Another Review

So, what did I make of it?
First thing to note is that the episode was written by Amy Jenkins. Even though she created This Life and her writing isn’t particularly bad, she was never my favourite writer on the series (that would be the fantastic Richard Zajdlic). Her writing sometimes strays into territory she isn’t comfortable with (e.g. Egg’s love for football in series 1) and usually touches uncomfortably on ‘issues’. This Life works best when it is about the characters, when it touches on a political issue such as the war in Iraq then it grates; if there isn’t enough time to look at a subject in depth, then adding a few soundbites about it just comes across as rather trite and clichéd.
But barring the fact that Jenkins often tries to cram too many ideas into a script, when it should be allowed to breathe and flow – the plot jarred a bit with the jump from person to person, unresolved conflict to unresolved conflict -, it was okay.
My expectations weren’t ludicrously high, because I did take into account how hard it would be to bring people up to date in 80 minutes with characters who had evolved over 33, 50 minute episodes. It was inevitable that some things would be rushed. And there were so many unanswered questions. What happened to Ferdy? How did Miles first marriage end? How did Egg and Milly get over her infidelity? None of these were touched upon, and it felt like it may have been better to commission 3 or 4 specials, instead of just the one. It may also have been better to get one of the writers from the awesome second series to contribute. I wonder what Zajdlic is doing these days.
I think it says something about me and the effect This Life has had on my life (first series coincided with me finishing uni, second series as I started work) that the apparent break-up of Milly and Egg always bothered me. I ended up caring too much about a pair of fictional characters, and made various rants of “How could you do that to Egg?” on bulletin boards. And even though I wanted more information about what had happened to the couple in the last nine years, I still found myself rooting for a happy ending. Early reports show that many fans weren’t particularly pleased that the special ended up with Milly and Egg reunited and hopefully stable, but I really needed that to happen. Even though I loved the downbeat tone of series 2 of This Life (another reason why I love it), sometimes a happy ending is what is needed. I’m just glad I watched it on my own is all I can say.
There were some nice touches, the descent of Warren into pill-popping psychobabble did seem a continuation of the self-analysing therapy seeker he was in the series; Miles was also still resoundingly twattish and Anna was still staggeringly erratic. As a thirtysomething myself, I also recognised some of that restlessness of hitting an age were your life should be sorted out, and wondering what the hell to do. It rang true, as I said yesterday for the original and being in your twenties.
A few years ago I think I would have expected more and this would have led to disappointment. Indeed, my initial euphoria at the happiness of Milly and Egg (I’m such a soft twat) lessened a bit as I watched the first few episodes of series 1 and the holes in the special episode started to grow bigger. But, covering all bases for characters that people love in 80 minutes would be impossible, so the weaknesses had to be taken with a pinch of salt. Yeah, it was contrived and bound to frustrate obsessives, but was it ever going to fully please anyone?