I watched Be Here Now a couple of nights ago, it was as you say really sad. To see the love he had for his family and they had for him, he came across as a really strong, grounded guy, wish it had been a happier ending, but like you said we all knew what was going to happen. I also watched a documentary called Gleason after watching Be Here Now, another doc centring around an ex football player who contracted the life changing diagnosis of ALS just as his partner became pregnant, a powerful story worth a viewing if you can find it.

I started watching it but stopped after a while. It reminded me too much of the emotional roller coaster my family went through as my mother went through her battle with non Hodgkin's lymphoma. Watching Andy and his wife dealing with their hopes and their disappointments as they received news which was first encouraging, and later bad news reminded me of what happened with mom. Perhaps the rest of the show would not have been as hard to watch as the first part, but I did not want to think about it anymore.

I can't watch stuff like this because it is just too depressing. But it is interesting to read about it. I don't know anything about him but he was really outstanding in Spartacus. I think the guy they got to replace him was really good too (after a while), but still not as good Andy Whitfield. That guy was utterly convincing. The cruel death really affected me. So talented, good looking, and in such good shape, and it still killed him mercilessly. It makes me feel a weird mixture of emptiness, sadness and anger. If it effected me like that after only seeing him in a TV show for 1 season, I dread to think what it did to his friends and family.

It took me a while to accept the new Spartacus too. I know it was a tough job to have to step into, and he must have realized the fans would take a while to warm up to him simply because Andy was so good and everybody was still reeling from his death. They threw that prequel season in between to give a backstory to the founding of the gladiator school to give people time to adjust. It would have much more difficult for him to step in the very next season.

Yes, I watched it. It was very emotional and was very painful to watch him die. I'll be honest, I had tears in my eyes watching it.