''Life Sentence'' (stylized onscreen as ''L!fe Sentence'') is an American

comedy-drama Comedy drama, also known by the portmanteau ''dramedy'', is a genre of dramatic works that combines elements of comedy and drama. The modern, scripted-television examples tend to have more humorous bits than simple comic relief seen in a typical ...

television series, created by

Erin Cardillo Erin Cardillo (born February 17, 1977) is an American actress, producer, and television writer. Biography Cardillo was born in White Plains, New York. Her father is Catholic and her mother is Jewish. She began her acting career while at Greenwic ...

and Richard Keith, which debuted on

The CW ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...

as a midseason entry during the 2017–18 television season. The series premiered on March 7, 2018, and concluded on June 15, 2018, with a total of 13 episodes. On May 8, 2018, The CW cancelled ''Life Sentence'' after one season.

Premise

When Stella Abbott finds out her terminal cancer is cured, she is going to have to learn to live with all the choices she made when she decided to "live like she was dying". As she adjusts to her post-cancer world, she learns how her husband and family must also deal with the self-destructive choices they made to help Stella enjoy what they thought were her final years.

Cast and characters

Main

Lucy Hale Karen Lucille Hale (born June 14, 1989) is an American actress, singer, and television personality. She has received various accolades, including seven Teen Choice Awards (the most for any actress in a single series), a Gracie Award, a People's ...

as Stella Abbott *

Elliot Knight Elliot Knight is an English actor. He made his acting debut as the title character on the Sky1 action-adventure series '' Sinbad'' (2012). Continuing to work on television, Knight appeared as a series regular on the BBC One crime drama '' By Any ...

as Wes Charles *

Jayson Blair Jayson Thomas Blair (born March 23, 1976) is an American former journalist who worked for ''The New York Times''. He resigned from the newspaper in May 2003 in the wake of the discovery of fabrication and plagiarism in his stories. Blair publis ...

as Aiden Abbott *

Brooke Lyons Brooke Ashley Lyons (born November 8, 1980) is an American actress. She is known for her roles as Amy in the 2008 film ''Welcome Home Roscoe Jenkins'' and as Peach Landis in the CBS sitcom ''2 Broke Girls''. Early life and education Lyons was bo ...

as Elizabeth Abbott Rojas *

Carlos PenaVega Carlos Roberto PenaVega (; born August 15, 1989) is an American actor and singer. He starred on the Nickelodeon series ''Big Time Rush'' as Carlos García, and is a member of the group Big Time Rush. He was also the host of the network's game sh ...

as Diego Rojas *

Gillian Vigman Gillian Vigman (born January 28, 1972) is an American actress, comedian, and screenwriter. She has played Jack Box's Wife in many Jack in the Box commercials, and is a recurring cast member of the sketch comedy series ''MADtv''. Vigman also st ...

as Ida Abbott *

Dylan Walsh Dylan Walsh (born Charles Hunter Walsh; November 17, 1963) is an American actor. He is best known for his role as Dr. Sean McNamara in the FX television series ''Nip/Tuck'', Al Burns in ''Unforgettable'' and Sam Lane in '' Superman & Lois''. ...

as Peter Abbott * Nadej Bailey as Sadie

Recurring

* Anna Enger as Helena Chang, Stella's doctor. * Claudia Rocafort as Poppy, Ida's ex-girlfriend and Stella's godmother. * Dominique Lucky Martell as Fiona Abbott Rojas, Elizabeth and Diego's daughter. ** Noor Anna Maher played the role in the pilot episode. * Sebastian Vargas as Frank Abbott Rojas, Elizabeth and Diego's son. ** Emanuel Eaton played the role in the pilot episode. * Alyshia Ochse as Marlene *

Shannon Chan-Kent Shannon Chan-Kent (born September 23, 1988) is a Canadian voice and stage actress. She is known for her roles as Silver Spoon and Smolder and the singing voice of Pinkie Pie in '' My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic'', Misa Amane in the English ...

as Finley, Stella's cynical boss at the coffee shop * Lindsey Maxwell as Denise *

Riley Smith Riley Smith (born April 12, 1978) is an American actor. He is known for his roles on television, such as recurring roles in the series '' 24'', ''Joan of Arcadia'', '' 90210'', ''True Blood'' and '' The Messengers'', and starring roles on the ...

as Dr. Will Grant, an oncologist with a soft spot for his patients. *

Bre Blair Sarah Brianne Blair (born 29 April 1980) is a Canadian actress. She has played Stacey in the 1995 film '' The Baby-Sitters Club'' and Jessie West in the 2016 television drama series '' Game of Silence''. Life and career Her first major role w ...

