This Life: Story, Cast and Series Facts

Story and premise

What would you do if you were diagnosed with terminal cancer? In This Life, one woman finds out.

Set in contemporary Montreal, This Life is a funny, honest, heartfelt series about a regular family whose world turns upside down overnight. Like its French-language counterpart, Nouvelle adresse, this is a family saga focusing on Natalie Lawson, a lifestyle columnist and single mother in her early forties whose terminal cancer diagnosis sends her on a quest to help her three teenage children get ready for the future, while trying her best to live in the now.

Natalie's diagnosis is a life-changer for everyone she loves. Faced with the uncertainty of life, each Lawson does their best to embrace the absurdity of the journey, while confronting the drama that comes with all of their choices, big and small. To get through all this Natalie leans on her two brothers, her sister and her parents, a close-knit, charmingly imperfect clan who each have their own unpredictable personal and professional hills to climb. Through a mix of drama and humour, This Life explores the many ups and downs of life in a touching, relatable and deeply human story that is positioned to resonate with Canadians across the country.

Series details

• Title: This Life
• Format: Scripted
• Language: English
• Genres: Drama, Family, Medical
• Premiere date: 2015-10-05
• Final broadcast date listed: 2016-12-11
• Status in TVmaze: Ended
• Network listed by TVmaze: CBC
• Network country: Canada
• Typical episode runtime: 60 minutes
• TVmaze community rating: 7.8/10
• TVMaze ID: 3384

Cast and credited roles

• Lauren Lee Smith — Maggie Lawson
• Kristopher Turner — Oliver Lawson
• Rick Roberts — Matthew Lawson
• James Wotherspoon — Caleb Lawson
• Stephanie Janusauskas — Emma Lawson
• Julia Scarlett Dan — Romy Lawson
• Peter MacNeill — Gerald Lawson
• Janet-Laine Green — Janine Lawson
• Rachael Crawford — Danielle Berg
• Torri Higginson — Natalie Lawson
• Melissa O'Neil — Sarah

Seasons in the TVmaze catalogue

• Season 1: premiered 2015-10-05; final listed air date 2015-12-14; episode order: 10.
• Season 2: premiered 2016-10-02; final listed air date 2016-12-11; episode order: 10.

Source and licence

Adapted from This Life on TVmaze. The synopsis is reproduced as plain text; catalogue facts, cast and season records are selected and reformatted. This adapted text is available under CC BY-SA 4.0, following the TVmaze API licence. Network and web-channel credits identify the service listed in this source; they do not establish current streaming availability.