Netflix’s After Life season 2 premiere recap
By Wade Wainio
In the season 2 premiere of Netflix series After Life, Tony has doubts about his relationship with his father’s nurse and doesn’t take kindly to yoga instruction.
In the season finale of After Life, Tony (Ricky Gervais) started to cheer up. However, we were left wondering what it would mean for season 2. The new season starts with Tony and Lenny (Tony Way) interviewing Tambury’s oldest woman (Annette Crosbie), who is extremely bitter about living for 100 years.
She has no family, is quite depressed, and says she has no friends. In other words, she is a stark contrast to the “feel-good” mood established in the season 1 finale. However, that mood doesn’t cloud the whole premiere.
For example, Lenny is still a nice guy, offering his place for Matt (Tom Basden), who’s on the verge of a divorce. In return, Lenny asks if Matt can give James (Ethan Lawrence) some experience at the Tambury Gazette, so he’s not always pestering his mom (Jo Hartley).
There’s also either love in the air or some borderline sexual harassment, as Kath (Diane Morgan) says she’s open to getting sexual advances from him. As all this weirdness permeates his life, Tony says he wants to be more zen. That may be why Matt invites him along to a meditation/yoga excursion.
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The nurse
Tony also visits his dad (David Bradley), who is obviously still in mental decline, although on the chipper side. While this still frustrates Tony, he’s also not sure if he’s in a romantic relationship with Emma (Ashley Jensen), his father’s nurse. The problem? Tony is still too focused on his dearly departed wife, Lisa (Kerry Godliman). After Life brings in some other Season 1 character, too.
Roxy (Roisin Conaty) randomly enters Tony’s place without knocking, prompting him to ask her what would’ve happened had he been nude. It creates a brief discussion on hypothetical household nudity but further establishes that Tony knows annoying and inconsiderate (even if well-meaning) people.
Tony’s therapist (Paul Kaye) also returns, although it’s Matt seeing him now. He remains a lousy therapist, randomly mentioning his gross-out medical problem and sex with dwarves.
Disastrous yoga
Not long after Pat the postman (Joe Wilkinson) bizarrely takes a bath in Tony’s house (and uses his shave), Tony follows through on his yoga/meditation excursion with Matt. However, Tony gets irritated by the yoga instructor (Seb Cardinal), due to the man’s mucus problems and esoteric talk about “third eyes” and people’s minds being in every cell of their body.
In other words, Tony has not totally changed, so we can expect more struggles for him in After Life. At the same time, one might expect some moderating influences to still keep his worst impulses in check.
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