as Lauren * Rana Roy as Pippa, Wes' ex-fiancée. *

Alyssa Diaz Alyssa Elaine Diaz (born September 7, 1985) is an American actress. She is known for her roles on television, such as Celia Ortega on the CBS daytime soap opera ''As the World Turns'', Jasmine on the ABC Family series ''The Nine Lives of Chloe K ...

as Kayla, Aiden's friend and coworker. *

Valerie Cruz Valerie Cruz (born July 18, 1976) is an American actress. Cruz was born in Elizabeth, New Jersey of Cuban ancestry. She attended Florida State University and received a BFA theatre degree. Career She has appeared in films such as ''Cellular ...

as Gina, Diego's boss and Peter's love interest.

Episodes

Production

The series was created by

and Richard Keith for

as a midseason entry during the 2017–18 television season. They are also executive producers on the series along with

Oliver Goldstick Oliver Goldstick (born January 9, 1961) is an American television screenwriter and executive producer, working on Netflix’s new series Bridgerton. Prior to this, Goldstick launched High School Musical: The Series for Disney + and spent seven y ...

, Bill Lawrence,

Jeff Ingold Jeff Ingold is an Emmy Award winning American TV producer. He has worked on TV shows such as ''Ted Lasso'', ''Scrubs'', ''The Office'', ''Parks and Recreation'', ''Community'', ''Will & Grace'', ''Just Shoot Me!'', ''30 Rock'', and ''Whiskey Cava ...

, and director

Lee Toland Krieger Lee Toland Krieger (born January 24, 1983) is an American film director and screenwriter best known for the films ''The Vicious Kind'' (2009), ''Celeste and Jesse Forever'' (2012) and ''The Age of Adaline'' (2015). Early life Krieger was born an ...

. The show is produced by In Good Company,

Doozer Productions Doozer Productions, Inc. is the production company of Bill Lawrence (TV producer), Bill Lawrence, best known for making ''Scrubs (TV series), Scrubs''. The company's name is taken from a variant of Lawrence's middle name, Van Duzer. Their logo is ...

CBS Television Studios CBS Studios, Inc. is an American television production company which is a subsidiary of CBS Entertainment Group unit of Paramount Global. It was formed on January 17, 2006, by CBS Corporation as CBS Paramount Television, as a renaming of the o ...

and

Warner Bros. Television Warner Bros. Television Studios (operating under the name Warner Bros. Television; formerly known as Warner Bros. Television Division) is an American television production and distribution studio of the Warner Bros. Television Group division of ...

and filmed in

Vancouver, British Columbia Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the ...

, Canada. The series is set in the fictional town of Asheville, Oregon. The CW officially ordered ''Life Sentence'' to series on May 10, 2017. In January 2018, the network announced the premiere date of ''Life Sentence'' on March 7, 2018. On March 30, 2018, The CW announced that ''Life Sentence'' would move to Fridays at 9:00 pm, which began with the sixth episode.

Casting

In late January 2017,

was cast as Stella Abbott, followed in February by the casting of

as her older brother, Aiden, and

as her father, Peter. On February 24, 2017,

and

were cast as Ida and Elizabeth, Abbott's mother and sister, respectively. During March 2017, it was announced that

and

had joined the cast as Wes, Abbott's husband, and Diego, her brother-in-law, respectively. During September 2017,

was cast in the recurring role of Dr. Will Grant, a rough-around-the-edges oncologist with a secret soft spot for his patients.

Filming

Production on the pilot took place from March 15 to March 31, 2017, in

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,715 ...

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States Georgia may also refer to: Places Historical states and entities * Related to the ...

. Filming moved to

after being picked up to series. Production began on August 9, 2017, and concluded on January 12, 2018.

Reception

Critical response

review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...

website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

, the series holds an approval rating of 37% based on 19 reviews, and an average rating of 4.47/10. Its critical consensus reads, "''Life Sentence'' avoids asking tough questions about serious issues, settling instead for a cloying sweetness." On

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

, which assigns normalized rating to reviews, the series has a weighted average score of 49 out of 100, based on 12 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".

Ratings

References

External links

* {{The CW programming 2018 American television series debuts 2018 American television series endings 2010s American comedy-drama television series 2010s American LGBT-related comedy television series 2010s American LGBT-related drama television series The CW original programming Television series about cancer Television series by CBS Studios Television series by Warner Bros. Television Studios Television shows filmed in Atlanta Television shows filmed in Vancouver