Review: After Life S3
After Life: Season 3
The elements that made season one so compelling are what brings this self-indulgent finale to its knees.
Gervais is back with his much-celebrated dark comedy depicting the crippling effects of grief and a man’s best effort to rid himself of the guilt that comes with moving on. The art of navigating a comedy that deals with grief is what made this show originally so appealing. To go from shedding tears of laughter to tears of sadness was the unique calling card of the show. The first two seasons struck an uneasy balance between comedy and pathos, lurching from cynicism to mawkishness within the space of a scene. Rarely does a show draw such visceral reactions, so to hit upon opposing emotions so strongly says a lot about how closely these seemingly contradictory emotions sit within us.
However, the story of Gervais’ character seemed to have come to a happy enough and sensible end by the finale of Season One. He resolves to at least try and allow himself to heal. Season Two did little to expand upon that and he seemingly receded back to his patronising and cynical self at the beginning, going on an almost identical character growth as in Season One. Therefore, by Season Three it truly is a tired, recycled formula. Gervais sadly watches a video of his dead wife; walks the star of the show: the dog; remarks on Lenny’s general troll-like features; eviscerates someone or something in a comedically vicious manner; Penelope Wilton’s character makes some greetings-card comment about the nature of grief and the kindness of humans; Gervais resolves to be better - rinse and repeat.
The saving grace of this show are its wide variety of supporting actors, each of whom bring a different flavour of comedy and poignancy to the show. Gervais is at his best when espousing his typical shtick; contemptuous, sardonic, shock humour. Some of his lines are delivered with the poise and timing only a seasoned comic like Gervais could pull off. This combined with some truly amusing and irreverent writing produces some hysterically funny moments. However, Gervais does not have the acting chops to pull off Tonys more heartfelt, maudlin moments. His profound and fervent monologues on grief and recovery fall on their face due to hackneyed, one dimensional writing and lame delivery. Some of these play like a supermarket Christmas ad with none of the charm. Again, the supporting cast try their hardest to elevate the acting with an intensely brilliant cameo from Tim Key and a truly standout performance from Diane Morgan who delivers her signature monotonal zaniness. The soundtrack is also a delight, flitting from classic to modern effortlessly.
This isn’t an awful show, but it seems like Gervais has reduced the plot to merely a mechanism by which he can tell outrageous jokes. For a show about character growth there seems to be remarkably little of it.