SummaryCreated, directed and starring Ricky Gervais as a widower, who decides to say and do anything he wants, no matter the consequences, to punish the world in this dark comedy.
SummaryCreated, directed and starring Ricky Gervais as a widower, who decides to say and do anything he wants, no matter the consequences, to punish the world in this dark comedy.
Throughout the six-episode season, we see Tony slowly cope with his pain. The process is done so organically that it feels authentic. But what makes this series truly memorable is how brilliantly Ricky Gervais injects humor into such complex subject matter. Touching, poignant and humorous, this is some of the comedian’s best work yet.
Ricky Gervais' best work since The Office.
To infused such twisted humour into what is a difficult subject matter takes skill and clever wiritng. An excellent show.
After Life finds its own pulse mostly when Gervais is doing riffs that wouldn't be at all out of place in his standup, podcast or other performative routines. ... It's harder to feel much in the repetitive loops of Tony lamenting the squalor of his life, meandering around town criticizing people for mundane behavior or staring at the endless movies that his wife left him so that, in the afterlife, she could be remembered as a plot device and not a character of her own.
As a meaningful meditation on grief, After Life is dead on arrival. As a comedy, it’s good only for a few passing chuckles. It wants so badly to be both comedy and drama--to be both funny and touching--that it fails pretty spectacularly at both.
I'll start by stating that I enjoyed After Life more than any TV show Ricky Gervais has created since Extra's but this is still a far cry from reaching the heights of that show let alone the brilliance of The Office.
Throughout the six episodes there are plenty of genuine laughs to be found but, as with much of what Gervais has created over the last decade or so, the writing and most of the characters lack any kind of subtlety with everything painstakingly explained to the viewer and a sudden character shift in the final episode that comes completely out of the blue. The usual topics of 'atheism' and 'causing offence' that Gervais likes to talk about on every chat show or podcast he's on are also shoehorned in in a way that just felt totally unnatural.
With some editing (maybe from former writing partner Stephen Merchant?) this could perhaps have been Gervais' comeback but as it is it's only a small step in the right direction.
I really wanted to enjoy the show, but it felt bland and unconvincing. The six episode arc felt rushed and unrealistic. Ricky Gervais has great potential, but the show was a poorly framed argument with nothing convincing in it.
I know I'm spitting into the wind here with all these high (shill) ratings but this is a horrible show, not entertaining in the least, a real miss for the otherwise funny Ricky Gervais. This series tries to be like "Curb Your Enthusiasm" except for some key elements: there's no light, whimsical background/theme music, there's no studio audience to nervously laugh, and there are no appealing secondary characters; in fact, British people seem to be very plain Jane, bland, dull, etc. Ricky plays a British dude who becomes a real a-hole to those around him as a reaction to a tragic relationship event. His a-holeishness is more harsh and cutting than funny or humorous, though. And the flashbacks are supposed to be endearing, I guess, but they just don't score, they seem out of place for this. This series just fails across the board, can't find anything redeeming here.