AFTER LIFE - A Series Review

Ricky Gervais and I have a complicated relationship. Of course, he has no idea of this and doubtlessly wouldn't care. But despite my beefs with some of his tactics and the delivery of some of his opinions, particularly about faith and religion, I think he's--by and large--hilarious. I didn't enjoy his movie, The Invention of Lying, and some of his standup has been "meh," but his series are solid gold (with the exception of An Idiot Abroad, which I found to be pretty obnoxious and downright mean at times). Anyway, all this to say that when I saw he had released a new series on Netflix called After Life, I eagerly hit "play" on episode 1. And I watched all six episodes in a row. Because that's how I roll.

Here's the basic premise: a recent widower named Tony (Gervais) decides after his wife, Lisa, dies that life is no longer worth living. But since he's ruled out suicide as viable choice, he opts to simply be the biggest asshole on the planet, instead. When he's not making his co-workers and everyone else around him miserable, he watches videos his dying wife left for him to remind him of who he was, through her eyes. They're touching and funny and--in light of what the viewer sees of the only Tony we know--poignant and heartbreaking. The people around Tony, however, aren't ready to give up on him like he's given up on life and himself, and their daily interactions with him start to make an impact, bit by bit. It's a surprisingly heartwarming show from the usually crass mind of Gervais, even more so than Derek, in that it relies a lot less on cheap humor and gross-out tactics.

One of my favorite parts of the show was all of the familiar faces from other Gervais productions. Their willingness to be in so many of Gervais's shows leads me to believe he's not as big of a jerk as he'd like the world to believe. Kerry Godliman (Derek) plays Lisa. Ashley Jensen (Extras) plays a nursing home nurse. Other Gervais regulars include Tony Way (Extras) and David Earl (Derek). And then there were the bigger names who signed on and were a delight to see in such a quirky show: Penelope Wilton, David Bradley (Filch, from Harry Potter), and Paul Kaye (Game of Thrones). In fact, like most UK shows I watch, one of the best parts is spotting all of the people you've seen in every other UK production. Actors over there are amazingly diverse and just seem to love to act--no matter what the platform.

So if you're at loose ends and love to cringe-laugh, check out After Life on Netflix. It just premiered March 8, 2019, so it should be available there for a while.

I give it: