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Ricky Gervais's After Life series 3 [split topic]

Started by Cursus, July 23, 2020, 09:33:21 PM

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kalowski


TheQueensboroBridge

Quote from: BritishHobo on January 15, 2022, 10:09:09 PMDoes he actually? Jesus christ. If so I think that's a perfect example of what I mean. Everything he does is based in subverting his own inaccurate view on what he thinks other people think. He has no idea how the world works, but he's seen cosy villages on TV, so he thinks we all unquestioningly think that a cosy village is the happiest place you could possibly live. He thinks we're all going to go 'jesus christ, he lives there, and yet he's unhappy?! But HOW?!" As if there aren't countless books and TV shows and perspectives about how small town/village life can be isolating and miserable and insular. As if one of the best UK comedies of recent times (This Country) isn't all about that dead-end feeling of living in some closed-off rural community. He thinks that we all think of lovely small towns with village greens and a nice local bobby, and we're all to have our minds blown when a boring rich cunt turns up to his job at the local paper and goes 'god life is shit'.

It reminds me of a quote he said when the David Brent film came out. He said his reasoning for not getting any other Office castmembers back, and not returning to Wernham Hogg, was that it wouldn't be believable to see people still working in the same office fifteen years later. I thought, you really don't have a fucking clue about anything, do you?

He fundamentally doesn't understand any of the topics he covers, because he's spent decades having smoke blown up his arse in the celebrity world, and yet he approaches every single one as if he's shattering long-held truths. Same with Derek, the idea that the viewing public would be blown away to discover that Derek, a man who looks and acts odd, is capable of being kind!!!!!!

It's incredible really, the way he repeats some fairly obvious and banal human truths that most people grasp before they reach adulthood:

Don't judge a book by its cover

It's usually a nice idea to be kind if you can

You can't escape yourself

And does it in such a way where he seems convinced he's some kind of modern day Copernicus/Aristotle sharing his revelatory thoughts with us mere peasants.

Sadly he feels empowered to do so because he has stumbled across a sycophantic audience of fucking idiots who genuinely do seem to find such trite and basic shit to be some kind of philosophy. It's why he's so popular with the Live the life you love, Love the life you live crowd.


Blue Jam

Has Gervais ever mentioned This Country at all? A show massively influenced by The Office, whose creators have acknowledged this and praised the show on numerous occasions, which is critically acclaimed and has won awards, and which (most crucially of all) is getting an American remake? He must have been curious and noticed it, surely?

The "You can be miserable anywhere" thing is such bollocks too. Everything from BoJack Horseman to Succession to The White Lotus has done that recently and done it better.

checkoutgirl

QuoteSo the other day i was on a train coming back from my hometown, and, I was on the train and this girl walks on, good looking girl. And I thought "aye up", largely empty carriage, I'm thinking my lucks in. You know, cos I take every opportunity, that's the thing about me, you know I don't choose.

Good looking girl, she sat down, she was sat down right near me, I thought brilliant, and there's this guy, a guy comes up right behind her right. And I think, it's probably her dad or something, sits down next to her. And I listen in on the conversation obviously because I'm pretending to read, it was a very clever, I read the same page for hours, I was listening but pretending to read.

And, I realised that it's not her dad or anything, it's Ricky Gervais. And I'm thinking, brilliant, if she's the kind of girl who's just gonna start talking to someone, you know, on a platform, on a train, brilliant, I'm gonna be in here. Cos he was only going one stop, so I'm thinking, what's the worst that can happen? He'll nick off, you know, I'll get chatting to her, you know and who knows, join the club, the ... foot high club.

And, so I'm excited, you know I'm listening in. And, they're talking and it turns out that she's a kind of graduate, just finished university, or she's just coming to her finals or something. And they're chatting away you know and, I think she was gonna study Cinematography or something like that, and she was thinking about doing her project on Ricky's most recent sitcom, 'After Life'.

So, she was asking him you know, by way of conversation, she was asking him what he knew about 'After Life' you know. And he was fumbling for some, his vague knowledge of it that he had in his life.

But I'm just sat there thinking "yeah come on love, in any given 'After Life' episode, the protagonist will continue to use his dead wife to justify his irresponsible and nihilistic behaviour and after a brief period of recycled material, philosophical soundbites and five to ten gratuitous uses of the word 'cunt', emerge the same character that he was in the start of the episode". If that is not gonna get a woman sweaty down below, then nothing is.

So at that point i knew i was just biding my time. I thought I'm just going to go in for the kill any minute. So anyway, it comes to Ricky's stop right, he gets out. I'm thinking this is a piece of cake. And he gets off and off he goes, he walks off. And I'm thinking brilliant, and I thought I'll wait, you know I'll wait until the train's pulled away, I'm not going to leap in straight away.

And, he comes back on the carriage. I'm thinking hang on a minute. He goes "Listen, do you mind if a give you my twitter address?". "If you want to ask me more stuff on 'After Life', tweet me". I'm thinking "come on you loser get off now, save your face. Please. Before it gets too embarassing". She ACCEPTS the twitter address because she obviously doesn't want to hurt his feelings or whatever, I'm thinking fair enough, she's a good woman, I'm liking her, I'm thinking that's my kind of girl. So anyway, he gets off.

