A great television show about dealing with grief and loss of loved ones: Afterlife
There are moments in our lives when we have dealt with the loss of someone close to us. We don’t know how to process the grief or how to express it. Afterlife takes this sensitive subject and portrays it beautifully.
Relatable characters in the show
At the start, we are introduced to our main character Tony who works at a local newspaper and is distraught after losing his wife to Breast Cancer. He was so sad, that he even contemplated suicide but stopped as he had to take care of his dog.
We see him lash out at the world and be brutally honest as he has nothing to lose anymore. He would swear at people, be rude, and sometimes, even spoil everyone’s mood. He justifies this behavior by saying nice people get taken advantage of and bad people will get ahead as nice people won’t do the thing that they can.
As the series goes on, we see videos of Lisa (his wife) advising him how to live after she is gone and she knows it will be hard for him.
There are also a lot of scenes about them doing normal couple things, but in hindsight are important, as those moments are something you will never get back or return to those particular time.
As the story progresses, we see other characters like Daphne and Julian. Julian was a drug addict whose girlfriend died of overdose and he was nearly in the same situation as Tony. We get more characters as the story progresses who are fighting their own battles in their own way.
Like other television series, most of them feel down to Earth and relatable, someone you can connect with. That is something special about the show.
Important lessons conveyed in the Afterlife
One of the things Lisa highlights and is true, we can’t spend our lives being bitter and blaming the world for everything. Sometimes, there are external factors that are at play and we are helpless in front of it.
If we take the example of Lisa, she didn’t do anything wrong. She lived a simple life with her dog and Tony. Just an ordinary couple. Yet, she got breast cancer and had to deal with pain, and all her loved ones got hurt, even though they didn’t do anything.
Anne lost her husband, they were close and he was the love of her life, and she still lives on. She shared the same pain as Tony did, but she believed people should help each other as life is difficult as it is, why make it tougher by being bitter and resentful?
Anne gave lots of wisdom to Tony, even though they met by chance near her husband’s grave. It shows us that you can meet new people and have new experiences, but you need to be open to it. Get out of your world and explore some more, who knows what is out there?
Daphne works as a sex worker, but she is not portrayed as one-dimensional. At first, Tony calls her to her house to clean it up, and later on, they actually become friends. She tells a message pretty accurately, sometimes it’s nobody’s fault. Bad things happen to good people and good things happen to bad people’ She doesn’t excuse herself from what she is doing, but she is trying to say sometimes people do things out of desperation, not out of necessity.
There is also Emma, who is a nurse at the facility where Tony has kept his father. In the first encounter, Tony is rude to her and she ignores him as she understands his wife had passed away and he is grief. Later on, she confronts him about his behavior and aptly says that just because he is miserable doesn’t mean everybody else has to be as well. Also, just because he is unhappy, he doesn’t have the right to make everyone else unhappy.
Considering everything, it is a great series that tells us about grief and also touches on subjects like depression and suicide. It might not be the best show, but it is definitely something you should watch at least once.
If there are any more shows, movies or books you would like me to cover, you can always mail me their names.