Big Chicken: A Fast Food Conspiracy review – Mo Gilligan ruffles feathers in battle against ultra-processed foods

‘I think you’re going to die,” says a teenager bluntly to comedian Mo Gilligan when he tells her about his plan to eat only from chicken shops for one month. Spoiler: he lives. But after 84 fried chicken meals, Gilligan is heavier, unhealthier and starting to feel depressed. In this funny, slick and accessible Netflix documentary he takes on “Big Chicken”, the industrialised poultry farming industry. Flavouring doc-journalism with his brand of ultra-likable humour, he’s gen Z’s answer to Michael Moore or Morgan Spurlock (who pulled a similar trick 20 years ago, eating nothing but McDonald’s for one month in his 2004 documentary Super Size Me).

At the start of the film, there is no guilt in Gilligan’s pleasure walking into a chicken shop (“Bring on the wings!”). Growing up in a low-income household in London, a bucket of KFC was a family treat. He’s even done voiceover work for a Nando’s advert; “It’s just chickens, right?”. What works so well in the film is that Gilligan’s shock as he digs deeper into the industry doesn’t look manufactured for the camera. The UK rears one billion chickens a year and, in Lincolnshire, Gilligan meets animal welfare activists in balaclavas (“This is like Call of Duty. I’m scared!”). He learns about the environmental harm to rivers that chicken farming causes, and explores racist ideas around black people and fried chicken.