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

[JamesTC]

Whilst I believe those comments are referencing the old XFM Ricky Gervais Show, the sentiment is probably also genuine. They are even more savage than on here.

[BritishHobo]

That's lovely to see. Sometimes it feels like outside of here everyone sees Derek and After Life as beautiful works of humanity-redefining art.

[sevendaughters]

The third and final series of Ricky Gervais's wildly popular grief-com After Life (Netflix) begins superbly. As ever, the episode starts with an old home video of Lisa (Kerry Godliman), who died of breast cancer before the first series began. In it, she is struggling to steer a rowing boat as husband Tony (Gervais) films her, the pair chuckling and joshing and essentially having a very lovely and loving time. The laptop snaps shut, but, for once, it is not a morose Tony watching the video, wondering how he can live without Lisa – it's Emma (Ashley Jensen), Tony's love interest, wondering how she can ever compare to Lisa. It is a gentle, subtle twist.

It is, by far, the high point in another trite, mawkish, soggy pudding of a series, that wallows in its own cynical slurry pit of emotion and thin-skinned misanthropy, Tony inhabiting a world in which, in his words, almost everyone is a "c--t", except for him and his dog. It is a show that doesn't just want to have its cake and it eat – Tony sneers at everyone, but he, and only he, can still see the essential good in them – it wants to have its cake, eat it, spit it out, rub it in your face and then tearfully demand you admire the baking.

The plot hasn't really moved on (though three cast regulars – Roisin Conaty, Mandeep Dhillon and Paul Kaye – have, understandably), with Tony's tentative relationship with angel-hearted care home nurse Emma struggling to go anywhere. Tony still works at the Tambury Gazette, interviewing local oddballs with open-mouthed incredulity.

He still shovels red wine into his mouth while sitting on his sofa with his dog in a brave haze of self-pity. He still spends his days insulting his colleagues – Tony Way's gentle photographer, Lenny, Tom Basden's weedy boss, Matt, Diane Morgan's brassy ad lady, Kath. He still ends every episode sat on a graveyard bench with Penelope Wilton's magical widow, as she tells him how wonderful and kind and special he is.

Old people in Tambury all tend to be twinkly and charming or refreshingly foul-mouthed. Old people are magic, as Derek, Gervais's previously worse creation, may have said.

The only innovation is Coleen (Kath Hughes), a sadsack new intern at the Gazette, whose existence in the show I struggled to discern after watching all six episodes. The will-they-won't-they storyline between Tony and Emma flutters along, but it has done since the first series, and Tony treats her so objectionably that you long for her to meet someone else. Emma, of course, despite no evidence, thinks Tony is the greatest guy she has ever met. Most people think this in After Life.

Back in the first series – which, thanks to its decent premise and the excellent cast, was perfectly watchable – Tony, considering suicide, decided he had a "super power". This was his ability not to care about anything or anyone (though he still kept turning up to work), which meant he could always tell people what he thought about them. And if it all got too much, he could kill himself.

Gradually, our hero has realised that perhaps, maybe, it's better to be nice to people, as well as calling them an ugly, fat slob. In series three we see Tony the suicidal misanthrope and Tony the saviour, like a one-man, village hall production of It's a Wonderful Life.

This is not to say that After Life does not work on some levels. It's designed as a feelgood tearjerker, and as it reaches its denouement the emotional beats are punched harder and harder (we get children with cancer in the finale) and the indie-song soundtrack gets sadder and sadder.

The emotions here – grief, sorrow, jealousy, anger, love – are not insincere, but they have the depth of a Post-It note. Watching a whole series of After Life in quick succession is a bit like hearing a six-year-old describe a four-year-old's drawing of a funeral. There is a simplistic strain of philosophy that runs through the whole thing, too, with Tony, as if he was Bhudda, telling people to "just be yourself" and "it's what's on the inside that counts".

