A blog that argues that the black comedy After Life, should have ended in its prime after series 2.

Disappointing third series

Having just finished watching the third series of After Life by Ricky Gervais, I am left feeling somewhat disappointed. The third series dragged, was a bit corny, and it sort of ran out of puff. This is in contrast to the first two series that were exceptional.

TV bucket list

Watching the After Life has always been on my bucket list of TV shows to see. This is because I have read loads people rave about it on my social media for years. I also reckon you could class me as a definite fan of Ricky Gervais and his previous work.

Grief

That said, I guess I have avoided After Life a bit because at its heart I knew it was about dealing with grief. I lost my dad when I was 21, so I wondered if it would stir up painful emotions for me that had been locked away somewhere. Therefore, I kind of stumbled upon watching it, but am pleased that I did.

Immediate impression

My immediate impression of the first few episodes of After Life, was that this was TV show of great quality. Gervais plays the role of Tony Johnson, a head of features journalist for a local newspaper. We find him totally engulfed by depression and grief, after recently losing his beloved wife Lisa (Kerry Godliman), to breast cancer. We get to know Lisa by seeing her in a series of flashbacks and via Tony’s home videos.

Emotive

Gervais needs applauding for both his poignant writing and acting. I think I was reduced to tears almost every episode of the first two series. This mixed in with the regular moments of humour too, I was pleased I had finally decided to embrace it.

Ray’s dementia

As the episodes progressed, I began to care more not just about Tony, but also the rest of the characters too. A special mention needs to go to the sublime actor David Bradley, who plays Tony’s dad, Ray. Ray has severe dementia and regularly asks Tony how Lisa is doing? This struck a deep chord with me because my late gran had severe dementia and would regularly ask my mum how Harold was (my mum’s recently deceased husband, and my dad).

Great acting

Penelope Wilton’s performance of wise old Anne (a grieving widow) needs praising. Penelope and Ricky share a great onscreen chemistry in every scene they do together. I also thought Tony’s boss at work and brother-in-law, Matt (Tom Basden), was well acted as the funny wimp (albeit I thought this character had slight undertones of Alan Partridge).

Gripping

The postman Pat character (Joe Wilkinson) is funny, Tony’s friendship with the Gazette’s photographer Lenny (Tony Way) is both endearing and amusing, and his ‘will they or won’t they’ storyline with nurse Emma (Ashley Jensen), was immensely gripping because I willed Tony to find happiness again.

Almost faultless

By the end of series 2 I was loving it all. The show had not really put a foot wrong. At the end, we even got a much needed resolution of sorts to the Tony and Emma romance storyline.

Ran out of steam

The problem with series 3 is that it ran out of steam, and we had seen it all before at this stage. Tony still watching videos of Lisa began to grate on me, as well as his all-consuming sadness. The lewd jokes from irritating Brian (David Earl), who reminded me of an unfunny version of Jim from Friday Night Dinner started to irritate me, and the other male sex humour jokes just lacked originality.

Missing characters

The third series also missed two important characters in the shape of endearing journalist Sandy (Mandeep Dhillon), and sex worker Roxy (Roisin Conaty). I missed watching Roxy regularly go round to Tony’s for a caring and often amusing chitchat.

The power of animals

As stated, the first two series were great, and any show that deals with the challenging subjects of grief, suicide, and dementia, needs to be applauded. It also shined a much needed light on the unique way animals (in this case a dog), can help humans cope with severe tragedy and sadness in life.

Boring

However, good storylines were just a bit thinner on the ground and less gripping in the third series. I found myself watching it now more out of habit, than out of enjoyment. Fundamentally, the storylines had become boring and the jokes not funny anymore.

Conclusion

Definitely still worth a watch regardless of my latter criticisms of it. I would just stop watching it at the end of series 2 though. Afterall, we all want to be remembered when we are in our prime, don’t we?

4/5.