[TV] After life

Deadly Danson said:

He does need a good co-writer or script editor though so that it just doesn't sound like Ricky Gervais putting all his opinions down and calling it a script.

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Wozza said:

I liked it, but went a little downhill towards the end.

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Ninja Elephant said:

Yeah, I would agree with that. Bit of a lazy ending in my opinion, all is cured and he snaps back to life. It's not necessarily unrealistic to life, in my experience, but it didn't make for a particularly good conclusion to the series. I was expecting something to happen with the Geordie girl, but in the end, no. I thought the set up was really good for all the characters, but there wasn't really a strong finish. I doubt there'll be a follow up to it because the premise of the show is concluded now, he's accepted the change in his life and decided to carry on as normal, just without his wife. Again, perhaps it's true to life in that you have to carry on with your life, but it didn't really make for good TV.

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Acker79 said:

I'm not much of a fan of Gervais these days. Office was ok, I didn't love it, but enjoyed some bits of it. I enjoyed his hosting of the Golden Globes, I quite liked ghost town. But his global success seems to have changed his focus.

But he seems to have grown more focused on causing outrage solely to offend people so he can tell them how wrong they are to be offended. For me, outrage is fine, offence is fine when it is a side effect of something, but when it is the driving force of what you're doing it becomes shallow and petty, and like you're more concerned with the critics than with your audience. It's like his whole act has become "OH? You're 'offended? Well I don't care about you being offended, you being offended means nothing to me. I'm just going to dedicate myself to making sure I offend you more. Because I don't care about you being offended, like."

As for this show in particular, I keep seeing an advert on twitter where someone asks him which five people, dead or alive, who he'd go for, and he replies dead - see? It's funny 'cos he doesn't like people! And I just think that is such an old joke and that's the one they're using to sell the show to me? I'll pass.

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vegster said:

Mrs V has been plodding on watching a few episodes while I read, I have little interest in his style of " Cringe Comedy " but I have noticed the series seems to have become a vehicle for him to keep spouting the "C " word on a regular basis, is he trying to cause offence or is he just breaking down barriers or is it simply that he can't be like the truly great comedians of years past that never needed to swear ?

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Badger said:

Why would he want to be like comedians of the past? Comedy has evolved over the years and he's a comedian of our time. I happen to think he's quite clever in the way he uses swearing for comic effect. I have no problem with comedians swearing if it's used in the right context. I've seen a lot of comedians who swear for the sake of it, without adding to the humour, but I don't think RG does that.


As for After Life, I ploughed through the whole series a couple of weeks ago and really enjoyed it. Probably not his finest work but it had a fair few laugh-out-loud moments.

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vegster said:

By his choice of language he has managed to isolate the programme, I could never sit and watch this with my daughter and my late mother would have turned off straight away. As I say, it just seems geared up to create a foul mouthed rant every few minutes in the same manner that Ramsey's kitchen nightmares prog was all about him losing his rag and insulting people and calling it entertainment.

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Badger said:

You can't please everyone though, can you? As I said, I think a lot of the swearing he uses adds something to the comedy. I fully understand you don't share that opinion and I have no issue with that.

What I do have issue with is talking about "the truly great comedians of the past that never needed to swear." It just seems like a typical "everything was better in the good old days" attitude.

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vegster said:

It's difficult to explain but having sat through an evening with Jimmy Jones I would never go again, similar after having to sit through some Roy " Chubby " Brown once. Calling people a C and endless use of the F word I just don't find funny. I have also seen Kevin " Bloody " Wilson and at least he is funny with his timing and use of swearing in his songs. Mostly swearing is poor and lazy comedy once you have had your ears blasted by it after the first 20 minutes.

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vegster said:

Mrs V has been plodding on watching a few episodes while I read, I have little interest in his style of " Cringe Comedy " but I have noticed the series seems to have become a vehicle for him to keep spouting the "C " word on a regular basis, is he trying to cause offence or is he just breaking down barriers or is it simply that he can't be like the truly great comedians of years past that never needed to swear ?

Click to expand...