they changed into 1900's outfits. As to why they are complaining about corsets, haven't you ever had on an outfit that looked comfy but wasn't after 8 hours? What if you had to wear it for three months more after finding that out?

I very much enjoyed watching the degrees of struggle to 1900 s life. If you only have three outfits and wash them once a week, the romance is bound to fade fast. (Thank goodness no one in the house spilled anything or got the flu!)Chamber pots, chickens with black feathers so that they blend with the sooty air, lack of refrigeration and brushing your teeth with straight baking soda also don't fit the image of modern Victoriana.

This show cured my hang up with all things Victorian and more than that I cannot ask of any TV show.

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I would have signed up in a heartbeat!

The biggest issue I had is the same that other reviews have stated. I think the Bowlers were the wrong choice for this project. As a reenactor, I enjoy using past techniques as learning tools on how things have changed in daily living. I heard from someone who had auditioned for Colonial House that the producers of the shows prefer people who would be "fish out of water" instead of people more inclined to adapt to the new environment. The belief is that it would make for interesting television with the learning curve involved. Of course, I still got tired of the whining from the oldest women here, if you didn't want to wear a corset then a viable option at the time was the new uncorseted new natural line but it didn't catch on. There are "working" corsets also without at much boning but with proper support and "modesty" as needed.
I would have loved to see Mrs. Bowler try to make her own soap as my Grannie used to do with a big iron pot out in the back yard. I would love the chance to try this for a few months, especially with the safeguards of local health care/fire department within reach. No television or computer but I could manage with a telephone (they were around).

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reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7

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