After Life: Just What the World Needs

To be honest I didn’t expect Ricky Gervais to make such a compelling web series. Ricky Gervais is probably one of the most intelligent celebrities I have seen. He is unapologetically honest in his opinions, and his stand ups are outright offensive and disgustingly brilliant (only he could imagine his sagging testicles like a raft on which his penis rests). He has also hosted the Golden Globe awards multiple times (much to the chagrin of the celebs in attendance). You can’t really blame the celebs for hating him when he introduces Bruce Willis as ‘Ashton Kutcher’s dad’.

But After Life is different. Of course it does have his caustic humour in generous amount. It however shows a very mature, human and intellectual aspect of Ricky Gervais both as the writer/director as well as the actor.

After Life tells the tale of Tony played by Ricky Gervais who is grieving the death of his wife due to cancer. She has recorded videos of herself telling him to move on when she is gone. Her absence sends Tony in a spiral of hurt and anger, and many times finds him close to killing himself. He hates the world which he feels is full of ‘arseholes’. He doesn’t waste time in pleasing anyone, and hates people for the flimsiest reason (someone yawning or chewing too loudly). He chides a postman who often reads his mail, in the most savage way possible.

Other moments include him threatening a kid with a hammer or calling him to a ‘tubby little ginger cunt’. He works for a small time newspaper and where primarily he interviews people who feel they have something special in them (like interviewing the parents of a newborn who resembles Adolf Hitler).

The only thing that stops Tony from dying is a bunch of friends who never give up on him despite being tired of his inability to look beyond his grief and being horrible to everyone around him.

Despite being only 6 episodes in length, After Life is probably the perfect antidote to the usual fare that is available on TV or the Web (seriously I have had enough of ISIS-Balochistan-ISI mess). This is one show which genuinely makes you laugh and cry in equal measure. Probably cry more because Ricky Gervais brilliantly portrays the pained soul of Tony. Tony is a mix of all our frustrations and hurt. Everything and everyone annoys him. Which is the case with all of us at some point in life. Or most of life for some. But sooner or later, we do manage to realise that everything and everyone eventually becomes a memory. And it is important to cherish them while they last.

Cheers to the makers of After Life. And cheers again because there is going to be a second season.

(*above images sourced from Ricky Gervais' instagram)