# Life Sentence (2018)

> A woman whose terminal cancer is suddenly cured must live with the reckless choices she made believing she had no future.

Canonical page: https://ember.film/tv/62812

## Facts

- Seasons: 1
- Episodes: 13
- Episode runtime: 42 min
- Status: Canceled
- Genres: drama, comedy
- Created by: Richard Keith, Erin Cardillo
- Network: The CW
- Cast: Lucy Hale, Elliot Knight, Brooke Lyons, Jayson Blair, Dylan Walsh, Gillian Vigman, Carlos PenaVega, Dominique Lucky Martell
- TMDB rating: 6.5/10
- IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6088922/

## Ember's analysis

- Pacing: measured
- Intensity: mild
- Complexity: simple
- Violence: none
- Tone: hopeful, wry, heartfelt, bittersweet, breezy

## What critics say

Audiences gave the single season a mixed reception, with its cancer-premise dramedy appreciated for its heart and Lucy Hale's lead performance but seen as familiar in its emotional beats.

## Synopsis

Life Sentence (2018) is an American dramedy series created by Richard Keith and Erin Cardillo for The CW. Lucy Hale plays Stella Abbott, a woman who learns her terminal cancer has been cured and must face the life she built while she believed she was dying. Elliot Knight plays Wes, Dylan Walsh plays Paul Abbott, and Gillian Vigman plays Ida Abbott, and their characters orbit Stella as she navigates the fallout. The engine of the show is Stella's attempt to reconcile impulsive decisions, romantic entanglements and abandoned plans with an unexpected future that nobody around her is prepared for. Each episode of this single season of thirteen episodes mixes sharp family comedy with raw emotional stakes, following the domestic friction, workplace complications and quiet reckonings that follow a sudden reversal of fate. The tone is warm and wry, with a hopeful undercurrent that keeps returning to the question of what a person owes to the choices they make. Fans of Pushing Daisies, This Is Us and Jane the Virgin will find resonance in its blend of whimsy, heartfelt family drama and the bittersweet recalibration of a life after a brush with mortality. The series was canceled after its first season, so its story is left open.

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