there were some genuinely funny scenes too, most notably a discussion between Gervais and Merchant about charity. And Steve Brody as Warwick's ineffectual giggly/depressive accountant continued to shine." More positive reviews could be found in The Telegraph, where Gerald O'Donovan praised the show for its "belly laughs and cringe-making moments." Likewise, Caroline Frost of The Huffington Post applauded both the writing and the acting following the first episode, proclaiming that though it could easily have overreached, "Gervais and Merchant have pulled another one out of the hat." While the first episode rated strongly in the UK, the ratings dropped by 40% in the following week, and by the fifth episode the overnight ratings had dropped below a million, to 997,000—35% down on the average audience for its timeslot in the UK. Critical reaction to the Easter special was more positive, Dan Owen of msn.tv said "this Easter special was one of Life's Too Short's better episodes and provided enough laughs and fun to please most viewers." He felt that the special felt like a new pilot for the show that "fixed a few problems." He felt that Keith Chegwin, Shaun Williamson and Les Dennis were the funniest parts of the hour. Overall he gave the special 3 stars out of five. The Metro agreed saying, "there were laughs to be had here, mainly from the antics of Williamson, Chegwin and Dennis." The Guardian praised the episode and called it "a piece of genius" and admired it for being "done with such a breathtaking boldness." Harry Venning of The Stage gave a positive review of the first series also gave a positive review of the special "My favourite comedy of 2011 enjoyed a last hurrah. Sadly, it looks as though there will be no second series." He felt that Rosamund Hanson provided scene-stealing support as dippy secretary Cheryl. He concluded that overall Life's Too Short was "Painfully poignant, beautifully played and constantly inventive, this one-hour special conclusively proved that Life’s Too Shorts own end was also premature." US critical response In the United States, the show received generally positive reviews. At Metacritic, which assigns a weighted mean rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the show received an average score of 63, based on 14 reviews, which indicates "Generally favorable reviews". On Rotten Tomatoes, the show holds a rating of 55% based on 33 critics, with the consensus reading: