Ricky Gervais is known for comedies. In most of them, he is known to be blunt, totally devoid of social conventions, goofy, and oblivious to others’ feelings. In Netflix’s After Life, he plays the same character. But there’s a huge difference. He is still intolerable, but because he is coping with a loss.
I wasn’t planning to watch After Life because the premise looked devastatingly sad to me. It is about a suicidal man who has lost his wife recently. Dangerous territory to go into 2020 actually. But then someone shared a trailer of the show and I just watched it. It was a trailer of a series of insults Ricky’s character Tony unleashing on one and all, each weirder than previous. That got me intrigued so I delved into it. Yes, insults crafted well makes things interesting to me.
I think Ricky Gervais carries the shown totally on himself and makes it a really important and poignant show. I actually liked it and finished watching 2 seasons of it. It is a dramady where Tony is trying to control himself from going all berserk and ending himself. But whenever he tries to, he meets with other interesting people who make him realize that everyone is broken in one way or the other. He meets certain people who might have bigger issues than his. And, that makes one feel surely more optimistic.
If you have suffered a loss and you are trying to not come out of the pain because it feels like home now, I think this show is for you. Rarely you get to see shows about hope and living and carrying on. Some things and some people are irreplaceable (this too shall never pass). There is no denying that. There would be many things showing up again and again. They might remind you that all is lost. It might just push you and drown you in pessimism, but I feel, that there might still be some good things around the corner. What’s left otherwise! However big the mishap is, we still have to pick up the pieces and continue our journey.
Each episode starts and ends with Ricky Gervais reminiscing while watching old videos and these scenes just break you. But then, soon there is always some knock on the door or some call that pulls you back towards hope. Sometimes, it gets repetitive too. Nevertheless, I think After Life as a series is a good watch which makes you feel that not all is lost.
