This Life + 10

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.

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!).

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.

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?