Ad Vitam (2018) User Reviews

Something to think about

[beormas · 7/10 · 4 December 2018]

Disclaimer: I watched the German dubbed version, so some things might have gotten lost in translation.

1. Brief summary: Mankind has invented a device that rejuvenates you to the age of about 30-40. There are some people who are genetically not able to undergo the procedure and there are some who don't want to do it, the others can theoretically live forever. A group of minors (now everyone under the age of 30 is a minor) commits suicide. A police officer tries to get the help of the only survivor of a previous mass suicide to find out why they did it and how to prevent similar incidents in the future.

2. The setting. This series is set several decades in the future, but the technology is the same as 2018, except that cars now have an extra headlight on the hood and, of course, the devices that rejuvenate. That's not logical, but perhaps neccessary to concentrate on the changes to society that were brought by that one invention. The series raises several interesting questions, like how long would you stay in the same job or in the same relationship, should birth control be mandatory to prevent overpopulation or how would you react if the good looking brunette you chatted up in the disco turns out to be over 90 years old. This is the best part of the series, it makes you think how longevity will affect society.

3. The plot. It starts as a detective story, it has some unexpected twists that keep it interesting, but eventually things get confusing and I was asking myself why people were doing what they were doing.

4. Summary. The acting was solid, the plot was not. I would recommend this series to those who like 'what ifs' like 'what if I was forever young?' and who like to think and who like to philosophize. Get some friends or family to watch it as well so you can talk about it. If you are looking for simple entertainment, this series is not for you.

Somewhat interesting, sorely lacking in motivations for actions.

[kking-68641 · 5/10 · 6 December 2019]

It's a fairly interesting concept, though it has been done before I've never seen it quite like this.

Most 'eternal life' shows have a very limited number of people living forever - the rich and/or powerful or a single villain. In this one, the vast majority can live indefinitely (it's never clear on the percentages of people who are 'incompatible'.)

It works as a mystery 90% of the way through the show, mainly because nothing that anybody does has any clear motivation. Even some of the basic premise is contrived - why set the 'age of majority' to 30 in general just because a person can't regenerate until 30? Minors are not drink, and everyone under 30 is designated a minor just because this one technology doesn't work for them yet. Lots of little silly things like that.

But the worst part is that nobody has any real motives for anything. A bunch of random things are being done by people for no apparent reason, other than "well I've lived a hundred years I'm ready to try something new." There are also several rabbit trails and things that are hinted at but never followed up on. What exactly is 'retraining?' (The following examples are obvious from the first episode, and apparently not in any way significant to the plot, so don't worry.) Why does Darius get headaches when he regenerates? Does the law they are voting on forbid all births or only restrict them, and if it forbids all births then what will they do as people die from accidents or violence?

The end seems to try to be a bit philosophical, but it fell flat for me because there was never any real reason given to believe anything would really change, ever. It wasn't terrible, it just wasn't clear enough to be moving or thought provoking or exciting or much of anything beyond slightly interesting.

If I could live a thousand years, I don't think I'd ever get bored enough to watch it again.

S01: French series that drag a bit

[surfisfun · 7/10 · 12 February 2019]

6.5/10 Some parts slow. budget in low end of the scale and it show in some of the sets(futuristic empty grey). acting on the less emotional /expressional in general. watch in French . still, if it is a low budget it is a very decent series, specially first 3 episodes.

Well done Sci-Fi detective drama.

[larmo · 7/10 · 22 September 2021]

This is an interesting and fairly different Sci-Fi series. I was happy to discover that it is excellently dubbed in English though subtitles in English are also available. The acting is good, ( Garance Marillieras is really good in her role ), as are the directing, plot and production values. I applaud the fact that the production company didn't add a lot of subplots to lengthen the series past six episodes. I really enjoyed this series.

Usual mediocre French Sci Fi

[francis007 · 6/10 · 5 November 2019]

A good idea left unexplored, lazy world building when it should have been the main focus, average plot that we already have seen - the usual French TV series. Of course they obviously had no money and few ressources and it shows, but they could have exploited it. The fact that the story happens, apparently, close to 100 years in the future but the technology is the same (because no money) could have been a way to build the world if explained. Immortality made technology irrelevant so they stopped innovating. For example. The main issue remains that they did not really think about their own ideas a lot. It's very superficial. Immortality is boring and the youth feel out of place, ok, but go deeper than that, show us how it would radically transform human life and society and the world. Sadly, it went nowhere.

Slow but thought provoking..

[arc-67711 · 6/10 · 30 June 2021]

The story is interesting but it tends to drag a bit.. I had to turn off the english dubs and use subtitles.. The voice actors for the dubs was woefully out of place and amateurish which is unusual for most French language dramas.. The series is a good way to pass the time but not something you're likely to binge just to see what happens next..

