Made nearly ten
years ago, “Afterlife” is only now finding its way to home entertainment, and
the reason is clear to find in the cast members. This British horror series
stars Andrew Lincoln of “The Walking Dead” fame, with ghosts rather than
zombies for the actor to take on. Unfortunately, the series feels more than ten
years old, with a dated and cliché narrative structure. Ghost stories are
difficult to make engaging, and “Afterlife” does little to update or modernize
the tired clichés of the genre. In many ways this series is The Sixth Sense in
episodic form, with a gifted medium burdened with the task of helping all of
the dead ghosts she encounters. Season two even begins with a narrative in
which the dead are unaware they are no longer alive, a further reminder of the
1999 box office phenomenon.
