Gamma-ray burst (GRB) afterglows have long played a key role in our understanding of the physics of GRBs. The recent detection of the electro-magnetic counterparts including an afterglow jet to a neutron star merger indicate that this will remain so in the future. With the detection of GRB 170817A, afterglow observations have fully caught up again with theory and we have been provided with an opportunity to discard old jet models, refine alternative jet geometry models already in the literature and to think hard about future predictions. The GRB community has admirably stepped up to the plate and observational, theoretical and computational progress has been very rapid over the past years. Additionally, large-scale electro-magnetic surveys, observations at extremely high frequencies and an increasing number of gravitational-wave detections of merging neutron stars offer tantalizing prospects of further upheavals in afterglow and GRB theory. In these proceedings, I will take stock of some theoretical progress on afterglow theory made in the past few years