I'm sat there and the train pulls away, I'm thinking, I'll wait a few minutes, you know just give her some time. Her phone rings. It's her friend on the phone, and, she starts talking. And I was listening in, and she was going, "Yeah just met Ricky Gervais on the train". I'm thinking, "Yeah that's true enough." She goes, "Yeah he was a good looking guy". I thought, "You're havin' a laugh, love." To be honest, because I was looking at him, and she said to her friend, "He looks a bit like football player David Beckham". I thought, "Well, you should be so lucky, frankly", cos I saw him. He had awful facial hair if that's what makes him look like David Beckham, terrible little beard, it was laughable. And then she goes, "Yeah I met him we got chatting about 'After Life'" and she was going, "It's not often that you watch something you know, generally in life that's you know, kind of thoughtful, and intelligent, and funny". And I thought to myself, "I'm not even going to waste my time with you, love."

MrsWarboysLover

Quote from: TheQueensboroBridge on January 15, 2022, 09:22:29 PMNothing will ever beat 'Fix You' in Derek for such a painfully obvious and trite choice of song. And so fucking lazy.

I can't find it now, but there used to be a video floating around of behind the scenes stuff for extras, with him and Steve in a hotel room trying to book Tom Cruise.
They're not getting anywhere with the phone calls they're making, and they start to joke about how it's like watching a documentary about a sad, celebrity obsessed fantasist. Gervais pulls his Derek face, and then makes a joke about how there'd be footage of him walking to the shops while Coldplay is heard in the background.

I mean, we all know the origin of Derek was him mocking disabled people, but even the cliches he uses seriously now were originally jokes too

TheQueensboroBridge

Quote from: MrsWarboysLover on January 16, 2022, 08:03:36 AMI can't find it now, but there used to be a video floating around of behind the scenes stuff for extras, with him and Steve in a hotel room trying to book Tom Cruise.
They're not getting anywhere with the phone calls they're making, and they start to joke about how it's like watching a documentary about a sad, celebrity obsessed fantasist. Gervais pulls his Derek face, and then makes a joke about how there'd be footage of him walking to the shops while Coldplay is heard in the background.

I mean, we all know the origin of Derek was him mocking disabled people, but even the cliches he uses seriously now were originally jokes too

https://youtu.be/jHdTve2PpeI

phes

5 pages in 48 hours for a whole new season of Afterlife. Derke days presumed long gone 

Dr Rock

Can we do three pages trying to work out what the fuck the tennis episode was about?


olliebean

I'm going to leave this here, in case anyone wants to take one for the team (fucked if I'm going to listen to it myself): https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0013m7v

QuoteRicky Gervais shares with us the music he loves, what these songs mean to him and why he included his favourite songs within his show, After Life. Ricky, a much loved and hugely successful writer, actor, comedian, stand up & animal rights campaigner chooses wonderful music from as far back as his first LP all the way through the music he listens to now, which includes David Bowie, Jackson Browne, Radiohead, Elton John & Nick Cave. An hour of beautiful music and companionship with Ricky.

checkoutgirl

Apparently Ricky stopping this after 18 episodes lest the quality be watered down if he made any more lol. I love the sycophantic DJ. I think this is the best - Yes Ricky you are the best as is this.

"If you water it down you'll probably get it wrong" (Fuck me, imagine the watered down version of this. Also implicit in this statement is that he must have got it right)

"I think this is about the best ending it could have had, uh, everyone will be the judge of that" - (Also you judged Ricky, you just did it there, you judged it as the best. Ricky once again enforces the idea this is the best ending, no ending could be better)

"I'll probably have to explain it to a few people" - (Too right Ricky, your mouth breather audience for one)

"It's hard to make mediocre telly" - (He admitted it!! Could have gone the whole hog and said shite telly but I'll take mediocre. Not really, what Ricky is saying here is After Life is amazing telly, but even if it wasn't, even if it was mediocre, that still takes a lot of time and effort)


Cheers Rick. He's a psychoanalyst's dream. So much to unpack.

Blue Jam

Quote from: olliebean on January 16, 2022, 08:59:53 AMI'm going to leave this here, in case anyone wants to take one for the team (fucked if I'm going to listen to it myself): https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0013m7v


It's all so populist as well, good taste but nothing excitingly unfamiliar or obscure or imaginative, or even just funny. Not like Charlie Brooker picking some video game music and Denim's The New Potatoes on Desert Island Discs. No songs which are guilty pleasures, or plain terrible but which bring back good memories. It all seems so impersonal.

I saw a copy of the Breaking Bad soundtrack vinyl boxset on sale for £110 the other week. Wasn't tempted but I'm sure it's a good listen with some interesting selections. I wouldn't be surprised if Gervais puts out an After Life compilation, full of stuff everyone buying it already owns, although that won't put them off.

