Ricky Gervais is creating a television show about atheism
By Jessica GentileJuly 18th, 2011, 8:30 pmComments (18)
Ricky Gervais is teaming up with former executive producer of Dexter, Clyde Phillips, for what sounds like a darkly hilarious new show. The premise for Afterlife is simple: an atheist dies and goes to heaven. It'll be interesting, if somewhat paradoxical, to see what sorts of eternal rewards the non-believer reaps. The pilot is currently being written and filming is set to begin early next year, which leaves you plenty of time to set your DVR.
The subject matter is nothing new for Gervais, who has been vocal about his atheism. (His 2009 film The Invention of Lying had similar themes, as an underachiever attempts to introduce the concept of God to a blissfully naive society.) But it's Phillips' contributions to the project that should be most interesting, given the dark and morbid nature of Dexter.
Commentarium (18 Comments)
this is fantastic, big fan of dexter and gervais so it should turn out well
Holy shit Ricky Gervais, we get it, you're an atheist. Let it go and be funny again.
I don't know, I think this is a promising premise for a funny show.
Man, if only people could let Christianity or Islam or Buddhism go...holy shit indeed.
Yeah man! Damn, let go of those attempts at ongoing compassion and serenity, already. Come back to being insane like most of the rest of the planet. You're showing everyone else up, goddammit. And quit with that friggin silence. Distracting noise is WHERE IT'S AT.
@HariKrishna: Yeah, no guff! Like religious people are the only ones with compassion and serenity, and all atheists are devil-worshipping malificents!
Shut the fuck up Roy.
Starting to get tired of this guy! It's probably that smile.
I love Ricky Gervais, and I will probably like this show. But I can see where theists are coming from. No one wants someone going on and on about something they don't agree with. I don't believe in God and I would definitely be annoyed if some comedian created a show insisting God's existence. It works both ways. In your face bible thumpers and in your face atheists; oth bad scenes.
I think you missed the point... it's a tv show... not a documentary... I'm not a mormon. In fact, I intensely dislike the whole concept of mormonism, but I really enjoyed Big Love as a TV show. Religious views and entertainment aren't mutually exclusive.
You can turn on the TV at any time on any day and find a religious TV show. And if you don't have cable, just wait 'til Sunday morning. Technically, of course, these shows aren't created by comedians but some of these televangelists are laughing all the way to the bank.
To be clear--I am an atheist. And a Ricky Gervais fan. I've just found that the more he becomes obsessed with anti-bible-thumping, the less funny the dude is. The Invention of Lying was totally mediocre, coming from the guy who made Extras and The Office.
@ completely: I agree with you about the Invention of Lying. It was a pretty funny movie until it took that weird turn — in my opinion the concept was fine, it was just executed poorly and ham-fistedly.
Single-issue anythings tend to get a bit tedious. I'll withhold judgment about this until I see it; I expect to find it funnier than most people probably will, because I anticipate being "in" on the joke. At least, I hope that's how it turns out; that would be most excellent.
Atheism is fine, just like being a vegetarian, nudist or any other slightly non-mainstream thing. When you define yourself, to near exclusivity, by it, you become very boring.
What we need is a bunch of smartass atheist characters in conventional sitcoms, always ready with the wisecrack that snaps a religious conversation back to reality.
No kidding. Sometimes I get NBC confused with the Eternal World Network. Like that episode of Glee where the whole gang got canonized.
Help, I've been informed and I can't becmoe ignorant.
Now you say something