This Life + 10

Trying to recapture the magic the magic of This Life 10 years after its initial release was always going to be a difficult task, and so it proved to be.

One thing the writers of This Life + 10 arguably got right is that, for the most part, the character narrative arcs are largely believable, with Egg's being the one that most stretches credibility. Of all the characters, it's not a big surprise that Miles comes across worst after the 10-year break from the original series. His behaviour back then was highly questionable at times, and it's not difficult to see how he turned into such an objectionable 30-something. It's hard to disagree with Warren's assessment of Miles halfway through (which out of politeness I won't repeat here).

The grand country house setting makes it difficult to warm to the characters, which is probably the main problem with this reunion. It was much easy to relate to the cash-strapped twenty-somethings of This Life who made bad decisions, rather than the cashed-up thirty-somethings who still make bad decisions in This Life + 10.

Saying all that, this isn't a truly terrible one-off. By and large, the dialogue is decent, and the acting is fine. The story isn't great, but it's passable. However, it does leave a little sour taste in the mouth that a rare great show that didn't outstay its welcome in its original run, and which had a pretty much perfect ending first time round, spoiled things somewhat with this ill-advised reunion.

Maybe I shouldn't have watched this just after binge-watching the original series. This was 10 years later not 10 minutes. The concept was good. I too met up with old friends when an old school pal died so I can partly resonate. As a stand alone film it was ok. I would probably have given it an 8 or 9 but it's not a touch on the original series. No sex scenes, nudity, cottaging, drug snorting, no gay lovers and the swearing was rather tame. It was good to see old friends and what they have done with their lives but I can see no need for a This Life + 25 (or more!).

I was so disappointed! i just loved this life, but this was terrible. The thing that was so good about the series was that it seemed to be such a well observed picture of a very specific social demographic, it just seemed to ring true because of the detail and the dialogue. Yet the ten-years-on drama introduced a whole sequence of unlikely plot devices just for the sake of it - why did Egg need to have become such a hugely successful writer? why did miles have to have bought a really ugly large hotel? Why would Warren have ventured into cheesy self help websites? these things all just seem to have been picked out of a hat marked 'farcical plot ideas'. surely the ideal thing would been for their lives to be shown to have developed along realistic, mundane trajectories and then the writer could re-visit the canny social observation that we saw before. The plot always used to be driven by character and situation, not by daft, unlikely random events. And i think the location choice of the supposedly impressive country house was just ghastly. and the final line being 'i love you guys!' Jesus! i actually can't think of a comment on that.

I couldn't bare watching this, a complete disaster. Devastated by every aspect of its creation. If you have enjoyed the genius of the first two series. don't bother to ruin its memory with this.

Plusses for '+10' included that the dialogue was mostly good, and informative as far as it went, with a little work on our part (replaying is a good idea).

The characters, too, are still as they were, but their histories and relationships are more dodgy. How likely is it that Egg, of all people, would be able to produce a book deep enough to analyse Anna?

The ending, with an aimless Miles just walking away from his life, was also a bit unbelievable. Anna seems still to have some unresolved, derailing baggage from the past that prevents her from being able to fully commit to a present that maybe, deep inside, she doesn't quite identify with, since in some way it's a sidetrack for her, not the way she was meant to go. The idea of total commitment terrifies her since she'll lose out on what she really identifies with, lost though it is. So she can love Miles, but her deep reservations mean she can't act on it.

How did Egg and Milly get back together? The writer of the last episode of the original series -- Richard Zajdlic? -- was obviously told to draw the kind of line under it that would make it impossible for any part of the story we'd been following to continue. He drew the firmest and thickest line I've ever seen in my life! Yet we had been asked to treat This Life as real life, and in real life, things DO continue, and they DO require an explanation. So what happened after the wedding? Did Rachel quit MSW, knowing a vengeful Milly would make her professional life unbearable? How did everyone end up having to leave the house, if that's what happened? We have a right to know!

Maybe the cast can reassemble in the relatively near future for a programme (within a programme, if it's not too complicated) about the filming of Egg's book -- which can't have finished with Miles' wedding -- and their reminiscences can correct the film's inaccuracies, so that we can have some CGI flashbacks to the house, etc. How about it, Amy?