‘Alice and Steve’ is likely to be a multitude — however it’s additionally too enjoyable to cease watching

I grew up watching episodic exhibits on community TV, almost all of them formulaic however some indelibly nice. Then, like everybody else, I moved into the times of what my colleague David Bianculli dubbed Platinum TV, the place collection like The Sopranos and The Wire and Fleabag aspired to one thing increased. What each these eras had in widespread was that their exhibits had been rigorously crafted — that they had an inner logic, and a tone, that held them collectively.

In latest years, although, there’s been a proliferation of exhibits that, probably obeying some algorithm, care much less for coherence than sensation. They lurch amongst tones, from cuteness to sentimentality to meanness, stirring in random plot twists alongside the best way. Bouncing everywhere in the emotional map, these exhibits depend upon compelling actors and some memorable scenes to make us overlook their unfastened building.

An amazing instance is Alice and Steve, an entertaining however generally exasperating six-part British comedy on Hulu about two 50-something finest mates who activate one another after he will get concerned along with her 26-year-old daughter.

While the premise is juicy, it is also a tad yucky, and I primarily tuned in as a result of its title characters are performed by performers Jemaine Clement from Flight of the Conchords and Nicola Walker, whom I’ve raved up on this present greater than as soon as.

The collection begins poorly with Steve and Alice occurring a cutesy bender after a pal’s funeral. Now, I all the time hate drunk scenes, that are an invite to overact. As Clement and Walker bray their strains, we study that Steve’s a divorced superstar hair stylist who cannot discover a girlfriend whereas Alice is a garments designer with a doting youthful husband, properly performed by Joel Fry, a sweetie-pie of a teenage son — that is Tyrese Eaton-Dyce — and, in fact, that 26-year-old daughter, Izzy, who has inherited her mom’s willfulness. Played by Yali Topol Margalith, Izzy kickstarts the plot by flirting with Steve. Predictably, he succumbs.

Almost instantly, they suppose they’re in love. While the weak-willed Steve needs to cover their romance — he is aware of it is inappropriate — Izzy simply blurts out the information to her mother. Alice flips. And from hereon out on this collection the place the ladies are as alpha as the lads are hangdog, Alice drives the motion. Betrayed and violently indignant, she’ll do no matter it takes to interrupt them up — regardless of who will get damage. Her antics unleash Steve’s personal malice. We’re in Beef territory.

At its core, Alice and Steve hinges on the best way that platonic friendships are sometimes richer and extra highly effective than romantic ones. It’s an interesting topic, which can be why I discovered the script by Sophie Goodhart so irritating. I wished her to dig deeper. While the present’s bought some very humorous bits — Alice’s sharp-tongued mom is a blast — it is usually annoyingly lax.

If Steve actually does the hair of Charli XCX, how come he is a clueless older man whose popular culture references are Willie Nelson and Woody Allen? If Izzy really adores her mom as she claims, why does she maintain rubbing her relationship with Steve in her mother’s face? Halfway by way of, one character nukes the opposite’s profession, however this life-shattering occasion has no actual weight: It’s barely even talked about for the remainder of the collection.

That mentioned, Alice and Steve is value seeing for scenes just like the one wherein Steve spinelessly sells Izzy out or the lacerating dialogue between Alice and her husband when he totally grasps that he adores a lady who views him as a dependable however uninteresting concierge, not a person she likes hanging with. Most touching of all could be the pretty sequence when Alice, clever for as soon as, smooths a romantic disaster between her son and his would-be girlfriend, a pair who’re the present’s emblem of hope. For as soon as, we perceive why individuals love her.

While most viewers will discover Steve extra likable than Alice — the present takes pains to not make him seem predatory or creepy — the position does not give Clement an entire lot to do besides play variations on shambolic dread and discomfort. The present will get its galvanizing zing from Walker, a beloved star in England with superb, luminous eyes. Her Alice is the sort of sophisticated, volcanic heroine that you do not see in films and infrequently see on TV, one who exhibits her apocalyptic rage freely and in many various varieties.

At least as soon as in each episode, one thing would lead me to say, “Man, is this show a mess.” But that wasn’t a deal breaker. I saved watching. After all, life is messy, too.

Copyright 2026 NPR