Ricky, when he clues any actor in before the project starts: "Right, just remember, no matter how shitty my character acts, your character likes and adores him and constantly wants his approval and thinks he's a genius."

Every episode of Afterlife:
“Hey [Ricky Gervais] would you like a sandwich?”
“Lisa used to like sandwiches…”
“Oh, sorry”
“[Ricky Gervais calls them the C-Word]”

“I quite enjoyed Derek”. It was at that point you totally lost me.

The reason why:
A) there is zero character arc in any other cat but Gus
B) possible story lines excluding Gus failing to branch out and become something other than them walking about
C) why every cat seems to share a love and worship of Gus despite having no reason to do so
D) the forced, random, hallmark existential shite being shoe horned into every episode
Is because of ego. Ego, ego, ego. That’s all .

Play a record.

Smiling Friends episodes frequently featured both a main storyline (A Plot) AND a secondary storyline (B Plot) and then would often resolve within the same overall structure by the end of the episode, creating a very natural conclusion. This was often accomplished in half the time it takes for an episode of Alley Cats! 😂

The worst thing about Ricky Gervais besides all the cringe Richard Dawkins BS is that every single character he writes is broken down to :

-Biggest scumbag you could ever meet that's "edgy"

While simultaneously

-Everyone wants to be friends with him or have his approval

It's literal fan fiction

Plenty of animated shows tell satisfying stories in under 15 minutes. But those shows don’t waste 10 of those minutes recycling tired stand up routines and forcing in the writer’s views.

Am I the only one who’s noticed that Ricky almost always plays the main character and they are the only character to have some semblance of an arc or consistency?

Reminder that Ricky Gervais does not have an internal monologue and made fun of Karl Pilkington for having one because he thought it was made up

2:30 "Adventure Time" had 11 minutes to tell a touching character story. So the running time isn't the reason for the poor development...

I’ve only seen a handful of clips of Alley Cats but I’m actually shocked that it was written at all.  It gives the vibe of an animated improv show

Gervais has an odd obsession with death.

An idea that should have been left on the cutting room floor.

I have reached the point with RG as a writer where I used his name instead of saying "Mary Sue" because his writing is more recent as being "like that" and more people understand what I mean.

Ricky Gervais has said himself that he "Doesn't believe" Tony actually killed that junkie by giving him the means to overdose. Absolutely tone-deaf

I'm glad that you said that as a writer, because I thought this was badly written as well. It feels like a first draft, and under developed and under baked as you said. Things set up for no reason that ended up going no where. No clever call backs, no character development, no pay off, no point. I wanted to like it, and I have zero issues with short episodes. The Simpsons episodes are only 20 minutes, Tom and Jerry used to be 5 or 10 minutes. But they packed in more characters, stories and laughs. This was just poor and disappointing

Imagine what great work Stephen Merchant would have made if he wasnt carrying Ricky.

After Life is a power fantasy for chavs in the UK who wish that they could get away with mugging someone. Alley Cats is what happens when you give those same chavs a masterclass in animation and tell them "off you go, enjoy working in Toon Boom Harmony!".

In the 35 years that Alan Partridge has been on the screen, I think the writers have used the c word three times. And each of them was hilarious because of both the surprise value and appropriate context.

While the episodes are short, it's best to watch at 1.5 speed or higher as the dialogue is kinda slow.