This Life + 10

The excitement around this a appearing at Christmas 2007 was everywhere. Radio 4 was discussing it. Everyone who was a fun of this series was eager. Jekins is a great writer. The characters had received a great deal of affection. Finally the long awaited episode was aired. Finally the silence was broken after we were able to lift our jaws from the floor after watching this.

First was the direction. There didn't seem to be any. Evcveryone on screen wandered around without purpose and aimlessly. The script always a high point of this show must be as good as ever? A couple of ideas were thrown in the air then ignored by the writers to wander and ramble through the remaining screen time.

It had to get better it couldn't continue this way. The series was set in London with a group of lawyers flat sharing and the wildly moving camera work reflected the hectic pace of London and their life styles and demands. Here in the countryside at Miles's country retreat the pace was missing as there was no cut an thrust or purpose to them.

The script idea appeared to be to concentrate on their relationships between the characters and leave out all their hectic lives, sensible since they weren't all lawyers anymore. So the country setting should work. But the writing and directing ensured this ingenious conceit was a failure.

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 had never seen "This Life" before, but I took a leap of faith and followed my TV guide. It turned out to be right for once. I immediately bonded with the characters and the show wasted no time in getting to the juicy bits. I felt like I had been with flatmates with these guys since forever, even five minutes into the programme! The mock documentary format was put to good use as we got to know our new (old) characters again. It was being used as an aside comment box, telling us things that would feel unnatural had it been told in the third person. I thought it worked very well. The drama unfolded gradually and we learnt about how each character has developed since we last saw them ten years ago (well, for the first time for me!). There were some surprises and confusions but I ate it all up. I don't want to spoil the plot, especially for the nostalgic fans, so I won't say anything more other than it's all top notch, riveting stuff. I don't know how it compares to the original series, but since I've enjoyed this special so much I'm considering buying the DVDs for them. An entertaining 90 minutes and I would recommend it even for those who have not seen "This Life" before, you'll get sucked in right away. Oh, and before I go, I must gush about the music. I'm a soundtrack freak and I adored this one - some very current selections at the start that gave it an optimistic note, and from what I've heard they put in some classic tracks as an homage to the original series. The funniest thing was that I was thinking how great it would be to have some Portishead on the show, and then Sour Times kicked in(!) Very apt, especially with Beth Gibbons wailing "Cos nobody loves me... it's true." right when Anna was talking. Props to the music team. ;)

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.

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?