Thank god for IMDb allowing me somewhere to vent my frustration and disappointment at the truly awful spectacle that was This Life + 10. I had been eagerly awaiting it for a year since it was announced, as I am a big fan of the original series. I just can't get out of my head how utterly cringe worthy the script was. Oh god it was so bad. And the script was not the only pitiful element of this vain, contrived rubbish. Here are my gripes: 1. The idea..... was terrible. It felt to me as though Amy Jenkins had sat in a room of sycophants for hours, days, weeks even, struggling to comprehend how on earth they would reunite the five. Eventually out of desperation they settled for the awful idea of a documentary within a drama. Why oh why, if this was what they wanted to do, did they not just make a decent documentary about This Life? I would have been more interested in what the actors had done in the past 10 years than this. It was so contrived and pretentious it made me want to hide behind the sofa.
2. The script..... was terrible. One of the best things about This Life was its subtlety in dealing with politics and other 'real life' affairs. They were dealt with, but they formed the backdrop to the real story which was the intertwined lives of the five characters. The commentary about the 90s came from the observations one made about the way they chose to live their lives. They didn't talk about Kosovo or New Labour or name-drop bands like Oasis in the original series. Yet in This Life + 10 they felt the need to have woeful, staged arguments about Iraq and the environment as though they felt so insecure they needed to hold a huge banner up stating that THIS WAS 2006 AND THEY WERE NOW 35 AND MIDDLE CLASS AND VERY, VERY, VERY, VERY BORING!!!!! And as for Egg's comment about the Kaiser Chiefs - I was lost for words. It was like a Little Britain sketch.
3. The plot...... was terrible. Stupid, unbelievable and pretentious. It was like a bad play. They clearly felt the need to cram as many events as possible into the time they had and you couldn't keep up.
4. The acting...... was terrible. Well that is a little unfair actually. I suppose any acing would be terrible given that script. Although Andrew Lincoln was particularly bad this time round, caricaturing himself. The others, well I'll let them off with a yellow card each.
Basically, I am now of the opinion that this should never have been made. At the end of the second series I felt like I had seen something truly special. For 9 years it remained my favourite show. And now I feel utterly let down. I am sure many other This Life fans will feel the same way. Everything that was good about the show has been squandered by this, and everybody involved should hang their heads in shame.
2. The script..... was terrible. One of the best things about This Life was its subtlety in dealing with politics and other 'real life' affairs. They were dealt with, but they formed the backdrop to the real story which was the intertwined lives of the five characters. The commentary about the 90s came from the observations one made about the way they chose to live their lives. They didn't talk about Kosovo or New Labour or name-drop bands like Oasis in the original series. Yet in This Life + 10 they felt the need to have woeful, staged arguments about Iraq and the environment as though they felt so insecure they needed to hold a huge banner up stating that THIS WAS 2006 AND THEY WERE NOW 35 AND MIDDLE CLASS AND VERY, VERY, VERY, VERY BORING!!!!! And as for Egg's comment about the Kaiser Chiefs - I was lost for words. It was like a Little Britain sketch.
3. The plot...... was terrible. Stupid, unbelievable and pretentious. It was like a bad play. They clearly felt the need to cram as many events as possible into the time they had and you couldn't keep up.
4. The acting...... was terrible. Well that is a little unfair actually. I suppose any acing would be terrible given that script. Although Andrew Lincoln was particularly bad this time round, caricaturing himself. The others, well I'll let them off with a yellow card each.
Basically, I am now of the opinion that this should never have been made. At the end of the second series I felt like I had seen something truly special. For 9 years it remained my favourite show. And now I feel utterly let down. I am sure many other This Life fans will feel the same way. Everything that was good about the show has been squandered by this, and everybody involved should hang their heads in shame.