And Gervais, as we well know, is funny and can write a gag. Sadly, the few genuine chuckles are drowned
in a deluge of anvil-drop jokes about w---ing, fat people, poor genital hygiene, people who like Toploader, defecation, hipsters and w---ing.

There is also a very odd subplot in which Tony/Ricky shows off about how good at sport he is, which feels a little like someone proving they can throw a kettle over a pub.

Hardcore fans of the show – which are legion – will mourn its passing, but for the rest of us, Gervais's maudlin curio remains a kind of purgatory.

One star

[Ferris]

Considering it's Reddit we're talking about here, some of those comments were unexpectedly funny and insightful.

https://www.reddit.com/r/rickygervais/comments/s2xafs/after_life_season_3_discussion/

They seem to have his number

Here's how it will go:
Crying over footage of dead wife
Cunt cunt cunt
Tony you're such a good guy
Jesus look how that fat person eats
Cunt cunt cunt
Oh wait I've just realized now life is actually all about love and kindness really innit
Acoustic Cat Stevens song

And this one made me chuckle:

Start of episode 3. Why is no one at this evening drink and stare at the dog session asking why Tony is filming their entire evening on his phone like some weird pervert?

A comments page that's worth a skim; a rare thing indeed.

[Ferris]

That review posted by @sevendaughters a few posts up is definitely worth a read if anyone skipped it. A highlight:

The emotions here – grief, sorrow, jealousy, anger, love – are not insincere, but they have the depth of a Post-It note. Watching a whole series of After Life in quick succession is a bit like hearing a six-year-old describe a four-year-old's drawing of a funeral.

[Dr Rock]

I don't think you're allowed to go to an old people's home and pretend to be the son of one of the people with alzheimers.

[frajer]

I don't think you're allowed to go to an old people's home and pretend to be the son of one of the people with alzheimers.

Nor throw a brick(? -have only seen trailer) through the rear window of a moving car.

But we are mere mortals. It's Tony's world and we're just living in it.

[Bobloblawslawbomb]

I really enjoy the r/rickygervais subreddit, mainly because they are clearly former fans, so use old xfm/office quotes to shitpost about his new stuff.

[BritishHobo]

Considering it's Reddit we're talking about here, some of those comments were unexpectedly funny and insightful.

https://www.reddit.com/r/rickygervais/comments/s2xafs/after_life_season_3_discussion/

They seem to have his number

And this one made me chuckle:

A comments page that's worth a skim; a rare thing indeed.

That second comment occurred to me, too. Gervais obviously realised it was unconvincing for each series to reveal ever more footage that Cancer Wife filmed in hospital, but the increasing number of videos of their good times together look very odd. For a man having such beautiful, present experiences with his wife, he sure seemed to experience a lot of them behind a camera.

[Ferris]

Nor throw a brick(? -have only seen trailer) through the rear window of a moving car.

But we are mere mortals. It's Tony's world and we're just living in it.

The brick-at-new-range-rover bit is mad isn't it?

I imagine the car's owner would get out and have something to say to our hero Tony (a short, overweight man in his 60s who would probably be better off avoiding physical altercations). He'd get battered.

[Ferris]

That second comment occurred to me, too. Gervais obviously realised it was unconvincing for each series to reveal ever more footage that Cancer Wife filmed in hospital, but the increasing number of videos of their good times together look very odd. For a man having such beautiful, present experiences with his wife, he sure seemed to experience a lot of them behind a camera.

It's the old trope of a tearful detective, alone in the dark, illuminated by his telly with a bottle of bourbon watching footage of his family every night while vowing revenge on Mendozaaa!

But it's played completely straight in AL and without the ludicrous action sequences to make the whole thing worth watching.

[BritishHobo]

And the review above is definitely great, thanks for posting @sevendaughters. I disagree with their opening point (Angel Nurse watching the footage of Cancer Wife didn't move me to think about how she struggles to live in her shadow - it moved me to think "what on earth do you think you're doing sneaking on your boyfriend's laptop to watch videos of his dead wife, you nosy prick?") but everything else is spot-on.

