“Commitment’s a funny word. We use it to refer to a serious, loving relationship, but we also use it to refer to someone involuntarily placed in a mental hospital…”
So begins After Forever, a new, independently-produced micro-series that mediates on the nature of commitment and its boundaries. The show, streaming on Amazon now, looks at life after the death of an intimate partner.
The series’ lead Brian (Kevin Spirtas of Days of Our Lives), who seemingly has everything, deals with the sudden loss of his husband Jason (Mitchell Anderson) to cancer. Whereas a lot of new streaming series dwell on young gay men coming out or looking for love, After Forever takes makes the unusual path of examining the life after 50–and after ’til death do us part.
Told in a flashback/flash forward style, After Forever covers the final days of Jason’s illness, and the early days of Brian getting back into the groove of life. With a lucrative job, a great group of friends, and an 8-year-old sort-of nephew, Brian has plenty to keep himself occupied, though the shadow of Jason looms large over his life. Should he start dating again? Should he have sex? Can he do either, even if he tries? The answers don’t come easily.
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With a season that lasts eight episodes, each of which has a runtime of about 10 minutes, After Forever comes ready-made for binging. The short runtimes also can help prevent the series from getting too upsetting, given the topic.
It helps that Siprtas and Anderson have great erotic chemistry in their flashbacks. The show also features a cast of familiar, talented actors, including Spirtas, Michael Urie (Ugly Betty) Anita Gillette (30 Rock), Colleen Zenk (As The World Turns), Peter Kim (Saturday Church) and a litany of veteran Broadway performers that bring credibility and sincerity to the proceedings. Directed with polish by Jennifer Pepperman, After Forever also makes good use of New York locations, including gay hotspot “Don’t Tell Mama.”
Queer film and TV sometimes draw criticism for focusing too much on the issues of young people. After Forever does something entirely new, examining a latter-day cultural phenomenon that we’ll be dealing with more of now that our population is aging, post AIDS: same-sex couples in long-term relationships.
Life doesn’t end at 50, or at marriage. After Forever knows that, and tells a fresh story–by turns sexy, funny and sad–that’s always enlightening.
After Forever streams on Amazon.
Kangol
It’s about time there was a series like this about older gay men. I hope there are more, and that they’re a bit more diverse too.
Yoshito
Agreed!
NCSilverBear
Indeed — it *IS* about time. Finally. And thank you.
Smith David
Love this idea. I wish them all the best with the show.
dacha68
FINALLY! Thank you for having a series that acknowledges that there are gay men over 50 and we do have active lives and that we are STILL LIVING! I hope that movies, books, series etc with gay male characters over the age of 50 will increase.
Vince
Damn it. Why does it have to be on Amazon. I mean I’ve got everything but and I don’t want to start a new subscription.
PinkoOfTheGange
If you haven’t had prime before, they do offer a 30 day trial; just remember to cancel it.
barkomatic
It’s fantastic that there is another rare story about older gay men. However, when there *are* stories about us, they usually involve illness, death, depression about being older etc.
I think that just reinforces the fear that younger gays have about getting older and getting injections at 29 when they think they see a wrinkle at a certain angle in very bright light.
Many of us who are middle-aged or older are not on death’s door or sad. We have social lives, sex lives and go out (despite mean stares from younger gays), we date, laugh and have fun. It’s not the end (though admittedly it gets closer of course)
surreal33
Thank you! I conquer it is possible to get older be happy, sexy and loved. Gay Hollywood truly needs to change the narrative of the over 30 gay male.
Rio
Can someone please provide a link? I have Amazon Prime and for the life of me, I can’t find it. BTW, I’m not some old fuddy dud, who doesn’t know how the internet works, it’s simply nowhere in my Amazon searches. Thanks in advance
galileo
I just searched for the title in Prime Video.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Commitment/dp/B07CKGJ3TN/ref=sr_1_1?s=instant-video&ie=UTF8&qid=1524693012&sr=1-1&keywords=after+forever
galileo
That might not work, if so: http://amzn.eu/8dt59g
Condor221
It appears to be country restricted, as in NOT in the USA.
Rob91316
To all you young’ns out there, take it from this 50-year-old — middle age has been the best time of my life so far.
Doug
Looking forward to seeing this, so tired of watching gay life continually represented by twenty-somethings.
Vince
I think I stopped watching most gay-themed movies after the broken hearts club. Yeah that was quite a while ago but there really hasn’t been much variation since. Just the usual 20-somethings with the same narratives.
jorgecruz
This is great. Now pick some 50somethings that don’t look like they came out of a Ralph Lauren ad. Show some real stories about real people that look like real people
Aires the Ram
As one commenter stated, “It’s about time a series was made about older gay men…”, but what was the real purpose of the writers, when very early in, they had to disparage half of the population by disparaging conservatives/Republicans? I think this is just more of the “gay mafia” (as it were), telling all the viewers that if you are to retain your ‘gay card’, you MUST vote democratic, you must espouse all of the democrat policies of opening up the borders and letting anyone in, repealing the 2nd amendment, decimating our military, and the rest of their long America hating list. And if you don’t vote & think THEIR WAY, you are then, by default, a Nazi, hater, white supremacist, bigot, misogynous, islamaphobe, and all the rest. Well, I already sent my ‘gay card’ back in to them, hopefully they’ll stick it where the sun doesn’t shine.