Am I the only person to think After Life is a total pile of wank?

[WhyTheLongFace]

Mawkish. Hateful character who was a cunt even before his wife died and even worse afterwards. Every sentence a crap cliche. And lecturing like a badly written advice column.
Utter drivel. Why are people raving about it?

Grief can temporarily turn the nicest people into horrible, selfish parodies of themselves. It removes all filters. I think the series portrays that beautifully.

MrsMary, agreed, that was the point as far as I could see. It was pretty clear by the end that his grief was destroying him. I loved it too, I think it’s the best thing he’s done. Watched it all on a lazy Sunday.

Sorry OP but I quite liked it too. Even though I worked at a local newspaper for donkey’s and know all that stuff he was sent out to cove was bollocks (he’d have just nicked it off FB).

I really enjoyed it. Like a pp I was never a RG fan but I watched Extras years ago and it made me laugh like a drain. I still re-watch certain episodes now because it's so funny (Barry from Eastenders with the sweets stuffed up the front of his coat )

DH and I watched After Life over two evenings and both really liked it. Parts of it made me feel really emotional and others that were deeply uncomfortable, or really funny.

I loved it. DH hated it.

I have mixed feelings about it. It was very moving and funny in parts and utterly mawkish and heavhanded in others. Ricky Gervais lacks subtlety in his writing and I think that he thinks it’s one of his strengths. He could do with someone telling him when to reign in the ‘this is my opinion’ sections shoehorned into dialogue.

I think had it not been written by and starring him it would not have received the praise it did. However there were quite a few little comic gems that really shone and Most of the ensemble cast were extremely likeable.

I quite liked it. But it wasn't good enough to get my full attention. I started looking through my phone while watching which for me, means is only 'ok'.
And I love RG..

I watched the first episode and laughed out loud a lot. That's unusual. I ended up watching the second straight after and found myself watching the whole lot in one sitting. That's almost unheard of. I found it a brilliant exploration of grief, very funny, occasionally shocking, sometimes incredibly moving and touching, occasionally thought provoking.

Other friends have found it the same. But of course not everyone is going to like it. I know people who don't like Monty Python, or Fawlty Towers, or Blackadder. I don't like Vicar of Dibley and quite honestly think that anyone who found My Family remotely amusing should be locked in an asylum. Each to their own.

I'm a massive RG fan - was really looking forward to it but I found it heavy handed and with none of the nuanced character development of The Office, Extras or Derek. It felt to me like characters just wheeled out to talk to him- and those characters were stereotypes. Liked the BIL storyline but the rest felt like a waste of brilliant actors

I loved it and the whole point of the subtext was indeed that just because you are bereaved it doesn't give you a get out to behave like an arse...alomg with him finding a way to feel a place in the world it was the point of the series.

I thought it was skilful , a stooge like turnaround would have been unrealistic but his tentative steps forward were great.

Ricky Gervais is terrible in everything. Can't stand to watch him.

My husband and I watched it. I was diagnosed with terminal cancer almost four years ago at the age of 34. In all this time I’ve never seen my husband cry until we watched this together. It resonated very strongly for him. I think it was healing for him. It was also the first thing on the topic that I’ve seen that made me feel vaguely okay about my husband one day dating again. I loved but acknowledge we are in a very particular situation.

Not just you, I thought it was crap. I read this article about RG recently and thought it was interesting and quite on-the-nose:
jezebel.com/ricky-gervais-broke-my-heart-1630075731

I binged all of it and thought overall it was good, BUT I did skip through certain parts and felt it could have all been done in much less airtime/as a film. The supporting cast were great and I would have liked more of them.

It was okayish. I don’t get the huge adoration for it.

I'm worried how the second series will play out, I think it will be one of them that should have been a stand alone and finished after series one but we shall see.

Ah, I didn't know a second series was planned? I'm normally all for seeing a epilogue but didn't think this needed it.

I really loved it. The only issue for me was that it was too short, his turnaround seemed to happen very quickly and he went from thinking of no one but his wife and what he's lost to dating someone new within what I would consider a very short space of time (she passed away in February, and it seemed to be set in summer of the same year?)

Could happily have watched 12 episodes or more!

I was disappointed with it. Really obvious and heavy handed. All the characters were two dimensional stereotypes..the 'tart with a heart', the Boss who's too nice, the local oddball, the character who exists purely to be the butt of RG's extensive collection of fat jokes, it was just trope after trope after trope.

The scenes with the therapist were ridiculous. Therapy is rarely portrayed accurately on TV but this was ridiculous. We have a male suicide epidemic in this country and so many men who are reluctant to access therapy. So I don't think it's helpful when therapists are portrayed as callous, disinterested and having no regard for patient confidentiality. The scenes could still have been funny with some kind of rapport between RG and the therapist.

Also the scene with the delivery guy was unsettling and uncomfortable.

That's Rg's thing isn't it? Making people feel unsettled and uncomfortable ?

I enjoyed it, I cried and chuckled in places.

But I didn't think it was the most amazing thing I'd ever seen. It was really heavy handed and saccharine, and I was horrified that he never seemed to feel bad about the fact he assisted that mans suicide. So he was allowed to feel like he wanted to kill himself one day but find hope later on but not the drug addict. He effectively murdered someone and we were supposed to be ok about it because the guy was a heroin addict so had nothing to live for. Horrible.

Also the tart with a heart was vomit inducing.

And I got really tired of everyone telling him how wonderful he was all the time.

I liked it. Don't like Gervais normally but I did like this. I didn't love it but then I never expected to. I did think he was a git to his wife before she died though. Practical jokers are tiresome.

I did find it funny how idyllic they managed to make Hemel Old Town look. It is pretty but this made it look like some sort of perfectly preserved National Trust village. It's not!

@Cheee how is it mean to choose not to watch someone that I can't stand, who makes my flesh crawl? I don't find her amusing and she reminds of me of people who used to bully me so I don't watch her. I don't even like to look at her, something about her makes me uncomfortable. Anyway, the reviews in general make me think this one's not for me.

I loved it.

I'm also really curious to know what processes would have been in place for casting the child who gets insulted. Would parental consent get obtained at the auditions for your child being called a tubby cunt?!

I actually read an article where the boy and his mother are both very pleased that they got cast and that he got called a cunt by RG.

I'm not a fan either but I loved this. Watched it all in one go