MovieChat Forums > This Life (1998) Discussion > How did this show only last 2 seasons?

How did this show only last 2 seasons?

posted 13 years ago by katalist420
8 replies | jump to latest

Im sure this has been brought up many times already but how on earth did this get cancelled so early?

Its almost like a flashback to HBO's show named CARNIVALE. Another amazing show that got canned way to fast and was simply amazing.

Why is it that some of the best shows get canned so quick? Just ridicolous if you ask me.

Just finished watching This Life (im late I know) and its already up there with Carnivale, Deadwood, State Of Play, OZ and The Wire as my favorite shows ever.

Did BBC ever give a reason why it was canned?

[–] chester-copperpot-1 13 years ago

I haven't heard of a reason for it being cancelled. The only thing I can think of is that it is really hard to write something that good. It takes time, and it costs money. A comparison is Fawlty Towers. It took John Cleese and Connie Booth six weeks per episode to write, or 36 weeks for a season of only six episodes. They wrote for almost the better part of a whole year to get that one right. Opportunities like that are very few and far between.

[–] Prismark10 13 years ago

World Productions who made the show for the BBC felt that it reached its natural conclusion and were not open to make any more shows.

Its that man again!!

[–] Evil_Bob 12 years ago

It wasn't cancelled. They just went as far as they could go with it and as far as they should go with it too. It ended perfectly.
Although the 10 year anniversary episode was a bit of a mis-fire.

A lady walks into a cocktail bar and orders a Double Entendre.The barman gives her one

[–] lolstar6 11 years ago

Normally I agree when a show is cancelled it is because it has gone as far as it has gone, but I couldnt disagree more with This Life. It had a huge shelf life still left on it and could have gone on a lot further in my opinion. We could have seen the aftermath of Milly, Egg and O'Donnell. Rachel and Milly, Anna and Miles, Ferdie and Lennie. It had great potential to go on in my opinion. I can only assume they wanted to quit while they were ahead.

"What, you don't like rice? Tell me Michael, how could a billion Chinese people be wrong?"

[–] conway3000 10 years ago

Unlike other British shows it has more than 30 episodes. I did love this series, but I heard the actors were not up for doing more either.

[–] conway3000 8 years ago

I faithfully watched this show. It was very popular in Great Britain as well as USA. Producer's and writer's all said the story came to its natural conclusion. They did do a TV movie called This Life 10 years later. It was never shown on BBC America. Jack Davenport and Andrew Lincoln went on to good careers.

[–] conway3000 8 years ago

Also Natasha Littel and Martin Freeman went on to good careers.

[–] Future_Games 8 years ago

The makers aborted plans for a third series. They intended to re-cast the show with new characters, Mark Ravenhill even drafted storylines. I can understand why they wanted to end it on a high.

You keep on reminding me of a darkness only I can see