Editor’s note: Ketchum resident Crystal Thurston, a big movie buff, says that Ricky Gervais’ TV series “After Life” has helped her get through the Wood River Valley’s shelter-in-place orders.

 Here’s her take:

 Ricky Gervais is his old wonderful, acerbic, funny, way too honest self in his Netflix TV series “After Life.” The series is dark at times (after all, it is about a man who is grieving the loss of the love of his life), funny, and surprisingly tender.

Every show begins with Tony (Ricky) watching a video that his beloved wife left him to be viewed after her death by cancer. She seems wonderful, fun loving, and kind. And you can’t help but see why he is in such mourning.

 Since her death he has decided to be cuttingly honest in every situation with every person. He will display his misery and anger at every moment to everyone. All the little irritations that one would normally overlook blast out of him when he sees something that annoys him. 

 The local newspaper he works at is a satirical mockery of local newspapers. He has to interview and pretend to take seriously such locals as a man who thinks he’s seen a drawing of Kenneth Branagh in a stain on his wallpaper or a chubby boy who plays two recorders--one stuffed into each nostril. No wonder he sees his career in journalism and his life as a joke. 

 Tender notes start to appear as he opens up to the fact that other people might have it worse off than him. He decides to commit suicide by heroin overdose. When he passes out during his first try, the bewhiskered,,emaciated mess of a man who sold him the drug steals all his money--proof once again of the horribleness of life. However, when he goes to seek revenge and get his money back, he finds the dealer living in a terrible decrepit garage.  He ends up giving him more money.

 Another thing that is pandemic similar is that whenever he decides he wants to leave this world, his dog shows up and Tony says, “Oh well, I guess I have to feed her.” Sometimes I’ve felt that our doggie friends with their undying optimism and love are what’s keeping me going.

 This show is perfect for these locked-in pandemic times since it expresses our misery with humor and also gives us a ray of hope. Seasons 1 and 2 are now showing on Netflix.