Gervais’s Afterlife
(A Three Sentence Review)
It should have been no surprise given that the show had become increasingly miserable, but the last episode of the first season of Ricky Gervais’ Afterlife was perhaps the single most tedious thing I’ve ever endured in the name of comedy, and certainly the most pretentious.
This grey, grim ending to a grey, grim show had the longest and most gasbaggy polemic I’ve had the yawning, eye-drooping displeasure to experience since Ayn Rand gave John Galt speed and put him on the radio, culminating with a multi-minute monologue where Gervais earnestly and endlessly proclaims one tired atheist trope after another in his best Sermon on the Mount voice (stealing text from Penn Jillette, one should note!), while an embarrassed group of actors slumps around listlessly attempting to imitate furniture, nodding a little every once in a while to prove they haven’t actually died, making a desperate attempt to look interested while simultaneously forbidden from showing the faintest hint of energy, individuality or humanity that might possibly distract remaining viewers, if any, from The Great Man and His Great Words.
Verdict: very well worth going very far out of your way to avoid.
