Problems with the reunion episode

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Actually I disagree.

How many of you are doing the same things as you were 10 years ago?

How many have the same group of friends.

Can any one truely say that their character has not changed in the last 10 years?

If they had all been exactly the same as 10 years ago then it would have been dull - and totally unbelievable.



"what I said about you was true too, only I shouldn't have said it"

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I think the idea of having them being filmed rather spoilt it - they were all, to some extent, on their guard... If they'd been able to interact naturally all the way through, I think it would have been more satisfying... As it was, I was a bit underwhelmed and disappointed... And, what had they done to Warren..?! Of course, they would all have changed and moved on and he was always well into the counselling thing, wasn't he..? But, all that life-coaching bollocks..! Then, he went through the tapes 'til he found that bit where Miles said he'd missed him when he was away. But, nothing came of it.

I just got done taming a wild honeymoon stallion for you guys.

i did like the pizz take of the "friends" opening sequence bit when they were dancing , getting drunk..

Bullshyt MR han-man!!

A terrific post Glenn, agree with all your points.

Just bumping up a post I made straight after the show which sums up my feelings about the mess that was +10.

I am a complete This Life obsessive. I own every single episode on video and can repeat the script off by heart.
I admit my expectations for the reunion were probably unrealistically high but I was still crushed by how poor it was and most of all how it departed so radically from the original two series in so many ways. There were so many let-downs I barely know where to begin.
The 'documentary' mechanic must have seemed like a good idea at the time but it just came over as clunky and contrived. I just ended up being irritated beyond belief by the annoying camerawoman hovering in the background, taking the focus away from the characters.
When I read previews about the central idea of the reunion, alarm bells were already ringing. So, Egg has basically written the book of the first two series, and now this woman is filming the reunion of the characters in Egg's book, which in itself is a TV series? So it's a play within a play within a play? In what parallel universe was this deemed a great idea?
I notice in the ten-minute programme afterwards that the producer referred to the 'documentary' format as a 'nod to how TV has changed in the last ten years'. The Office patented the 'mock-doc' idea about five years ago!! It's now outdated and took the programme too far away from the ethos of the original. I noticed also the trademark 'shaky camera' direction was gotten rid of. Why? That was part of what made the original series so gritty and relatable.
On to the plot: Are we expected to believe that Miles and his best man Egg would not have kept in contact for the previous ten years? And that Anna would fall out so spectacularly with her closest friend Millie over simply being jealous of Milly having had a child? Anna could be hot-headed but to
completely alienate her best mate due to child-envy? Not a chance.
Miles' character seemed to have become a caricature of his former self. He's gone from smooth-talking pompous arrogance to some sort of mad Boris Johnston country gent. And the bailiffs happening to arrive on the weekend of the reunion? What? The greatest thing about the original two series was that it was believable. It was what REALLY happened, in real life. This was just nonsense.
Egg and Milly's relationship wasn't properly explained. Egg said to the documentary maker at the start that they weren't 'properly married'. Well what were they then? They obviously had a kid but there seemed to be no discernible relationship between them at all, even with Egg's daft late gesture in the lake.
The script was so clumsy: From Anna's bizarre outburst shoe-horned into the middle of dinner apropos of nothing ("Anna, could you pass the salad?" "Salad, what use is that? I need a child!") to Warren's boring bumbo jumbo about new age therapy. Sure, he was always self-analysing and worrying, but underneath it all he was likeable. This time around I just found him irritating and could not relate to him at all. As with many of the main protagonists, the writers took his character traits too far away from what he was like originally for it to be believable.
Most of all it simply wasn't clever or funny. I didn't laugh once or nod knowingly at some reference to past events or some subtle insight about their motives. It was all just a bit daft, like a self-mocking spoof, not realistic.
Another more minor complaint. What happened to Joe, Keira, Rachael and O'Donnell? Obviously they were not still part of the main characters' lives, which is fine, but could their fates not have been mentioned in passing?
I'll stop short of saying it has soiled my cherished nostalgic memories of the original two series (the best drama of all time, which will never be bettered), but I'll certainly think slightly less of the writers after this ill-conceived mish mash. So sad.

Watching the repeats before Christmas reminded me what a compelling series this was; brilliantly scripted and immaculately performed, it truly was essential viewing, certainly for anyone in their twenties a decade ago. Having been one of those original devotees, I was naturally curious to see what the "+10" episode would be like, as well as being a little apprehensive: rather like when one of your favourite bands get back together having split up years ago... and leave you wishing they hadn't bothered.

And sure enough, I wish they hadn't. Anyone who tuned in to "+10" without having seen the series before must surely have wondered what all the fuss was about, and even as a fan I'd have to agree with virtually every criticism above. All I can add is that the whole thing seemed to go to extraordinary lengths to set the stage for what was ultimately a completely inconsequential 90 minutes. Admittedly, nobody expected it simply to pick up where series two left off so dramatically but the setting for this was ridiculously contrived, with the obnoxious influence of reality TV awkwardly making its presence felt as an unnecessary device to bring about the reunion - as though the funeral itself wouldn't be a good enough reason.

Furthermore, the characters here were virtually unrecognisable from the ones we last saw at Miles' (first) wedding. Where they were once fully-rounded and convincing, here they were reduced to one-dimensional caricatures, and after about half an hour, I was shocked to realise that I just didn't care about these people at all. It didn't help that the peripheral characters seemed to serve little purpose other than to intrude on the whole thing (I couldn't have agreed more with Warren's remark that Mai-Ling's departure was probably for the best). The likes of Jo, Kira and Rachel, who gave the original series such added breadth and momentum, were sadly conspicuous by their absence here.

As for the dialogue and plot, the cast might as well have been improvising; in fact, this probably would have been more interesting to watch. Perhaps a one-off drama was never going to allow sufficient time to tie up all the loose ends as well as one might have liked, but this ill-planned script didn't even try to fill in the blanks. If anything, it left even more questions unanswered than before. Someone somewhere really should have sent this one back to the drawing board, or just binned it altogether. Unfortunately, everyone concerned seems to have been less interested in creating a worthy sequel than in having a self-indulgent anniversary party at the licence-payers' expense, tarnishing the reputation of one of the BBC's greatest cult drama series in the process.

All in all, it's a shame the tapes of this didn't get thrown in the lake as well.

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