By Sarah Osman

In the series Alice and Steve, Nicola Walker anchors a dark comedy that’s less about laughs than about longing, aging, and emotional dysfunction.

Alice and Steve, created and written by Sophie Goodhart, directed by Tom Kingsley, streaming on Hulu and Disney+

A scene from Alice and Steve. Photo: Hulu

What would you do if your best friend of 30 years started dating your 26-year-old daughter?

That’s the uncomfortable conundrum Alice (Nicola Walker) faces in the dark British comedy Alice and Steve.

Alice has known (and dated) Steve (Jermaine Clement) for pretty much her entire adult life. In the opening episode of the series, Alice and Steve attend a funeral. Afterwards, they do 20-year-old cocaine at a local pub, where Alice encourages a lonely Steve to flirt with a younger woman because he wants a baby. As this flirting unfolds, Steve’s adorable bulldog inhales the 20-year-old cocaine and needs an emergency visit to the vet. Distraught, Steve is moping on Alice’s couch when her daughter Izzy (Yali Topol Margalith) comes on to him. Steve ends up sleeping with Izzy and, to his surprise, he develops genuine feelings for her.

You can imagine how well Alice takes that news.

Alice and Steve falls into the genre of cringe comedy. I, for lack of a better term, cringed multiple times throughout the series. There was the awkward dinner party where Alice brings her alcoholic mom, Steve, and Izzy’s friends together. And then there was the time Alice started screaming about how the girls’ panties her company was designing were inappropriate. Now, this is supposed to be a comedy. I didn’t  laugh all that much while watching Alice and Steve. Instead, I became invested in the series’s psychological dissection (calling Dr. Freud) of its characters, especially the titular Alice. This isn’t a plot-heavy show — Alice and Steve is driven by the traumatized personalities  of its messy lead figures.

Ironically, while the show is called Alice and Steve, I was particularly intrigued by the members of Alice’s family. Not Izzy so much — she doesn’t feel as developed as she should be. (The character is written to think she is more of an adult than she actually is. Beyond that, Izzy is flat.) Much more interesting are Alice’s husband, Daniel (Joel Fry), and her teenage son, Dom (Tyrese Eaton-Dyce).

Dom is dating Rome (Eilidh Fisher), a nerd who knows the answer to every Trivial Pursuit question. Dom and Rome have an adorable high school relationship; when they accidentally take too many gummies, the couple needs Alice to help calm them down. Rome serves as an anchor for Dom amidst the domestic chaos; the two agree to be each other’s families. This wholesome romantic relationship was refreshing; it adds much-needed levity to the series.

We learn that Daniel is 10 years younger than Alice. He’s not Izzy’s biological father; he entered the picture later in Alice’s life. Daniel is a sweet music teacher who, for years, has been sidelined in his own marriage. Alice dismisses him, even insisting that he doesn’t really care about his stepdaughter. Fry brings an innocence as well as an underlying anger to Daniel, who feels he has been wronged. It’s understandable why he’s so bitter about his wife.

As for the two stars, Walker outshines Clement, who doesn’t seem invested in the role of Steve. The actor gives the character a banal sweetness that makes it understandable that a young woman would find him attractive. But it is not made clear why Izzy — who would have grown up with him as an uncle-type figure — would be so smitten. It feels as though Clement phoned this performance in.

Walker, though, brings a manic energy to Alice, who is not a very likable character, but she is enticingly complex. Alice is struggling with aging: her children are growing up and, in response, she herself needs to grow up. It is plain that her attachment to Steve isn’t healthy. It’s debatable whether she still harbors feelings for the guy (my hunch is yes). And the ways those feelings impact her behavior are fuzzy, to say the least. Alice isn’t an easy character to play, but Walker does justice to a woman who merits hours of quality time on Freud’s couch.

Sarah Mina Osman is based in Los Angeles. In addition to The Arts Fuse, her writing can be found in The Huffington Post, Success Magazine, Matador Network, HelloGiggles, Business Insider, and WatchMojo. She has an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of North Carolina Wilmington and is working on her first novel. She has a deep appreciation for sloths and tacos. You can keep up with her on Instagram @SarahMinaOsman and at Bluesky @sarahminaosman.bsky.social.