After Life: The finale
Netflix, now streaming
By the time you read this, Ricky Gervais’ third and final series of After Life will have been available to watch in full on Netflix for a few days already, and let’s face it, fans of the show will have dived straight in immediately and binge-watched the whole thing. But, in case for some reason you haven’t yet got round to devouring it all, spoiler alert: I am going to discuss the ending.
Gervais faced a tough quandary when it came to writing the finale of this gigantically popular show. He didn’t want to give his central character Tony a glib, easy resolution to his enduring feelings of grief for his beloved late wife Lisa, but on the other hand, he had to provide some kind of closure for this story, because he was never going to carry on making series after series. What he’s come up with is an elegant, thought-provoking final scene at the local fair, which caps off a deeply satisfying last episode. Without worrying if it might seem too neat or contrived, Ricky gives most of the ensemble characters – Tony’s friends, family and colleagues – a glimpse of some sort of a hopeful future; small, understated victories for decency and humanity. After he watches them all having a lovely time on the merry-go-round, and Joni Mitchell’s beautiful song Both Sides Now plays on the soundtrack, Tony slowly walks off with his dog and, for a brief moment, his wife appears by his side, too. And the leaves fall off the trees. And one by one, Tony and his wife and his dog fade away. As we all do, eventually. It’s a moment of magical poetry, and a truly graceful way of saying goodbye.