After Life is the dark comedy on Netflix starring Ricky Gervais as the show’s main character, Tony Johnson. The show picks up after Tony’s beloved wife Lisa loses her battle to cancer. To help Tony with her death, she left a series of videos teaching him how to move on without her. But even with the videos, Tony is a mess without Lisa and doesn’t see the point in living anymore. In his trail of despair, he manages to insult, degrade, and berate anyone who tries to lend him a helping hand. Sure, there comedic moments hiding within Tony’s insults, which makes this show a piece of art.
The first season tested the waters with audiences and did well enough to be given a second season on Netflix coming out later this year. But until then, let’s take a look at how the episodes from season one ranked, according to IMDb.
Episode #1.1: 7.8
Surprisingly, the first episode of the series is the lowest-ranking episode. In the premiere episode, we meet his deceased wife Lisa who has made a series of videos for Tony. She tells Tony how lovely of a man he is and how much she adores him. She praises his character and how his funny personality makes everyone swarm to him. Sadly, that’s not the same Tony we meet in episode one. The Tony we meet is dirty, depressed, rude, and on the verge of killing himself.
We see him insult a stranger in the park, show no compassion for an elderly woman on the street, insulted his co-workers, and showed up late to work. He has no real passion or point of living without Lisa, and it’s devastating to see. Viewers can see people trying to uplift Tony but he won’t have any of it. But in the depths of Tony’s rude comments is a glimmer of hope, which leads fans to the next episode.
Episode #1.3: 8.1
Knowing that Julian the drug dealer stole money from him, Tony confronts him on the street when meets a woman named “Roxy” (whose real name is Daphne). She claims to be a sex worker and she would do anything for 50 quid, so what does Tony do?
He pays her the money to come back to his house and clean his dishes. His house has been in tough shape since Lisa left. There are dirty dishes taking over the sink, empty wine bottles, and trash is thrown everywhere. It’s no place for a respectable adult who makes an income to be living. He’s better than this. And to be Frank, Lisa warned him not to let himself go and to not make a mess of their lovely home. Without Daphne’s generosity, Tony would be up to his nose in filth.
Episode#1.2: 8.1
Episode two was a real doozy. Tony is still deeply depressed by the loss of Lisa and tries to take his life at the beginning of the episode but he’s snapped out of the decision after his dog Brandy comes to save him. To make matters worse, Tony decides that he should take up drugs as a hobby after seeing the neighborhood drug dealer around town.
That night he smoked heroin and passed out but not before the drug dealer stole money out of his wallet and left. Overall, it was a hard few days for Tony.
Episode #1.4: 8.4
Who would have thought we’d see the day of Tony going on a blind date so early on in his grieving period!? Funny enough, he was set up by his brother-in-law, Matt, as an attempt to get Tony out of the house. His co-worker Sandy even helped him get ready for the date, which was a cute bonding moment between the two. But as one can imagine, the date didn’t go well.
The woman had almost too much in common with Tony, which made Tony uncomfortable. She was also a widow who cussed and drank too much but it was offputting to Tony. The episode did have a touching moment in between all the chaos, though. Daphne (the “sex worker”) cleaned the inside of Tony’s house out of the goodness of her heart because he’s a good guy who treated her with the respect she deserved.
Episode #1.6: 8.6
Viewers can agree that the season finale was one of the best episodes of the series. It’s enlightening and uplifting. We finally see Tony realize that life is worth living and that diminishing the dreams of those around him brings more harm than good. Essentially, episode six is Tony’s apology tour and it’s brilliantly done.
However, this does leave us wondering what life will be like in the second season coming out this year. Will he be optimistically happy or will life throw him curveballs again? We see him having a crush on his dad’s nurse, so that will be an interesting dynamic to see played out.
Episode #1.5: 8.6
The fifth episode was rated generously with an 8.6 out of 10. Episode five was a real game-changer for both the series and for Tony. We see Tony at his all-time low when he successfully helps the neighborhood drug addict, Julian, kill himself at the end of episode four. And at the beginning of this episode, we see Julian dead in his garage. The worst part is when he’s confronted about it by his brother-in-law, he shows no remorse. He was simply helping someone end it all because they were in pain.
This is also the episode where he threatens a child with a hammer, so it’s obvious Tony has no remorse and hasn’t learned a thing about compassion until the end of the episode when he talks to Anne. Anne is the sweet widow he met in the cemetery, whose husband’s plot is nearby Lisa’s. Had it not been for Anne, Tony may have never found himself in the season’s finale.
