✕ ✕
Turning tips into memories
Login
Signup

You have reached the limit of free articles.


To enjoy unlimited access to Culture Whisper sign up for FREE.
Find out more about Culture Whisper

Please fix the following input errors:

  • dummy

Each week, we send newsletters and communication featuring articles, our latest tickets invitations, and exclusive offers.

Occasional information about discounts, special offers and promotions.


OR
LOG IN

OR
  • LOG IN WITH FACEBOOK

Thanks for signing up to Culture Whisper.
Please check your inbox for a confirmation email and click the link to verify your account.



EXPLORE CULTURE WHISPER
✕ ✕
Turning tips into memories
Login
Signup

Please fix the following input errors:

  • dummy
Forgot your username or password?
Don't have an account? Sign Up

OR
  • LOG IN WITH FACEBOOK

If you click «Log in with Facebook» and are not a Culture Whisper user, you agree to our Terms & Conditions and to our Privacy Policy, which includes our Cookie Use

Support Us Login
  • Home
  • Going Out
    • Things to do
    • Food & Drink
    • Theatre
    • Visual Arts
    • Cinema
    • Kids
    • Festival
    • Gigs
    • Dance
    • Classical Music
    • Opera
    • Immersive
    • Talks
  • Staying In
    • TV
    • Books
    • Cook
    • Podcast
    • Design
    • Netflix
  • Life & Style
    • Beauty
    • Fashion
    • Gifting
    • Wellbeing
    • Lifestyle
    • Shopping
    • Jewellery
  • Explore
  • Shopping
  • CW SHOPS
  • Support Us
  • Get Started
  • Tickets
  • CW SHOPS
Get the Best of London Life, Culture and Style
By entering my email I agree to the CultureWhisper Privacy Policy (we won`t share data & you can unsubscribe anytime).
TV

After Life, Netflix review ★★★★★

On 08 Mar 19, 12:00 AM

In Netflix's After Life, Ricky Gervais plays a man who stops being nice after his wife (Kerry Godliman) dies. Now he always tells the brutal, impolite truth

By Euan Franklin on 7/3/2019

Ricky Gervais in After Life, Netflix
Ricky Gervais in After Life, Netflix
After Life, Netflix review 4 After Life, Netflix review Euan Franklin
Not being able to say something in fear of argument, embarrassment, or politeness can be oppressive. How many times is it possible to nod along to someone boring? Or ignore a teenager on their phone in the cinema? Or say sorry for bumping into someone who’s walking too slowly? But we stay quiet and repressed and realise getting angry isn’t worth it.


But in the new Netflix comedy-drama After Life, Ricky Gervais removes that polite filter and says whatever the f*** he wants – treating brutal honesty like a superpower.



Tony (Ricky Gervais) treats brutal honesty like a superpower


Worlds away from The Office or Extras, After Life unfolds like an allegorical treatise for Gervais’s personal philosophies. He plays Tony, a writer at a town newspaper, whose wife dies of cancer. He decides to take out his anger on the world via everyone he encounters, always speaking his mind no matter how insulting, with the assurance that he can always kill himself if it gets too much.


This runs contrary to what his wife, played by Kerry Godliman (Derek), wanted after she died – leaving behind video messages teaching him how to move past her. But he's not able to and, in her words, becomes ‘absolutely f***ing useless’.


Tony's brother-in-law, Matt, is his opposite – approaching life with a naïve niceness that’s never rewarded. Matt desperately wants to help, being the bright and optimistic core of the series, but Tony bats him away, his mind seemingly set.


The only reason he hasn’t killed himself is because of the dog (pets are a common deterrent for suicidal people). Tony’s dog is his pull back to life, his bark a motivator to put the razorblades down.



Tony's dog is his pull back to life (pictured: Ricky Gervais, left, Kerry Godliman, right)


There are long dialogues and monologues about whether life is worth living and why it should be lived, offering Tony an escape from his misanthropic ways. These can drift into unnatural and sometimes clichéd aphorisms, making the series almost into more of a self-help guide than a character drama – but these scenes are still absorbing and painfully human.


And despite being Gervais’s darkest project to date, it’s not all doom and gloom. The comedy shines through, mostly in the ludicrous things people do to get in the town newspaper. All you need to get into the Tambury Gazette is a wall stain that resembles Kenneth Branagh or a baby that looks like Hitler.



Tony engages in existential dialogues with a local widow (Penelope Wilton)

Gervais plays the part well, in a role he’s literally crafted for himself. He reveals his more emotional, vulnerable side, which isn’t seen in his interviews, radio shows or stand-up tours. It’s always a shock to watch Gervais cry, considering the funny, careless persona he puts across.


After Life won’t be for everyone, and might prove poisonous to those with a spiritual and optimistic outlook on life and death. But for the cynical, the pessimistic and the bleak, it’s a cathartic antidote to the dread of existence – a way of seeing meaninglessness as a drive for good rather than evil.


After Life is available to stream on Netflix on Friday 8th March




What After Life, Netflix review
When On 08 Mar 19, 12:00 AM
Price £n/a
Website



Most popular

Best London Exhibition to see now
Top exhibitions on now in London
Things to do in London this weekend: 9–11 June
Things to do in London this weekend: 9–11 June
Irene Maiorino and Alba Rohrwacher in My Brilliant Friend season 4, HBO/Sky Atlantic (Photo: HBO)
My Brilliant Friend, season 4, Sky Atlantic: first-look photo, release date, plot, cast

Editor's Picks

Mila Kunis in Forgetting Sarah Marshall (2008)
New to Netflix UK: March 2019
Phoebe Waller-Bridge in Fleabag series 2, BBC One / iPlayer
Fleabag series 2, BBC review, episode 1
Amanda Seyfried in The Crowded Room, AppleTV+ (Photo: Apple)
What to watch on TV this week
Leaving Neverland, Channel 4
Leaving Neverland: Michael Jackson and Me, Channel 4 review
Emilia Clarke and Kit Harrington in Game of Thrones season 8, Sky Atlantic
Best TV shows, Spring 2019
Jodie Comer as Villanelle in Killing Eve
Killing Eve season 2, BBC review
Sign up to CW’s newsletter
By entering my email I agree to the CultureWhisper Privacy Policy (we won`t share data & you can unsubscribe anytime).

After Life

Ricky Gervais

Netflix

TV

Comedy

You might like

  • Emilia Clarke in Game of Thrones season 8, Sky Atlantic

    Game of Thrones season 8: everything we know

  • Tchéky Karyo in Baptiste, BBC One

    Baptiste episode 3 review ★★★★★

  • Matthew McConaughey and Anne Hathaway in Serenity, Sky Premiere

    Serenity review ★★★★★

  • Alan Partridge (Steve Coogan) returns to the BBC

    This Time with Alan Partridge, BBC One ★★★★★

  • Tchéky Karyo in Baptiste, BBC One

    Baptiste episode 2 review ★★★★★

  • The Father: Max (Richard Gere), one of the world's wealthiest businessmen in MotherFatherSon, BBC

    MotherFatherSon, BBC Two review ★★★★★



  • The Culture Whisper team
  • Support Us
  • Tickets
  • Contact us
  • Press
  • FAQ
  • Privacy
  • Terms and conditions
  • Cookies
  • Discover
  • Venues
  • Restaurants
  • Stations
  • Boroughs
Sign up to CW’s newsletter
By entering my email I agree to the CultureWhisper Privacy Policy (we won`t share data & you can unsubscribe anytime).
×