Ceebee-eebee

I can't stop gushing about Afterlife because it is JUST THAT GOOD. And not only because Lesley Sharp gives a performance that is so over-the-top brilliant I can't even find the words to adequately explain its perfection. But, as usual, Em has done a better job than me of expressing things:

READ THIS NOW, PLEASE.

And then go watch the show.

So I'd wanted to see this show Afterlife. I fell in love with Lesley Sharp thanks to an obsession with Scott and Bailey and I saw some caps from the show on tumblr and it looked promising. Searched around for download links everywhere I could think of to no avail but I ended up lucking out and finding some wonderful human being had uploaded all the eps to youtube. Not the best quality picture but what can you do, I'm certainly more grateful to her than I can possibly say for making it possible for me to watch the series.

But here's the thing. I knew Lesley Sharp was an amazing actress and after watching the first episode I knew the show was going to be brilliant and painful but I didn't realize just how brilliant and painful. And after staying up watching episodes until 5am and then waking up to finish the show out I've now been crying for 2 straight hours. When I tell you this series was one of the most gutting, gorgeous, horrible things I've ever watched, I'm not exaggerating in the slightest. I've always had issues with death - with fictional death, character death. I tend to avoid ever watching episodes of even my most favorite shows when a character I love dies in it but this was just...watching these characters break apart and then find some kind of peace in the end. It was written so quietly and so perfectly and acted so heartwrenchingly it's difficult for me to really explain how beautiful it was. Or how painful. And I mean honestly? I could barely see the last 2 episodes through my sobbing.

I suppose the point I'm trying to make is that if you are an emotional masochist like I am, or you just love incredible acting, give the show a try. It's difficult for me to imagine drama getting much better than what I just watched.