It really nails that After Life is a show that really is driven by hate. It's absolutely full of contempt for people in general. Despite purporting to be about hope, Gervais has created a world that's full of horrible, nasty arseholes. It seems a miserable place to live. Everyone Tony meets is monstrous in their rudeness. It really hit me in the finale, when Diane Morgan is at some weird yoga session where everybody has to laugh. She isn't laughing, so the yoga teacher stops everyone, puts her on the spot, and demands she laughs. She starts crying, and admits that she's lonely. You expect a moment of catharsis here, but the yoga teacher tells her she needs to leave because she's bringing the mood down. It doesn't feel like it's based in any observation about what yoga or wellness teachers are like, it just feels like Gervais writing all these people as awful because that's all he can see.

Even the main cast, outside of the True Angels like Bench Widow and Ashley Jensen, are generally treated as thick, boring, gross, unlikeable gormless idiots, until they get the inevitable sprinkling of forced pity at the end of a series.

It just shows his absolute weakness in writing people, writing characters. No nuance or depth whatsoever. People in the After Life world are either pure-hearted cancer children, or panto villains who do selfish things and then laugh, or scowl if anyone calls them out. Again it reminds me of me at 15, having an obnoxious encounter with a careless driver at a junction, or a rude audience member in a cinema, and fantasising about standing up to them. In those fantasies the target remains stubborn and nasty, because you're angry, and immature, and it ruins it to consider that some of them might be reasonable people who acted carelessly, and might actually apologise if you were brave enough to say something. They wronged you, therefore they must be BAD, EVIL CUNTS. Throw a brick through their car window, the cunts. Throw Alzheimer Dad ashes on them, the cunts. Juvenile revenge fantasy bullshit.

It really does feel like his worldview never left the playground.

[BritishHobo]

The alternative with his characters is you have someone like Brian, or Kev in Derek, or Brent in the Brent film, where they are weird, objectionable people who make everyone else uncomfortable because they just keep blurting out inappropriate things all the time. And then right at the end Gervais goes 'oh but everyone loves them anyway so it's all okay', but never shows why. Some character says "you're such a great person" even though everything they've ever said or done in fact reveals the exact opposite.

[H-O-W-L]

I really enjoy the r/rickygervais subreddit, mainly because they are clearly former fans, so use old xfm/office quotes to shitpost about his new stuff.

It's also absolutely, cuttingly perfect, because XFM-era Gervais, while still a nasty cunt, constantly ripped the piss out of maudlin shitheads like wot he's become.

[The Mollusk]

Great observations @BritishHobo

[Peabo Bryson Is Not Dead]

Imagine Netflix receiving that and being happy with it.

The only thing of joy I can take from the whole shebang is the Season 2 outtakes of Andrew Brooke, Tom Bennett and Paul Kaye ("Jamie Redknapp"). Season 3 is a waste of some cloud server space in Norway.

The only person still calling Ricky Gervais a comedy genius is Ricky Gervais. It didn't need to be that way, he had the whole world on his side. I hope all the other actors in After Life have used this vehicle to get better roles in the future. He doesn't write characters, he cobbles together obvious targets and slips in the C word, to appear to be edgy. If it backfires on him, he says it ironic. It's lazy.

He's just lazy. Merchant has gone off, written different things, stretched his acting skills. Gervais is happy playing, or just being, a tubby little loser. Don't start me on his awful directing. He's not been told 'No' in 20 years, and it shows. What a waste of a wit.

Cunt.

[checkoutgirl]

[TommyTurnips]

There's an ancient bit of the old XFM show that I think perfectly encapsulates Ricky's writing style. You are probably familiar with it if you are a fan of the old radio shows and it's this one.

