Chris Carter’s The After was an ambitious post-apocalyptic series that had potential, but Amazon lost faith in the project.
What Is It?
Created by Chris Carter (The X-Files), this pilot focuses on eight strangers who are thrown together and forced to cooperate with one another in order to survive as society appears to be crumbling around them.
Aired: Amazon, 2014
Created By: Chris Carter
Starring: Sharon Lawrence, Adrian Pasdar, Jamie Kennedy, Aldis Hodge
Why Didn’t it Fly?
This pilot was released on what was known in 2014 as Amazon Instant Video and viewers were asked to vote on whether they wanted it to continue as a series (back when the streaming service was still soliciting feedback from its audience). The After received enough postive votes and Amazon announced that they would be picking the show up for an eight-episode first season.
Carter envisioned 99 total episodes for the show and modeled it on Dante’s The Divine Comedy which has 99 cantos. But it never made it beyond the first cantos (assuming that was what the pilot represented) as nothing was heard about the production for months. Amazon then announced in January 2015 that the show was cancelled with no episodes filmed beyond the pilot.
Apparently, there were significant creative differences between Carter’s vision and what Amazon expected from the show. He wanted to do Dante, and they wanted a more traditional genre show. Asked about what happened while working on the X-Files revival, Carter had the following comments:
I think there was just a difference of opinion about the direction of the show. It was a hard sell from the beginning. It was eight characters in hell, and I really didn’t do a bible for the show because I wanted to discover what that was about. It was a hard sell, and it would have been an investment for them, if they were going to do eight episodes, of $40 million. I can understand their reluctance, and I still think I had eight great episodes.
Amazon executive Roy Price also believed that the show was a tough sell: “Not everything works out. It wasn’t the money, It was a tough concept, and hard to crack. Who knows, maybe it will come together one day?”
Should It Be Rebooted?
The pilot had promise, though it was definitely uneven. The characters did not come together very well and the story seemed muddled. But it still had potential and the idea of a modern updating of Dante’s Inferno is intriguing. Whether it would support 99 episodes of an ongoing series is questionable, but there is still plenty to delve into from the source material and there’s no reason that Carter couldn’t take a stab at it again. Apparently, Amazon no longer owns The After, so it could be shopped around to other venues and Carter brings some name recognition to the property. It would likely have to be rebooted with new actors, but that would not provide much of a hurdle since only the one episode was produced. Right now may not be the best time to try and revive the series with the streamer’s cutting back on original content, but this one could be worth a second look at some point.
Where Can You Watch It?
The After is no longer available for streaming on Amazon and it never received a DVD or Blu-ray release. It is currently available on YouTube (at this link) but could be pulled down at any time due to rights issues. It is definitely worth a look for Chris Carter fans and perhaps the property will get a second shot at a series at some point in the future.
Read about more Sci Fi TV pilots that did not fly at this link.
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I remember watching the pilot and being excited, but the show never came.