Dubbed a ‘wrong-com’, recent CanneSeries winner Alice and Steve, with Jemaine Clement as Steve, is picking up positive reviews ahead of its appearance on screens next week.
Much of the praise – especially in reviews out of the UK, where the series is set and shot – inevitably goes to Alice, played by Nicola Walker (Annika, River, Unforgotten).
Sophie Goodhart’s show challenges prejudices about age-gap relationships, as Clement’s Steve enters into a relationship with the daughter of his longtime friend Alice, and Alice heads to the stratosphere of revenge.
THR called the show’s story of the rapidly-deteriorating family dynamics “a cycle of escalation so pointless and petty it could have powered an entire season of Beef, and as with the Netflix series much of the fun derives from seeing just how self-destructive both parties can get.
Per DigitalSpy, “When it comes to the complexity of emotions the writing crackles, Walker’s rage-range is multifaceted as Alice’s anger explodes out of control, and that is pure Walker talent … Praise must be given to her tennis partner in this bitter dispute. Clement’s Steve digs down deep, behaving as equally petty, crossing line after line after line in a way that matches Walker’s energy … Alice and Steve is one of those rare shows that doubles as a bingeable experience – easy to whip through and addictively enjoyable – but is also something that, when you strip it back, goes deeper”
The UK’s Radio Times called the show “an impressively wrong-footing premise”, noting, “Clement’s comedy background (Flight of the Conchords, What We Do in the Shadows) makes him a reliable source of dry one-liners.”
JoBlo called Jemaine Clement “captivating”, and assessed the show as “a darkly funny drama about messy people with little impulse control … a fast-moving look at how complicated we are as imperfect human beings, and how, when it comes to matters of the heart, the best of intentions aren’t always enough to save you from disaster … Through a thin veil of grim comedy, the series screams into the darkness, holding a megaphone, as the void swallows the cries of outrage.”
Nerd Initiative (news to us, too), also enjoyed it, saying, “What ‘Alice and Steve’ absolutely nails is cast chemistry. Jermaine Clement and Nicola Walker are a laugh riot. The way that they play off of and with each other is exactly the type of cast interactions that any showrunner would dream of. When their characters are at their most vulnerable and angriest, Clement and Walker are at their best … There were genuine times when I sat with this show and had to rewind because of how hard I was laughing. It’s that kind of funny.”
Alice and Steve streams on Disney+ from next week.
