Afterlife - Series 2 [DVD] [2005]

 

 

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I loved season 1, but Season 2 bested my expectations by leaps and bounds. It's better-produced overall, down to the lighting and cinematography, the music is breathtaking, and the performances, especially by Lesley Sharpe, are award-worthy. This is one of the rare times where the sequel is better than the original. It's actually SCARY -- like, "avert your eyes" scary -- and really well-written. You can't go wrong with this one.

Afterlife is an admirable attempt to invest Saturday evenings with a little terror and mystery based around a medium- Alison Mundy (Lesley Sharp) and the man who is writing a book about her from a psychologist's viewpoint, Robert Bridge (Andrew Lincoln) not too surprisingly, a psychology lecturer. The first series saw the highly sceptical Bridge attempt to give all the psychic phenomena he encountered a rational scientific explanation until Alison became possessed with the spirit of his dead son and nearly died.
Series Two starts with Alison recovering slowly from the experience under the dutiful eye of Robert , who is now a little less incredulous about Alison's gift , though it must be said having seen all he has seen (rather like Scully from the "X Files")he should be wholly convinced. But before you can say BOO! Alison is seeing a young woman at the site of a car crash pointing vaguely and this leads once again to her using her powers to send the restless spirit over the "other side", but not before a twist the more alert will spot as easily as an eagle spots a rabbit. Alison is honest about her gift, as she tells the nurse looking after Robert in the series conclusive episode :"Sometimes I can help them , sometimes I can,t".
There are two narrative threads that run throughout , one being Alison's haunting by her mother , a situation Robert attempts to resolve by reuniting Alison with her estranged father (Kenneth Cranham ).The other is Roberts diagnosis with a terminal disease , a situation made more poignant by his reconciliation with his wife . Along the way there are encounters with a creepy incarcerated serial killer (David Threlfall, much more at home here than playing Roman Emperors), a man whose new partner is suddenly afflicted with the degenerative and unsightly disease that claimed his wife, a malignant spirit that communicates through a baby monitor and a woman haunted by the ghost of the man who once attacked her.
Whilst the series is not without faults -it's not remotely scary ( though I often feel that it's not meant to be) and old ground between the characters is constantly dragged up- it is well written, surprisingly believable and for mainstream drama often resolutely downbeat. It is helped considerably by the quality of the acting .Leslie Sharp , rather like Helen Mirren, can invest a character with tiny nuances and subtle facial movements that make them come alive and give them real empathy . Andrew Lincoln often relies overly on talking loudly and over pronouncing his lines but at the series surprisingly moving conclusion he shows he really can act and thankfully steers clear of that soppy advertising voice he uses. The supporting roles are high quality throughout and the theme music is wonderful and suitably haunting and memorable.
After the way Series two ends it's hard to see where "Afterlife" could go but even if it's not re-commissioned it has proved inconvertibly that serious adult drama that confronts our believes and questions the (other) world around us can work and will gain an audience, and that Saturday night doesn't have to revolve around noise, gaudy colour and slavish entertainment only. Let's hope, despite the conclusion here, that there is more life left in "Afterlife".

This is a great series. If you loved the first series you'll love this too. Alison is a bit OTT in this series but it is still very watchable and enjoyable.

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5.0 out of 5 stars Scary lady !
Afterlife ( Saturday night TV before it was taken over by Strictly and the X Factor ) was a brave programming choice, given some of it's themes and overall current of... Read more

Published 17 months ago by I. P. Terry

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