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Netflix renewed Ricky Gervais' 'After Life' for season 2

after life netflix
"After Life" Netflix

  • Netflix renewed Ricky Gervais' "After Life" for season two on Wednesday.
  • Netflix CEO Reed Hastings said last month that he was watching "After Life," even though he's usually "only a mixed fan" of Gervais.
  • In the past, Hastings has said that his favorite Netflix shows included "The End of the F---ing World" and "BoJack Horseman."
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Netflix renewed Ricky Gervais' "After Life" for season two on Wednesday.

Netflix describes the series like this: "Struggling to come to terms with his wife's death, a writer for a newspaper adopts a gruff new persona in an effort to push away those trying to help." The show has a 71% critic score on Rotten Tomatoes. 

Gervais plays the main character, Tony, in the show's six-episode first season, which debuted March 8 on the streaming service.

"I have never had a reaction like this before," Gervais said in a statement. "It’s been insane. And heartwarming. But now I have to make sure the second season is even better so I’ll probably have to work much harder than usual. Annoying really."

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READ MORE: Netflix loves 10-episode TV seasons and reportedly doesn't see the value in longer original shows

Netflix CEO Reed Hastings loves dark comedies and he revealed last month that "After Life" was the latest original series he was watching.

Hastings said that he was watching the show during a Q&A session with journalists last month at Netflix Labs, the company's annual media open house. Hastings added that he's enjoying the show even though he's "only a mixed fan of his."

"I’m not like a big Ricky guy," Hastings said.

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"After Life does come across as Gervais' most autobiographical work to date, but the writer, director, and star actually tells a sweet, earnest story about learning when and why to shut the hell up," critic Ben Travers wrote for Indiewire.

This isn't the first time Hastings has mentioned his favorite Netflix shows. Hastings told Business Insider last year that he loved Netflix's British series "The End of the F---ing World" because it felt different. "It's like something that I've never seen before," Hastings said.

In 2015, Hastings said that his favorite Netflix series was the animated Hollywood satire "BoJack Horseman," beating out other early Netflix hits, "House of Cards" and "Orange Is the New Black."

Disclosure: Mathias Döpfner, CEO of Business Insider's parent company, Axel Springer, is a Netflix board member.

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