Genre: Drama/ Comedy
Number of episodes: 6
Year: 2020
Starring: Ricky Gervais, Tom Basden, Tony Way, Diane Morgan, Mandeep Dhillon, David Bradley, Kerry Godliman, Ashley Jensen, Paul Kaye, Penelope Wilton, Joe Wilkinson, Roisin Conaty
Description: After Tony’s (Ricky Gervais) wife dies unexpectedly, his nice-guy persona is altered into an impulsive, devil-may-care attitude; taking his old world by storm.
Review: Ricky Gervais has some undeniable talents. He can be considered the best in mocking Hollywood and its celebrities, like he showed us at the Golden Globes. But also has a lot of self-mockery, which you can see in his TV series “Extras”. And Gervais is a master in shamelessness, as he proved with “The Office”.
“After Life” was written and directed by Gervais and he managed to create a perfect mix of familiar elements from his previous work and newer elements. His character, Tony, is a widower and works for the local newspaper. He is cynical and sarcastic, but he himself is the one that eventually gets hit in the head. It has comical and dramatic effects, because the heart of the series lies with Tony and his love for his deceased wife and how he learns to deal with such a great loss.
Season one showed how Tony changed from a suicidal cynic to a more pleasant man, who found reason to live through the people around him. Season two makes clear he still has a long way to go to make life just a little more bearable. Even if the nice nurse that takes care of his father likes him, Tony misses his wife to much to start a new relationship. And whenever something slightly bad happens, he starts drinking.
The paper Tony works for is also struggling and his boss, who is also his brother-in-law has maritial problems. And the nurse he likes, got her eyes on another man, when in the meantime his postman wants to date Tony’s friend Roxy.
Like the first season, the humor is dark, the series has drama and the characters are great. I feel that the dramatic part overshadows the comedy a bit more in this season, that final episode made me cry so hard. But there is still enough humor there, that Gervais is known for.
“After Life” Season 2 doesn’t do anything different then its first season and I’m very okay with that. Because that was great and so is this season. I simply love Ricky Gervais and his show “After Life”, so much love for it.
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