Winter is coming ...
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If you haven't heard that expression sometime in recent weeks you either haven't been near a television or you are dead.
"Winter is coming" was the expression used to help promote the start of the new season of the phenomenon that is Game of Thrones. Seemingly the entire universe was glued to a device or a television screen on Monday watching the first episode of the final season of the smash hit program.
Yet somehow, I've missed the fad. Completely. It's not like I haven't tried, having watched a couple of early episode a few years back, but ... well, meh.
Yet one television show has had a similar impact on our household recently. It's a show which has had as powerful an impact on both my wife and I than we can ever remember. That show is the Netflix hit, After Life, developed by and starring Ricky Gervais.
The show, which is simply but beautifully put together, has also become a worldwide hit and Gervais has since announced he will be making another season.
A word of warning though, this is not your average television show. This show will touch your soul and will challenge you in ways you would not expect.
It's darkly funny, but then you expect that going into it, but what you don't expect is to be challenged to the core without tricks or shock tactics.
Instead you are challenged by the wonderfully relatable characters and the stark realities of both life, love and death. This is not a "view a season in a day" binge watch either.
After one episode, episode four to be precise, my wife and I both let out breath as the credits rolled and we realised we'd been simultaneously holding our breath of sorts with tension for the last half of the episode.
It took us a good couple days before we felt ready to watch the next episode. Seriously. Rather than explain what it's about, check it out for yourself.
But be prepared to be challenged and be prepared to challenge what you hold dear and important in your own short space of time on this planet.
Few shows have captured the grim and stark reality, tragedy, happiness and beauty of human interaction like After Life.
Julian O'Brien is editor of the Illawarra Mercury