In Dover Beach, Matthew Arnold tells his “love” that the world “Hath really neither joy, nor love, nor light/ Nor certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain.” Tony in Ricky Gervais’s series After Life might have said the same, only he’s lost his beloved wife to cancer, posing the question: can he be true to anyone or anything?
For the better part of six episodes, the answer seems an absolute no. Tony has given up on almost everything: his friends, his job at the Tambury Gazette, his home (neglected), and his own well-being. He forgets to buy groceries, including dog food for the only living being he cares about. He insults his scruffy postman and goes on to insult his fellow workers, based on his bleak philosophy: life is a cesspool, and he’d love to kill himself.
