5 reasons to watch After Life

One thing I learnt very quickly with both seasons of After Life was that it’s a show that can make you cry with laughter one minute, then make you cry your eyes out with sadness the next.

I thought I’d put together five reasons why you should watch it, as I feel like everyone definitely should! 

Reason 1: It’s a good excuse to let emotions out

As I’ve said, After Life is full of emotion and there’s no doubt that even though it’s going to be positive at times, some parts are very sad. The protagonist of the series is a man called Tony, played by Ricky Gervais, whose wife has died of Breast cancer. We see his mourning and bitter views of the world without his wife in it, as he gets used to how things are in the aftermath of her death.

Despite it being quite hard to watch at times, it is a good excuse to let the emotions flow and realise that being nasty to people doesn’t get you very far in life. Tony decides to make a difference in his community and tries to help people where he can, however there is the odd slip up of course!

Reason 2: The dog is adorable 

Tony’s dog, Brandy, is the most adorable dog I’ve ever seen. There I said it. The dog is his lifeline in the series and when he’s at his lowest or is having a bad day, the dog is always there for him. I’m a cat owner personally, but I would love to own a dog this cute.

Now if there is one reason you should watch this series it’s definitely for the sake of seeing the dog on screen, as it’s a gorgeous German Shepard that steals the show. I just wish the protagonist was the dog, but maybe that’s just because of my love for pets. Oops.

Reason 3: Eye opening 

One of the things that surprised me about this series was how eye opening it was into the reality that some people face every day, after losing a loved one or not having a partner around anymore. Watching it is fascinating in this regard because it shows you how grief can affect people in different ways. 

In each season, he frequently talks to a woman who’s mourning the death of her husband. They both go to the graveyard at the same time and end up chatting about their partners, with her acting a lot more positive than him. This reminded me that no two people react to something in the same way and is interesting to see how it is reflected on screen.

Reason 4: You will belly laugh at times

Right as I’ve gone on about the show being sad, I thought I’d highlight that the majority of the time I was laughing. Its typical Ricky Gervais humour and the darkness of it, along with how awkward the other characters felt by his jokes, made me laugh an awful lot. 

The way the jokes and sarcasm are timed in the script is priceless, just because there are so many awkward pauses after someone says something outrageous which makes it so much funnier. Because Tony also works for a very small newspaper, there are also some very creative stories which he has to go and interview people about, an example being someone’s wall stain looking like Kenneth Branagh…

Reason 5: Makes life seem short 

With the current situation and the global pandemic, I think After Life is really interesting to watch as it makes you realise just how short life is. It definitely focuses on the positive aspects of life and shows how important it is to carry on, even through bad times and that even when all hope is lost, there’s people around you who care for you.

It’s very inspiring and when I learnt they were making a season 3, I was over the moon! If anyone has an isolation watch list, I’d definitely add After Life to it as it’s extremely engaging and will have you hooked from the first to the last episode. I promise you won’t regret it!

You can watch both seasons of After Life on Netflix.

Edited by Lauren Wilkins