The Hulu series “Alice and Steve” has many aspects of a romantic comedy: witty banter, protagonists with quirky creative jobs and a set piece centered on a dinner party. But the namesake characters are not, in fact, the lovebirds whose ill-advised union serves as the show’s inciting incident. They’re two middle-aged Londoners whose decades-long best friendship is put to the ultimate test when Steve (Jemaine Clement), a divorced and childless celebrity hairstylist who yearns for a nuclear family, starts dating Izzy (Yali Topol Margalith) — a woman who’s half his age, and also Alice’s (Nicola Walker) daughter.
Yet “Alice and Steve,” which was created and written by Sophie Goodhart (“Rivals”) and directed by Tom Kingsley (“This Is Going to Hurt”), is aptly named. The lived-in platonic chemistry between Walker and Clement is the show’s highlight and its foundation, keeping the action anchored in something wholesome amid some abominable behavior on both sides of the friends’ growing rift. Steve, of course, is having sex with a woman he’s known since she was a small child, a point “Alice and Steve” touches on without dwelling too long, lest this become a much bleaker show. (Steve also insists he’d never been attracted to Izzy before a spontaneous encounter in Alice’s living room, and the scripts repeatedly emphasize Izzy as an active and enthusiastic pursuer.) But the crisis his poor judgment induces in Alice ends up unmasking her ugly side, and exposing cracks in her own marriage to the sweet, mild-mannered Daniel (Joel Fry).
So it’s necessary for the show to begin by showing us how much fun Alice and Steve have when they’re on good terms. In the first episode, the two attend an open casket funeral where Steve’s beloved French bulldog sneezes on the corpse’s face before devouring Alice’s baggie of special occasion cocaine at a club. Between these two incidents, Alice genuinely encourages Steve to put himself out there and make a connection. There’s a mutual enabling of the kind also seen between Seth Rogen and Rose Byrne’s characters in the Apple TV sitcom “Platonic,” in which two grown adults fight off Father Time by encouraging one another’s arrested development. But there’s also enough evident care and affection to make apparent what’s at stake when Steve blows their lives apart.
Unfortunately, “Alice and Steve” doesn’t extend the same depth of empathy to Izzy, whose desires propel the narrative but whose personhood rarely seems to extend beyond them. Granted, she’s young, and we’re seeing her through the eyes of a mother who pictures her as a child unable to understand the gravity of her decisions. (And Alice may be right!) But we learn little about Izzy’s interests or personality besides a recent breakup that may make Steve a rebound. The vacuum where a fully realized character should be is a potentially critical flaw in a relationship comedy, even if Izzy and Steve’s relationship isn’t the primary one.
For a season of just half a dozen, half-hour episodes, “Alice and Steve” squeezes in a surprising number of auxiliary pairs. Daniel, a music teacher feeling abandoned by Alice’s solipsistic spiral, explores a flirtation with a colleague; Alice and Daniel’s son Dom (Tyrese Eaton-Dyce) — Izzy is Alice’s daughter from an earlier relationship — rides out the highs and lows of first love. (The multiplicity of subjects is another quality that makes the Izzy-Steve connection feel undercooked; perhaps more episodes could’ve benefited everyone.) But there’s never any doubt to whom this show belongs, nor would there be even if their names weren’t on the door.
Clement has been well-known as a comedian since the success of “The Flight of the Conchords.” But while Steve is charming enough to make the viewer understand both Alice’s attraction and her friends’ tentative acceptance, the character has a sweeter, sadder side compared to Clement’s typical jokesters, ignoring all his best friend’s warnings to pursue what he sees as his last chance at happiness. He’s quite good; Walker, however, is a true revelation. (Though not to those who recall her work in “Spooks” or “Last Tango in Halifax.”) It’s remarkable to watch Alice set fire to the moral high ground with spiteful rage. Walker’s face contorts in horror as Steve wins over a pack of suspicious Zoomers, then assumes a rictus of feigned happiness when she briefly tries to play along for Izzy’s sake. She makes Alice charming enough to get away with callous offhand comments to Daniel like “I make your life more fun. You make my life more manageable,” even as they betray that Steve isn’t the only one who ignores basic decency for his own satisfaction.
Alice and Steve’s feud quickly transcends Steve’s initial transgression, taking on a ferocity that can only come from corrupted love. Lines are crossed; insults are hurled that can’t be taken back, starting with Alice branding her best mate a “fucking pedo loser.” As fuzzy as “Alice and Steve” can feel at its margins, it sees its central characters with all the focused clarity that comes with a certain level of loathing. Like an old friend who’s made a major faux pas, there’s enough tangible history for the audience to look past the flaws.
All six episodes of “Alice and Steve” are now streaming on Hulu.
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