Stream It Or Skip It: ‘After Life’, Ricky Gervais’ New Netflix Show Where He Plays … Well, He Plays Ricky Gervais

Remember when people actually liked Ricky Gervais? It seems like a long time ago, but in the ’00s, he was considered to be one of the most brilliant comic minds around after the success of The Office and Extras. Then a few self-indulgent projects later, his reputation took a huge hit. With his latest series, After Life, he leans into the image everyone has of him. Does it work?

AFTER LIFE: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: A video where an ill woman talks to her husband about everything he needs to do now that she’s gone.

The Gist: We cut from the video to see a man lying in his bed, watching the video forlornly, especially her advice: “Don’t spiral.” The man is Tony (Ricky Gervais), who lost his wife Lisa (Kerry Godliman) a few months ago and he’s still in deep mourning. His house is a mess, and the only food he has for the dog is beans and vegetable curry. The dog picks the beans, and Tony gulps the curry straight from the can.

To say that Tony is out of fucks to give is an understatement. When he goes to work as the features editor of his small town’s community newspaper, he lays it out to his brother-in-law/boss Matt (Tom Basden): He doesn’t want to live without Lisa, and until he gets up the gumption to kill himself, he’s going to make it his mission to be the biggest asshole, “and do and say whatever the fuck I want.” He considers it a superpower. “That’s the worst superhero I’ve ever heard of,” says Matt. Suffice to say, Matt is keen on trying to get Tony to snap out of this mode, considering how good of a bloke he used to be before Lisa died.

But we see the depths of Tony’s determination when two teens approach him and threaten harm if he doesn’t hand over his money. “I’m just tired of doing things I don’t want to do, and I have a choice,” he tells the punks.

Our Take: When we first watched the first episode of After Life, we were lamenting, “Oh, great, a series where Gervais gets to be his most insufferable version of himself for six episodes.” Then we thought about it for a second, and we thought that Gervais’ latest series is a bit of a brilliant bit of table turning on his part.

Think about it: Gervais’ reputation has taken a beating over the last decade or so, mainly because audiences got sick of his shtick. It’s not like Gervais was any less smug or obnoxious or condescending when he was doing The Office or Extras, but we all found him hilarious, so we gave him a pass. But once he started doing head-smackingly awry shows like Derek or doing his “ain’t I a stinker?” routine at the Golden Globes, people stopped loving being told how to live by this guy.

So he decides to make a show where he completely leans into his asshole persona, and adds a patina of overwhelming grief to the mix, and he almost had us hooked in that first episode. Gervais does a great job of showing just how depressed Tony really is, but when he scattershots his dismal attitude all over innocent bystanders like cub reporter Sandy (Mandeep Dhillon), it starts to feel more like “Ricky Gervais showing off his dickishness.” But then we see him confront the teen thugs, and his sadness is readily apparent.

We know that the series will consist of everyone around him trying to snap out of this funk, so hopefully After Life will strike a better balance.

Sex and Skin: Aside from seeing Tony in his underwear, nothing.

Parting Shot: Tony drinks and watches another video of him joking around with Lisa, waking her up with an air horn.

Sleeper Star: Good to see Ashley Jensen make a quick appearance as the nurse for Tony’s dad.

Most Pilot-y Line: When Tony argues with a postman about putting his mail in his door — the postman wants to hand it to him — Tony asks the postman his name. “Pat,” he says. “Postman Pat?” Tony says increduously.

Our Call: STREAM IT. We’re surprised we’re recommending After Life. But if you take it for what it is, without thinking to hard about Gervais’ baggage, it’s an interesting idea for a dark comedy.

Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, VanityFair.com, Playboy.com, Fast Company’s Co.Create and elsewhere.

Stream After Life on Netflix