Meh

[sleepy_beauty08 · 4/10 · 9 May 2020]

Interesting concept, but it just drags on and on without too much happening in the process.

deeper and deeper

[xelnagazchild · 8/10 · 8 November 2018]

Right now (i have one ep left to watch) i'm hooked up. The first ep had left me undecisive, some parts of it were shallow, but the outstanding performance of Garance Marillier decided me to try see how her rough yong character would evolve. And suddenly, at ep 3, a revelation : the whole thing made sense ! the construction of which you could only see the tip (like an iceberg) previously, was beginning to have its foundation revealed (like a skyscrapper ?). It's a grim story, set in a grim realistic futur, and it becomes grimmer, more intricate, as episodes go on. It suddenly is a real sensible reflexion on death and human's life and the value of it all. Yo don't see that often in a work of fiction. If you give it a try, make sure to not give up before ep 3, admittedly it's halfway in - but it felt like a turning point in the series.

Cannot be in this century

[klingonsister-15496 · 9 November 2019]

In answer to beormas, who wrote: 'This series is set several decades in the future': that would be impossible, because the oldest living person at that time was celebrating her 169 birthday, Darius was 119 years old and Odessa 158. If so, they would have been born halfway the 20th century, and as we know, there was no regeneration at that time. I noticed there was a date displayed on a computerscreen that said: 63-27-2, indicating the year 63, but to my opinion absolutely not 2063. The setting must at least been 145 years from now.

Interesting if you can overlook the plot holes

[krachtm · 7/10 · 8 July 2022]

Medical breakthroughs have rendered most of the population an ageless kind of immortality. Most people stop aging around 30. The first generation of immortals, now 120+, are getting pretty bored. The age of majority has been raised to 30, and teenagers have become so far removed from the rest of society that they're joining radical extremists.

The world created in this series is a bit odd. It seems set in modern day Earth, but they talk about futuristic medical advancements that happened 100+ years ago. No attempt is made to explain this. How hard would it have been to give us some kind of hand-wavey explanation?

Besides how distractingly non-futuristic this looks, it's also confusing as to why people would forget about death. Special death counselors have to explain the concept of death to families. And yet these people are driving the same unsafe cars as us? How is this possible? How are these people not dying in the same car accidents that cause millions of deaths for us?

You have turn off your brain to enjoy a show like this, and yet it has all these pretentious scenes where the writers clearly think they have something profound to say about the human condition. The pretentious scenes do mostly work, though. The actors are good, and the writers seem pretty competent when they're not being lazy.

As long as your expectations aren't too high, this show can work for you. It's interesting, and it has a good cast. After watching this show, I can't really think of a better choice to play a 120-year-old police detective. I do wish the show were less lazy about addressing plot holes and had a better budget, but just having Yvan Attal in the cast goes pretty far.

Mais Pourquoi ?

[keikoyoshikawa · 4/10 · 18 November 2019]

Another speculative French sci-fi series that serves up a really interesting premise. Unfortunately, it falls in the execution.

The story is something that I imagine Isaac Asimov or Philip K Dick could have written: A detective tale set in a plausible not-too-distant future with moral and social implications from a tantalizing technology. Here we're talking about the potential for immortality.

Sadly, that's about as far as the series got. Unlike the similar "Transferts" this plot does not live up to the premise, is confusing, and misses a really good opportunity to answer some serious philosophical questions. In the end, the audience is left wondering why the main characters even bothered to do what they did.

Oh, and the final plot twist is something right off from Star Trek Voyager!

Netflix's info nearly made me miss it...

[asikoracarelse · 9/10 · 20 October 2020]

It was on my list forever as it's sf but Netflix's info on it was so misleading that I kept ignoring the show. I'm so glad I didn't. It's so different and so much better than all the other stuff on immortality. I'm so tired of the type of future imagined in 'blade runner' or 'altered carbon'...all these weird market places where you can buy nearly anything. The future here looks very much like the present, except a couple of details. The show's approach to extending life indefinitely is by far the best I've seen in ages. The show looks at aspects other tv shows usually don't explore, like forgetting what bereavement is. ..quite amazing

Excellent concept, mediocre execution

[JohnM63 · 7/10 · 13 June 2022]

In a world where people at the age of thirty have the right to regenerate their body's, people have to deal with all kind of new problems. The main problem is living space. With so may people immortal the world is running out. In this world young people have become lower rate citizens.

At one point youngsters are starting to get killed and/or disappear. Christina, a young girl, and Darius, a policeman at the end of his current career, start investigating.

The plot develops slowly but in the right tempo and every episode reveals a little more untill in the final episode all comes together.

The concept is great, but the execution has some problems. Here and there you may find a continuity error, and some parts are needlessly slow. The final episode feels like a forced wrapup of the story and you may be left with some questions. Thus a somewhat open end is created and you strat to wonder, will there be a second season. The answer: most likely not.

Keeoing the above in mind, this series is for you if you like dark, slowly developing and intriguing stories that lightly touch upon current actual problems in western society.

Life's too short... for boring and slow tv.

[connorundrumme · 4/10 · 11 December 2019]

It's a psuedo-interesting story told at a glacial pace to EDM. Meh. Who needs a fictional, polarizing sympathy piece for youths as entertainment when our current reality is ageism galore? No, thanks.

