I have only recently in the past year become a fan of Ricky Gervais and I have to say, After Life, is probably one of the best works I’ve seen of his so far.
In this series Ricky Gervais plays a man called Tony who had a perfect life – until is wife Lisa died. After this tragic event in his life, he changed. He contemplates taking his life but then decides he would rather live long enough to punish the world by saying and doing whatever he likes. He thinks of it as a superpower but it ends up being trickier than he thought when his friends and family try to save the nice guy that they used to know.
The first time you see Tony he is already grieving as he sits and watches a video that his wife made before she died, instructing him to get on with his life. And within the first few episodes you see how he’s decided to live his life, by saying and doing what he wants. He sneers and rolls his eyes at the the people in the town who try to get themselves into the local paper by doing or having the weirdest/stupidest things. For example, playing instruments from their nose or water stains that look like celebrities.
Theres the idea within this series of accepting how all consuming grief can be and can affect you however, this message gets lost a little as the programme shows Tony’s aggressive unpleasantness as much as it does. The turning point for Tony comes when someone finally calls him out to his face, which was the nurse from the home his father stays, where Tony visits everyday. She finally snaps, saying. “You’re like a troll on Twitter. Just because you’re all upset, means everyone else has to feel upset. At first I thought, ‘I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt’ because I just assumed you were always having a bad day. But maybe it’s just because you’re a c—t.” After this moment the mood of the series shifts. Even though it seems like Tony doesn’t realise it yet, this moment was what he needed to go forward, the call-out he needed to recognise that what he was doing wasn’t what he should be doing.
When he would visit his wife at the grave throughout the show, he be-friends another widower who sat on a bench talking to her husband, Anne. She tells him that there’s “no point feeling sorry for ourselves and making everyone else unhappy, too,” From the talks with Anne and the things his family and friends would say to him. Tony finally realises what he has to do in his life. He tells everyone how sorry he is, he starts to finally turn his life around, even asking the nurse out on a date.
This programme will make you want to laugh and cry. It is such an amazing programme that takes you through someone’s life who is grieving and trying to just get through life without even caring what happens. This series is a heart-felt programme that will make you think about things more and in different ways.
RachelWrites 
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