(would a CaB Desert Island Discs/My Life In A Mixtape thread be a good idea or just a bit narcissistic?)

TheQueensboroBridge

Bravo @RickyGervais and gang. All great things come to an end - #Afterlife3 made me #LOL and weep, again, a glorious end to this charming life and death opus taking awkward comic tragedy of #TheOffice and #Extras to a whole new level. Don't miss it now on @netflix.

Just finished the last episode of #AfterLife3 and without doubt the best, saddest and most inspirational 30 mins of TV  I've watched. The scenes with the kids with cancer 😢. "Kindness, making other people feel good. That's the real superpower". Thankyou @RickyGervais Genius.

Let's all share our #uglycry faces of #AfterLife @AfterLife_Fans @RickyGervais #AfterLife3 #UglyCryFacesOfAfterLife https://t.co/snU2h8qtP6

(Some of them are as well and Jesus fucking Christ...people are odd)

Just finished #AfterLife3 and feeling a ton of emotions: sadness, frustration, compassion, hopefulness and joy. I'm basically experiencing the perplexities of life itself - and this 3rd season has made me feel so very grateful that I'm alive to do so. Thank you, @RickyGervais 🙏 https://t.co/Jv587oe2QV

#AfterLife3 is perfect! @RickyGervais has signed off his masterpiece with a stunning final chapter that embraces the future and walks the bumpy road of healing & living with grief. A celebration of love, being human, cape-less heroes & the healing superpower of doing good things

"I hope that was his c@ck u stupid c&nt" - @RickyGervais has this insane ability to make you laugh & cry at the exact same moment. It's artistry & cruelty  thru comedy & tragedy. I'm here for #AfterLife3 but it's not going to be pretty. Give him all the Emmy's while I #uglycry

Made the mistake of looking at Gervais' Twitter. I swear some of these people have to be taking the piss.

Ferris



shlug

Did anyone else catch that scene in episode 5 with the camp agent character suggesting the actor lad acts as someone mentally retarded for a role and is derided for suggesting something so offensive?

Is this Ricky retconning Derke?

Quote from: TheQueensboroBridge on January 15, 2022, 10:39:35 PMhe seems convinced he's some kind of modern day Copernicus/Aristotle

Like Copper-Knickers, I'm sure he thinks the earth revolves around the Sun - only he places the latter as shining from his own rear-end.  It wouldn't surprise me, either, to know that like Aristotle (Aristotle), he's a bugger with a bottle.

JamesTC

I haven't cried this hard since I was stabbed in the face with a frozen onion. Richie the Vase has done it again.

undeliberated

Quote from: phes on January 16, 2022, 08:30:30 AM5 pages in 48 hours for a whole new season of Afterlife. Derke days presumed long gone 

Forget it phes: it's Glinnertown.

Noodle Lizard

Is this the final series then? Does he die and manage to prank Kerry Godliman in heaven NOT HEAVEN?

paruses

The analogy of life being like a fairground ride was shit - you don't have to wait for one person to die in order for another to be born. I imagine if he had taken any advice on the script they would have said: "they'll lap up this trite and unoriginal bit about life being like a ride but this next bit is shit and doesn't make sense as there isn't a finite number of places on earth like there are seats on a ride".

Reading the eager tweet (?) about having to explain the ending to people: I can only think that's why he has Tony Way's look quizzically at his camera as Gervais waddles across the field, slowly fading out. There are two readings - either no one lives forever, or Tony is going home to smash his dog's head in with a hammer before not taking enough pills before either hanging himself or not taking enough pills and then hanging himself when he returns from hospital.

Quote from: paruses on January 16, 2022, 07:54:18 PMThe analogy of life being like a fairground ride was shit

The only other person I've heard it from is Ronan Keating in Life is a Rollercoaster - so enough said!

paruses

I have a feeling he might have adapted Bill Hicks' bit. But then I remember that Gervais is very weird in not seeming to have any influences (that he is conscious of) so yea, Rollercoaster was probably just on the radio when he got to that bit in the first/final draft.

Ferris

Life is a Rollercoast, baby; just got to ride it!

- The gospel of saint Ricky to the romans morons.

dead-ced-dead

Gregg Alexander from The New Radicals wrote that song, credit where credit is due.

chip

One of the episodes finished and I was surprised when it took me back to the main Netflix screen. Nothing of consequence has happened in these episodes.

Its lack of depth and quality is astonishing. Just obnoxious. Stultifyingly bad. Would watch again.

JamesTC

I had something similar. Was watching the episode and it was going on a while and I thought it was a brave choice from Gervais to have the dog eat him, but then I realised it had switched over to Gerald's Game.

idunnosomename

would be funny if he did a crossover where Derek and Tony met in split-screen and understood they are Kind and Cunt, and they touch their fingers together and merge like the urRu and Skeksis at the end of The Dark (Derk?) Crystal and become Jesus.

JamesTC

What if all Gervais characters come to life like League of Gentlemen Apocalypse?

Would be great having David Brent show Derek the dance that he does.