I know it's just them pissing about on a tin pot radio station but I think it gives away bits of his writing style. Gervais has thought briefly about the characters like Jezoc and aspects of their personality, but then doesn't know how to really develop them. Merchant is excited by the idea of this ridiculous cop show that Rick came up with as a kid and starts to flesh out the characters and develop them right there and then and come up with situations and plot lines that you can tell Gervais hadn't even really considered until that point.

I think it's telling that he carried on with that kind of hackiness in shows like Derek where the character development only really went as far as 'Derek is different, I don't need to diagnose him, he's just a funny little fella. He is kind though. I don't need to write any examples of his kindness. He works in a nursing home though. That's a thing that is kind.'

[checkoutgirl]

I also didn't like season 2 of Afterlife

[lauraxsynthesis]

While I agree with the above critiques about the nastiness, laziness etc I also like the programme. Series 1 came out soon after my husband died and though I kinda disliked Gervais and thought some of his work was abysmal I had a look and both series 1 and series 2 were really helpful to watch from this widow's point of view. I'm looking forward to series 3.

[kalowski]

There is also a very odd subplot in which Tony/Ricky shows off about how good at sport he is, which feels a little like someone proving they can throw a kettle over a pub.

Ha. Excellent.

[dead-ced-dead]

I laughed once at the first episode of season three. Diane Morgan's line delivery is very sharp, which is also true in Motherland.

Some of the supporting cast are solid. As has been said upthread, I hope the cast get a bump from this.

[Bobloblawslawbomb]

Ricky Grover's looking well! That's the only positive thing I've got to say.

1st scene of ep 1

Tony - "There'll be no laughter"

You're fucking telling me.

[Ron Maels Moustache]

It really nails that After Life is a show that really is driven by hate. It's absolutely full of contempt for people in general. Despite purporting to be about hope, Gervais has created a world that's full of horrible, nasty arseholes. It seems a miserable place to live. Everyone Tony meets is monstrous in their rudeness. It really hit me in the finale, when Diane Morgan is at some weird yoga session where everybody has to laugh. She isn't laughing, so the yoga teacher stops everyone, puts her on the spot, and demands she laughs. She starts crying, and admits that she's lonely. You expect a moment of catharsis here, but the yoga teacher tells her she needs to leave because she's bringing the mood down. It doesn't feel like it's based in any observation about what yoga or wellness teachers are like, it just feels like Gervais writing all these people as awful because that's all he can see.

I had a similar thought while watching "The Invention Of Lying" all those many years ago - in that film, everyone who speaks their inner thoughts just says the most hateful, mean-spirited, insulting things to each - he's basically just projecting his own personality onto all the other characters as he can't write in anything except his own voice. And that's still true after all this time, he has not developed one iota.

[dead-ced-dead]

Watching season 3 made me think how much I'd rather be watching The Outlaws.

[checkoutgirl]

I'm looking forward to series 3.

Ricky?

[Bobloblawslawbomb]

Episode 5, fucking hell. Kindness is......annoying your brother in law so much he has a heart attack, then berating him in hospital for being a big weak, puny, woman. I'm literally weeping! Thank you Ricky!

Edit - was going to add spoilers, but fuck it, who cares.

[Bobloblawslawbomb]

No, no you can't just put a cancer kid in a scene out of absolutely nowhere to teach us all about kindness. No.

Can't believe I stayed up to watch that, absolute insultingly shit from start to finish.

One small laugh for Tim Key and that's it.

I noticed Gervais doesn't title any of the episodes, presumably because every one is the exact same.

Pop it in the bin.

[checkoutgirl]

The Sun on Twitter had a comment about the audience being stunned that Gervais appeared to be "ripped" (muscular) in After Life.

Someone commented "The only thing he's ripped is a fart on Karl's head".

That got me.

[Ferris]

The Sun on Twitter had a comment about the audience being stunned that Gervais appeared to be "ripped" (muscular) in After Life.

Yeah man looks hench