Could not even finish Episode 1

[qui_j · 2/10 · 24 December 2019]

This just drags and makes no sense at all. Characters spring up from nowhere and seem irrelevant to the plot. There is a profound lack of continuity to the story line to the point where the viewer loses interest. Confusion reigns supreme and it's impossible to understand what the story is about. Give this one a miss. You'll be doing yourself a huge favor!

Life begins at thirty and may never end in this French sci-fi.

[Tweekums · 8/10 · 15 November 2020]

Thanks to 'regeneration' people no longer need to grow old; the oldest person in the world has just turned 169 and still looks and feels like a thirty something. There is a price of course; as nobody dies of old age or illness death is rare leading to overpopulation. Having children is discouraged and those under thirty don't feel valued. This has led to some committing suicide. When seven bodies are washed up on a beach police officer Darius Asram is called into investigate. He soon finds an apparent link to a mass suicide that took place ten years previously. Wanting to find more about that incident and to discover if the people behind it were involved in the recent case he enlists the help of twenty four year old Christa. She survived that event and has been incarcerated in a secure hospital ever since. Together they will uncover the truth.

I enjoyed this six part series. It provided a good mystery as well as some interesting ideas. The world depicted isn't overly futuristic; apart from the regeneration it could almost be set now. In many ways this can world can be seen as the opposite of that shown in the '70s classic 'Logan's Run'; instead of people being killed at thirty they aren't really valued till they reach that age. We don't get bogged down in pseudo-science; it is just stated that the regeneration is somehow linked to jellyfish, a recurring motif throughout the series. Yvan Attal impresses as Darius and Garance Marillier, best known from the film 'Raw' is solid as Christa. There isn't too much violence but there is a sense of threat. I suspect the only reason this has an '18' rating is because of the importance of suicide to the plot. Overall I found this to be intelligent sci-fi and would certainly recommend it.

These comments are based on watching the series in French with English subtitles.

Cool concept, suspense & mystery only 1 series

[Ianwalby · 9/10 · 16 November 2019]

Exactly what you want from a sci-fi series, cool concept, excellent execution, good acting and several red herrings taking you off into not such a distant future where eternal youth is just beginning, and the young are treated as kids until they are over 30 years old.

It's too easy to press the next episode in this series as the investigation progresses with the characters and plot building into the last episode. There are some shocking scenes that are quite graphic, although not violent. A must watch for those who don't want 'Wham, Bam, smash and grab' kiddies sci-fi.

Someone still knows how to make quality sci fi....

[s3276169 · 10/10 · 5 November 2019]

After the sea of atrocious rubbish that passes as sci fi lately, from the demise of Dr Who, not to mention dismal attempts to remake The War of the Worlds, its refreshing to see a series "this good".

Ad Vitam blends a quality crime thriller with a sci fi that has elements reminiscent of films such as Blade Runner, but still manages to have its own unique personality.

This is a deep series, that delves into human emotion and the things that define us as human. Just as importantly, it looks at what we can become when those things are taken from us.

Top notch acting rounds out this marvellous French series I had to watch in one sitting. Something of a rarity for me these days.

10/10 from me.

Unexpected outcomes, intriguing sci-fi

[Bluereviews4you · 8/10 · 7 December 2019]

I thought the show was well produced. Sure some tech things aren't as advanced as others (they still drive cars but can live indefinitely) but it's a show, it can't have every sci-fi element in it.

The acting was good. The story line was fairly unpredictable and the last few episodes had me hooked since it took some unexpected turns.

Creepy show with an interesting plot.

Yes, it is good!

[sirasychra · 9/10 · 11 December 2019]

Considering this is from future, there is little related to it, such as futuristic phones, or cars, or buildings.

That is where the bad ends. Everything else is pretty good and I must say that I did like it. I don't think second series would be a great addition. Maybe as a separate story? Anyway, watch it and see for yourself, I say it is much better than many American series that are mostly about action. This one has story in it.

Creative Concept

[bigjoshmoney · 8/10 · 11 January 2020]

This was a nice change of pace in a sea of shows crowded with recycled plots and reboots. The execution and writing is a little sloppy in places, but if the series gets picked up, I see that evaporating as the cast and crew gel.

Watch it

[sherriebear-04208 · 8/10 · 7 July 2020]

This show has some issues just like any other show however, the premise is gives you something to think about. The characters develop nicely to keep you watching for little items that give you more into their pasts or current life. The use of jellyfish throughout the series made me happy for the beginning as I went right to the thought of the immortal jellyfish and their ability to survive. They created a great parallel for me. Altogether the show was worth watching. I just fear it will be like Alter Carbon and tank season 2.

Hooked

[andreshuerfanoh · 8/10 · 10 September 2021]

It was an intense experience, great performances a bizarre yet relatable topic, it has a pretty amazing format every character is intense.

What happened with all the car plates? That distracted me a lot.