Afterlife - Series 1 & 2 Box Set [DVD]

What a discovery this show was! I missed it on TV, but picked up Disk 1 as a rental option and was so blown away I bought the whole series.

The concept is familiar to anyone who's watched the Patricia Arquette vehicle US show Medium. Lesley Sharp is the clairvoyant Alison Mundy who, like her American counterpart Allison DuBois, sees dead people. There the similarities end. Dubois juggles a family life and a career, but Alison Mundy is traumatised and isolated by her "gift", unable to hold down a job or a relationship and existing in a quirky limbo of kitsch seances and exploitative spiritualist meetings. In place of a husband, Alison forms an odd-couple relationship with parapsychology lecturer Dr Robert Bridge (Andrew Lincoln), who remains convinced that her ghosts have an explanation rooted in the unconscious. It is a strength of the show that, although we are privy to what Alison sees, the reality is left ambiguous: Alison is clearly troubled, obsessive and delusional in many ways and Robert's scepticism is an important theme in the show, going far beyond Dana Scully's token "there-must-be-a-scientific-explanation" rationalism.

The other aspect of "Afterlife" that trumps "Medium" is that Alison's ghosts are actually _scary_. They're not cute phantoms with a message for the living, but disturbed and disturbing forces that mirror that trauma and alienation of the central characters.

Each episode treats a particular haunting, usually with Alison being called in to help a client and Robert tagging along to question and criticise. This structure never becomes formulaic however, unlike the schtick of see-a-ghost-talk-to-the-D.A.-and-solve-the-crime treadmill of "Medium". For one thing, each haunting is a neatly inventive take on conventional ghost stories. Amidst the classic dead-girl-wants-her-murderer-caught stories, we're treated to the ghosts of aborted foetuses, ghosts who don't realise they're ghosts (OK, very The Sixth Sense but effectively handled), ghosts of the future and ghosts being possessed by the living!

If the series stopped at this level, it would be a satisfying sequence of thoughtful horror-thrillers making interesting points about superstition and science, credulity and faith. What we get instead are two beautiful story arcs. In Season 1, the drama focuses on Robert's dead son, the tragedy behind his marital breakdown, and Alison's attempts to break down his defences and get him to face his own grief. This culminates in a seance episode that is genuinely scary, thrilling and emotionally cathartic. Season 2 shifts the focus to Alison's troubled relationship with her mentally-ill mother, now haunting her, while Robert comes to terms with his terminal illness. The final two episodes here are as beautiful, tearful and life-embracing a sequence of TV drama as I have ever watched. Other critics have complained that the series dragged and meandered. I didn't find it so, and the investment we've made in these characters over the preceding dozen stories reaps a powerful, bittersweet reward at the end. A conclusion to make you cry and smile and haunt your dreams. Simply wonderful.

This is really Lesley Sharp's show. She starts strong, as a fiercely feisty but oddly brittle woman, and threatens to overwhelm Andrew Lincoln's more subdued portrayal of Dr Bridge. Nevertheless, he builds his character slowly and matches her line for line. By the end of Season 1, the interplay between them is electrifying and, in Season 2, we're watching these two actors at the absolute top of their game. Thrilling performances.

Make no bones about it, this is emotional and tragic material. The relentless morbidity is leavened not, as one reviewer suggested, by cutesy joke scenes or humorous diversions, but by poignant and beautiful themes of emotional reconciliation. The show has been described as Shakespearean in its scope, but it is the Shakespeare of The Tempest and The Winter's Tale, plays without clowns where the laughter-through-tears comes when precious moments of tenderness emerge, hard-won, through the lowering darkness.

I can't rate this show highly enough as emotional drama or as contemporary ghost story. The Americans do formula prime time, but it's nice to see the Brits still excelling at this sort of quirky, adorable oddity.

First of all, this is like no medium/ghost story you've seen before - this one is genuinely fantastic. From the moment I watched the first episode of series 1, on recommendation of a friend last year, I was hooked. I then watched the entire of the first series, and 2 episodes of series 2, in one sitting, only turning it off because I couldn't physically stare at the TV anymore. I finished off the series the next day. Then watched it all back to back again.

I'm usually a complete cynic of mediums, ghosts, spirits and the like. Whilst I'm fully aware this is fiction, there was something about this show that made me seriously think again. Lesley Sharp's perfect portrayl of Alison, combined with the stunning writing, direction and music, make it impossible not to be drawn in by it, and for it to make you question your entire judgements. Here is a woman, so perfectly crafted that she is 100% believable, haunted by her so-called gift. A woman driven mad by spirits she would do anything to be rid of - a far cry from the usual mediums we see in shows like this.

Then enter Robert Bridge who, by all accounts, should be Alison's arch enemy. A close-minded psychologist convinced that none of this is true. He immediately regards Alison as delusional, but sees potential in her for the perfect case study for a book. It's through following her life for material for said book however, that slowly but surely convinced Robert that all is perhaps not what it seems. The way in which Robert is slowly forced to question his judgement is not the least bit corny, or unrealistic. The seance which finally brings everything to a head in 1.6 is, quite simply, one of the finest pieces of television I think I've ever seen.

What I love most about this show however, is the chemistry between the two lead characters. In the commentary on the series 1 dvd, Lesley puts it perfectly by saying that their relationship goes far deeper than anything sexual. These are two damaged people, who bounce off eachother perfectly and despite their differences, potentially have the power to heal the other. I applaud the writing for never once hinting at the usual cliched sexual tension, and for keeping these characters at exactly what they are - soul mates. Leaving the whole spiritual theme of the show aside, what we're left with is a compelling, beautiful relationship. One particular line in the final episode, delivered by Alison to Robert's ex-wife, had me in tears.

Basically, the 5 star rating here can't do the show enough justice. This is just perfection, and an absolute must-see, regardless of your beliefs.

I caught part of this series on TV and recently rented series 1 and 2. I only wish there was a 3.
I had forgotten how good this series was. The main character is so disturbed by her gift at times and it's so well acted. It's unpredictable, refreshing, scary, and I recommend it highly. It's not like all the other clairvoyant/medium type series I've seen, it's darker and at times Alison seems quite insane. She clings to her sanity with a tenuous thread while being haunted by all these people she wishes would just leave her alone. They aren't all sweetness and light either.
This really is worth watching from beginning to end.