Ricky Gervais’s After Life S3 emotionally poignant trailer is why you need to binge first 2 seasons now

Ricky Gervais’s After Life is the most-watched British comedy show in the world, with more than 85 million viewers having seen it. After Life also won the 2021 National Television Award for Best Comedy. The third season trailer just released is chock full of the kind of emotional honesty audiences have come to love about the series, which centers around curmudgeon Tony, the community journalist who has been grieving the loss of his wife from cancer.

As widower Tony (Ricky Gervais), we’ve watched him lash out at the world by exercising his ‘superpower’: “I thought not caring was a superpower,” he starts in the S3 trailer. In the previous two seasons, he’s struggled to move on and try to date Emma (Ashley Jensen), one of the nurses who worked at his dad’s nursing facility. Season two dealt him another blow as his beloved dad, Ray (played beautifully by Game of Thrones and Harry Potter’s David Bradley) passed away after suffering from Alzheimer’s.

Instead of taking his anger out on the world, however, Tony’s realized that’s not the answer. As we head into After Life Season 3, Gervais’s Tony concludes, “I was wrong. Caring about stuff, that’s really what matters. Kindness, making other people feel good” is the answer. His friendship with the lovely Anne (Downton Abbey’s Penelope Wilton) has also helped. A lot. Wilton’s presence on the series has been a shining light: she cut through Tony’s cynicism like a knife, helping him find his core inner goodness again. We all need a friend like Anne.

“If you want to be an angel, you’ve got to do it now. Be good, do good things,” Wilton’s Anne expresses in the S3 After Life trailer. She’s always seen the best in Tony and helped him find a way to embrace life again.

If you’re one of the few people who hasn’t watched the series, S3 doesn’t debut until Jan. 14, giving you ample time to binge the first two hilarious and heartfelt seasons on Netflix. It’s a show that will make you bust out laughing one moment while plunging you into tears the very next, thanks to the poignant integrity Ricky Gervais has tethered the series in.

The third season will be the final chapter for After Life. Ricky Gervais has already pitched three new shows to Netflix, which is hellbent on keeping the British comic after the huge success he’s produced for the streamer. No word on which new series Netflix will pick up.

“I’ve got it down to three different ideas and Netflix has already bought it because I told them I want to end After Life now and so they said, ‘OK, we want the next thing,’” he said, according to Digital Spy.

After Life Season 3 will debut on Jan. 14 on Netflix. Will Tony find love with Anne? Will he find closure about his dad’s passing away? Will he find happiness again? We’ll have to tune in and find out. Laughs and tears are guaranteed.