After Life

Not at all surprisingly, After Life – a Netflix original series – won the National Television Award for Best Comedy

After Life was written, directed, and stars Ricky Gervais. Now I know he is an actor who many love, but I have to admit, I was not a real fan, having never really gotten into The Office (either the UK version or the US one). However, I fell hard and head-long into After Life.

Ricky Gervais plays Tony, a newspaper writer, who has just suffered the loss of his wife from cancer, a soul-crushing tragedy for anyone to endure. However, Tony does not reach out for help or accept any caring. Instead he becomes depressed, misanthropic, and bitter.

If you’re looking for a hero, Tony isn’t it. He’s often mean, a bit prejudiced, arrogant, and he thinks he’s right about everything — the self-absorbed master of his own universe. And the show uses Ricky Gervais’s standard rude, offensive and unapologetic humor.

I can hear you asking, really Book Barmy? This show sounds dreadful – but trust me, it’s absolutely not.

After Life incredibly relatable, dark, yet most of all — beautiful. The show is peppered with silly, realistic day-to-day moments that will make you sadly smile. Living with grief is hard, but this series shows such a struggling man with humorous compassion which had me binge watching all three seasons.

There’s a wacky cast of characters, the postman who is victim to Ricky’s Tony’s sarcastic barbs and assorted, weird but lovable, friends and co-workers. The wonderful Penelope Wilton plays Anne, the widow Tony befriends at the cemetery where both their spouses are buried. It’s a delight to see her on their meeting bench, talking to her dead husband and offering advice to Tony when he can’t quite see past himself. We all need a friend outside our own worlds to lean on, and Anne gives Tony exactly that, quietly understanding things that no one else can.

After Life is mix of beauty, sadness, and laughs, but at the same time, it’s true and heart breaking. Brilliantly, its tough topics are handled with a sort of sarcastic humor that keeps the audience’s head above water, without sugar-coating the depths of Tony’s grief. And yet, the powerful ending, when Tony reaches the realization that life is brief and fragile, but worth having a good go at – if you’re like me, you will only have happy tears

Here’s one of my favorite clips. Tony has been assigned to visit and report on children in a cancer ward with his sidekick photographer, Lenny.

CLIP HERE

Warnings: There is profanity and some offensive humor. Also, Tony seriously considers suicide, but in the end there is always a reason to carry on, even it it’s just to feed the dog.