Afterlife 1x01 'Purpose'

by Jon Nyqvist

Bored security guard Jonathan meets Aurora, an assassin hunted by her former employer. Both of them die in a shootout, but find themselves in the mysterious Afterlife, where Jonathan is drawn into a conflict between a small village and the bandits harassing them.

The highly-anticipated Afterlife set a real VS precedent when its two preview episodes both scored a mighty 10 out of 10 from one of MZP's most respected reviewers, fellow Walsallite Matt 'Xandmatt' Latham, and given that the show focuses on a mismatched pair of antiheroes (bored security giard with a vivid imagination Jonathan, and highly strung hitwoman Aurora) who are killed and awaken in a strange, almost medieval afterlife to fend for themsleves, it seems like I'm going to enjoy reading this little gem...

The Teaser kicks off with a daring, Jackie Chan style action set piece as Jonathan swings from the rafters of the shopping mall he patrols to chase a shoplifter out into the street, and even in the few pages we get here there's a definite sense of tongues planted firmly in cheeks. The 'voice' of the writer is something that VS scripts have the luxury of playing with a little more - Joss Whedon was always doing things like that in later Buffy scripts, poking fun at himself through the stage direction, and there's elements of that sparkle here.

Act I introduces us to Aurora, our other protagonist, held at gunpoint in an alley by two burly hitmen, and in just two lines we get pretty much everything we need to know about this girl - the stage direction of 'Her athletic body is enough to wet any man’s dreams' is a great little line, as is her first line of:

AURORA
So, do you two have names, or do I just call you Thug One and Two?

That's the kind of sparkle I'm talking about. This script is already proving to be fun to get through, and that's a rare thing indeed. Aurora's escape from the goones leaves her with a bullet wound, but the visceral description of just a few rapid moves of the fight for her life demonstrates how even a short fight scene can be brought to life by some inventive direction - the silouhetted shot of Aurora wasting Thug #2 shows a flair for cinematics that is already pushing this script to new heights. The show moves on as Jonathan is sent to anger management, and a badly wounded Aurora sneaks into the same hospital only to pass out from blood loss. Jonathan suffers through a brilliantly excruciating group therapy session before bumping into the escaping Aurora, where a confrontation with one of the (presumably several) men out to kill her ends with one of the most inventive death scenes I've seen for years, as Act I ends in a hail of sparks. Brilliant suff. Finland native Jon Nyqvist's writing has occasional hiccups where things get lost in translation, but his ear for witty one-liners and skilful dodging of cliches is making this script shine right from the start. Something tells me those high marks were right on the money...

Act II has Jonathan and Aurora on the run, and the dialogue between the two of them fizzes with chemistry. We've got two great little characters here who are clearly going to have all kinds of fun bouncing off each other as the show runs on - I'm a huge believer in male/female twin leads anyway, and when they're done as well as this it makes the scripts themselves come alive. A blistering fight (with requisite UST) progresses further as the duo come under attack from more of the (presumably many) hitmen out to take Aurora out, and while you could argue that Jonathan's mad style kung fu skillz are a little convenient, you remind yourself that he's both a security guard and one with a high sense of adventure, so it makes sense that he'd roll a pretty high score against his 'Kicking Arse' statistic. Given that Act II closes with our two protagonists very dead in a surprisingly touching moment, you'd be forgiven for feeling a little confused...

... and Act III keeps you in the dark a while longer. Difference is, you want to know what's happened to the two of them. In just two Acts, you find you really give a damn about these two excellently fleshed-out characters, and you want to keep rteading to find out how the heck they're going to get out of this one. Jonathan finds himself in a classic spooky forest, with a genuine sense of fear as he runs from unseen, flesh-hungry creatures, stumbling into a medieval village and finding himself on a Dungeons & Dragons set. We've clearly shifted into an entirely different gear here, and credit to Nyqvist for the transition. The Cliche Alarm does ring a little bit as Jonathan is introduced to the new world he's in, with its bandit law and oppressed locals, but I honestly don't think it's possible to write this kind of scenario without tripping on a few established themes. Having said that, the sudden return of a dreamscape version of his shrink Dr. Lester amps up the mystery gauge another notch - there's obviously some deeper reason for Jonathan being here, and while his acceptance of this comes a little too easily, the hint of deeper layers of meaning behind what's going on is a welcome one. Jonathan comes to the aid of local bar wench Kate as she's about to be dragged off to the lair of local villain Marcus The Cutter, but Joanthan's quick bout of chop socky to save the lady's honour ends with a plank to the back of his noggin, with Kate putting the survival of her village above her own life. Which is kind of noble, if demonstrating an alarming lack of self-preservation. Maybe it's because I'm both a pacifist and a coward. Anyway.

Act IV throws in another spectacularly-choreographed fight as Jonathan takes down Marcus, frees Kate and drives the bandits away, before another quick dream sequence (and more hints as to the real identity of whatever's masquerading as 'Dr. Lester') sends Jonathan on his way to Silver City, this world's version of Mos Eisley, where he's to begin his path towards taking down the Ravens, the network of outlaws who seem to have a stranglehold on the filth-loving simple townsfolk. It all wraps up pretty quickly, throwing in a 'walk into the sunset' shot to close and giving us a real Kung Fu vibe as Jonathan begins what will no doubt turn into a very long journey.

Well, that's the episode out of the way. How was it? Overall, pretty darn good. The first half of the script was electrifying, with the chemistry bouncing between Jonathan and Aurora jumping off the page, and the balletic fight scenes rattling your teeth with every bone-jarring detail. Nyqvist's sparkling dialogue makes this a joy to read throughout, with enough self-referential humour to make you really like these characters, even though our 'heroes' are a misfit, loose cannon security guard who's a danger to everyone around him, and a sexy yet morally clouded assassin with a list of enemies a mile long. The trasnferral into what we presume is the afterlife of the show's title for the second half of the script loses some of this pace, unfortunately, and that's solely down to Jonathan being on his own again. The one-liners and brutal action scenes are still present, but the medieval setting takes a while to settle down, with some slightly shaky dialogue from the various villagers breaking the illusion somewhat (their Old World English accents fall prey to the odd Americanisation). However, the premise itself remains intriguing, and the prospect of seeing Jonathan and Aurora reunited alone is enough to keep you following this. A great pilot, witty and exciting throughout, let down a little by having to try to settle into such a massive change of pace at the mid-point, just as we were getting used to the central double act.

ZPM RATING: