A Comedy Built on Mutual Destruction

Read Time:6 Minute, 47 Second

MOVIE REVIEW
Alice and Steve
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Genre: Comedy, Drama
Year Released: 2026
Runtime: 6 Episodes
Director(s): Tom Kingsley
Writer(s): Sophie Goodhart
Cast: Nicola Walker, Jemaine Clement, Yali Topol Margalith, Joel Fry, Tyrese Eaton-Dyce, Marcia Warren
Where to Watch: the series will debut with all six episodes on June 8, 2026, on Hulu, and Hulu on Disney+ for bundle subscribers, in the U.S. and Disney+ internationally

RAVING REVIEW: I have to start by saying that this was one of the most easily bingeable shows I’ve ever watched. Most series built around chaos like this want you to choose a side. They might pretend to operate in morally gray territory, but eventually they start nudging viewers toward a favorite, easing one character’s arc while sharpening another's flaws. ALICE AND STEVE never pretend to do that. It commits to the ugliness of the situation from every possible angle, then keeps finding new ways to make everybody involved look slightly worse than they did five minutes earlier. That could’ve turned the series into an exhausting exercise in cruelty. But there was something about Sophie Goodhart’s writing that understood something vitally important! People don’t become irrational because they’re evil; they become irrational because humiliation screws with their judgment. That distinction gives the show a spine unlike most dramadies made for streaming.

Alice discovers that her best friend Steve has started a relationship with her daughter Izzy after a drunken encounter unexpectedly turns real. It sounds like the kind of premise that could collapse under the weight of its own turmoil. Instead, the series treats the fallout with an almost painfully grounded logic. Alice isn’t simply angry because the relationship feels inappropriate. She’s grieving the collapse of multiple parts of her own life, all at once. Her closest friendship changes overnight, her role as a mother becomes unstable, and suddenly she’s the outsider in relationships she once controlled. The show understands how terrifying it can feel when the people closest to you begin building a life that doesn’t center around your presence.

Nicola Walker carries most of that burden, and she’s phenomenal here. What makes the performance work isn’t just the comedic timing, although she absolutely has that. It’s the way she allows Alice’s bitterness to coexist with genuine heartbreak. The character becomes manipulative, selfish, vindictive, and invasive, but Walker never pushes her. You can see Alice trying to convince herself she’s protecting her daughter while slowly realizing she’s also fighting for ownership over parts of her own life she no longer controls. There’s desperation in nearly every decision she makes, even when those decisions become genuinely awful.

Jemaine Clement approaches his role as Steve from an entirely different angle. It would have been easy to see a version of this character lean too hard into trying to explain away his innocence or some smug midlife delusion. Clement threads a much more uncomfortable line between those extremes. Steve clearly understands how bad the situation looks, yet he also believes the relationship is real enough to justify the damage it causes. Steve isn’t written as a predator, nor is he framed as harmless. He’s a man clinging to validation at a point in life where he probably thought certain possibilities had already passed him by. Clement lets the insecurity seep through the confidence just enough to make the character feel human instead of symbolic.

One of, if not the best, choices the series makes is to refuse to treat Izzy as an object that everyone fights over. Yali Topol Margalith gives the character enough agency and frustration to make the dynamic more complicated than simply “mother versus boyfriend.” Izzy understands how bizarre the situation looks, but she also grows increasingly resentful of being treated like she’s incapable of making her own choices. The series draws much of its tension from that generational divide. Alice sees manipulation everywhere because she can’t separate Steve from the role he once held in her life. Izzy sees a mother trying to control her through emotional sabotage. Both perspectives make sense, which keeps the conflicts from becoming repetitive.

The show explores these stories in a fascinatingly unpleasant space. It’s funny, but rarely comforting. Tom Kingsley directs the series with an understanding that embarrassment can be more painful than outright cruelty. Entire scenes hinge on people refusing to back down from obviously terrible decisions. Conversations stretch too long. Petty comments land with nuclear force. Social interactions spiral because nobody involved possesses the maturity to stop talking. The humor comes less from punchlines and more from watching adults actively worsen their own circumstances in real time. The writing avoids escalation in favor of something more recognizable. Arguments drift sideways. Old wounds resurface unexpectedly. People weaponize private information to win in the moment rather than to solve anything.

Joel Fry deserves more attention than he’ll probably receive in discussions about the show. Daniel could’ve existed purely as the exhausted husband trapped on the sidelines. While everyone else destroys their lives, Fry gives him a sadness that gradually becomes one of the series’ strongest elements. He recognizes Alice’s pain while also seeing the uglier transformation happening inside her. Some of the show’s best material comes from Daniel realizing that the conflict isn’t temporary anymore.

ALICE AND STEVE understand exactly how long this premise can sustain this level of tension without burning itself out. There’s enough space for escalation, retaliation, reversals, and moments of vulnerability, but not enough room for the story to start spinning in circles. By the time the later episodes introduce even more dramatic complications, revenge spirals, and mounting exhaustion, the series has already established enough psychological groundwork to support the bigger dramatic swings. With that said, I’m already ready for season 2!

ALICE AND STEVE stands out from the growing pile of cynical anti-romantic comedies because it never mistakes cruelty for honesty. The show can be brutal, petty, and deeply uncomfortable, but mixed in with all of it is a genuine exploration of loneliness, aging, fear, and emotional dependency. Nobody here behaves well, yet the series keeps taking us back to a recognizable pain underneath the damage. Without that, this would’ve been nothing more than an extended exercise in humiliation.

It ends up becoming something disordered and far more interesting. A story about friendship turning possessive, love turning territorial, and adulthood revealing how emotionally unequipped people still are once their carefully constructed lives begin to shift beneath them. ALICE AND STEVE doesn’t ask viewers to approve of anybody involved. It just asks whether disaster becomes easier to survive once everyone stops pretending they’re the reasonable ones.

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[photo courtesy of HULU, DISNEY+, CLERKENWELL FILMS]

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