If you’re of a certain age, then when you read the headline of this article, you had one thought. “That pretty much sounds like that movie, Super Size Me.” You’d be right, it does sound like that. This looks to be a bit different, though. For starters, Super Size Me was about eating at McDonald’s every day for a month. This is about fried chicken. Not to mention, Super Size Me was SUPER problematic. Let’s take a quick look at what Netflix has cooking. Let’s also take a look back at the late Morgan Spurlock and his documentary.
The upcoming fried chicken documentary, Big Chicken: A Fast Food Conspiracy, is coming this August. The film stars british comedian, Mo Gilligan. Being black, Gilligan is also aiming to take on stereotypes surrounding black people and fried chicken. Food is often tied to culture and so are stereotypes. That alone gives this documentary a more distinct flavor.
But yes, Gilligan will also be eating fried chicken for 28 straight days. More than that, according to Netflix, “[Gilligan] embarks on an eye-opening journey from South London to the United States to reveal the historical origins of fried chicken and the social, economic, and industrial forces driving our mass consumption of it…”
That’a a lot to digest. Animal rights groups have long campaigned about the conditions of chicken farms. Everything from the unsanitary conditions to the force-feeding of birds and the hormone injects being given. All for the sake of more meat for people to eat. [Vegan editor’s note: while all livestock are kept in awful conditions before they are slaughtered, chickens do have it particularly bad.]
The Pitfalls of Super Size Me
This is an angle that will hopefully avoid some of the failings of the similarly themed, Super Size Me. Lauded upon release, hindsight has not done the documentary any favors. Spurlock would later admit to suffering from alcoholism through a chunk of his life, including during the filming of the documentary. This is despite telling doctors in the film that he was not drinking.
Spurlock also seemed to ignore basic nutritional facts. Because Spurlock did not give a breakdown of what he ate at each McDonald’s meal, the exact amount of calories he consumed is not known. We just know he intentionally super sized things when asked. Thing is, if you consumer a much higher caloric intake of anything, you’re going to risk gaining weight. Sure, the type of food is part of that formula. Still, it’s possible to eat within a normal caloric intake at McDonald’s and not gain weight, too.
One of the hopes we have is that Gilligan takes a more measured and tactical approach to his fried chicken consumption. Criticism of the food industry helps keep it in check. We’re eager to see what we get when Big Chicken: A Fast Food Conspiracy drops on August 5th. In the meantime, you can always watch Spurlock’s Super Size Me 2: Holy Chicken! That also discussed the chicken industry in its own way. It’s enough chicken material to make you say, “You’ve gotta be clucking kidding me!”
