'Alice and Steve' Reviewed: Dated, Wrong, Squanders Its Ick
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- Sophie Goodhart's six-part show 'Alice and Steve' stars Nicola Walker as Alice, an alpha-woman on her second marriage, and Jemaine Clement as Steve, a lonely single hairstylist — best friends since meeting at university 30-plus years ago
- The inciting plot point: Steve begins a sexual relationship with Izzy (Yali Topol Margalith), Alice's 26-year-old stepdaughter whom he has known since birth, ten minutes after telling Alice he wishes he were in love and could have a baby
- The reviewer argues the show fatally dodges the 'ick' baked into its premise — never interrogating power differentials, instead portraying Steve as merely 'weak and lonely' rather than a predator, in a tone the reviewer calls dated
- On-screen chemistry between Clement and Margalith is described as 'nil,' with Clement 'looking embarrassed throughout'; the show repeatedly tells viewers the sex is incredible, which the reviewer suspects was scripted to compensate
- Alice's character arc is dismissed as non-existent — 'impetuous and self-centred' throughout, given nothing but 'broadbrush outrage,' with even Walker's skill unable to rescue the 'one-note shrew' writing
- The only subplot the reviewer praises — son Dom (Tyrese Eaton-Dyce) and his crush Rome (Eilidh Fisher) — is 'never integrated into the main narrative,' as is Daniel's (Joel Fry) quiet suffering as Alice's younger husband
- The reviewer concludes the ending is 'ridiculous' and that 'the ick is the least of Alice and Steve's problems' — a show in which 'nothing is convincing or authentic and nothing is earned or resolved'
Why it matters: A pan of this scale from a major UK outlet, aimed at a show with a deliberately provocative premise, effectively buries the series' commercial prospects on arrival: the critique doesn't just object to the content but argues the show fails on craft — flat chemistry, one-note characters, and a subplot the writers never bother to integrate — meaning it loses both audiences who find the premise distasteful and those willing to engage with it.
