The After
Sci-fi drama stocked with shocks, swears, partial nudity.
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The After
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A Lot or a Little?
The parents' guide to what's in this TV show.
What Parents Need to Know
Parents need to know that The After includes frequent, unbleeped swearing (in particular "f--k") along with some partial nudity and sudden moments of violence. Since adults are the intended audience, the plot involves otherworldly creatures that are creepy enough to give little ones big frights, but most older teens wil be able to handle the intensity.
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What's the Story?
In the wake of an unexplained global disaster, eight strangers (Aldis Hodge, Andrew Howard, Arielle Kebbel, Jamie Kennedy, Sharon Lawrence, Louise Monot, Jaina Lee Ortiz, and Adrian Pasdar) find themselves facing a dangerous world -- and sorting through baffling circumstances that seemingly brought them together on purpose. But learning to survive in THE AFTER means forgetting who they were before everything changed.
Is It Any Good?
In so many ways, The After is a mash-up of odd plot points we've seen before, splicing shades of M. Night Shyalaman's Signs with the strangers-in-an-elevator drama of Devil, to name a few obvious sources of inspiration. And that's part of what makes The After feel like such a nonstarter, especially since viewers will have to go out of their way -- and pay -- to watch it exclusively on Amazon. It isn't completely off-putting, but it isn't addictive either, and, in the streaming business, being "binge-worthy" is everything.
Worthiness aside, The After's binge-ability certainly exists, thanks to streaming technology that makes plowing through multiple episodes easy. Just know that if your older teens have access to episodes beyond the free pilot, they'll be getting a mostly positive message about banding together in the face of disaster mixed with some saltier (and scarier) elements than you might have been expecting.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about The After's take on how the world would function during a global disaster. Is the outlook generally positive or negative -- and do you think it's accurate?
Does the fact that The After streams exclusively on Amazon allow it to do things other series can't? How would it fare on network television or pay cable?
What would you do if the world was ending and you were stuck with a group of strangers? Would you go it alone or stick with the crowd? What are the pros and cons to each approach?
TV Details
- Premiere date: February 6, 2014
- Cast: Jamie Kennedy, Louise Monot, Adrian Pasdar
- Network: Amazon Prime Video
- Genre: Science Fiction
- Topics: Magic and Fantasy, Space and Aliens
- TV rating: TV-MA
- Last updated: September 19, 2019
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