Common Sense Media Review
By Joyce Slaton
,
based on child development research. How do we rate?
Language, drug use in quirky age-gap rom-com.
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Alice and Steve
Parent and Kid Reviews
What's the Story?
ALICE AND STEVE have been friends for decades, after having been boyfriend and girlfriend briefly in their blurred 20-something years. But then Steve (Jemaine Clement) stumbles into a relationship with Alice's (Nicola Walker) daughter Izzy (Yali Topol Margalith), who's half his age and grew up knowing him as her mom's best mate. Ticklish? Certainly. Alice reacts in unpredictable ways, Steve and Izzy react to her reaction, and the three and their families and friends are irretrievably altered.
Is It Any Good?
Complicated and very funny, this dramedy takes a trope-ish situation and turns it into a searingly realistic exploration that never fails to surprise. Did Alice and Steve's Steve do something unforgivable, or is Alice just unable to forgive? As the characters twist and turn, we stay interested in where they are and where they're going. Alice and Steve starts out sweetly by giving us an opening episode that demonstrates the eponymous pair's long-running relationship. Their friendship feels real, and lived in: they have a shorthand to the way they relate to each other, and an easy chemistry that's lovely to witness, so that it hurts when it's punctured by Izzy and Steve's connection. Alice is jealous, furious, resentful, vengeful; when she takes drastic actions to repay Steve for the tsunami he set off in her life, it's equal parts comic and tragic.
None of the other characters in Izzy, Steve, and Alice's lives remain unaffected by the change in their relationships, either. Alice's gentle husband, Daniel (Joel Fry), sees Alice's ire as part of a pattern of her selfishness; Izzy's friends don't understand why she's dragging this old guy around; Daniel and Alice's son Dom (Tyrese Eaton-Dyce) refuses to let the awkwardness ruin his first love. There are terrible moments, with characters shouting awful things at one another. And then there are beautiful moments, in which they say just the thing someone else deeply, achingly needs to hear. Alice and Steve, the characters, aren't perfect, and neither is their story, but it's nice to occupy their world just for a little while.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about the central conflict in Alice and Steve. If you were Alice, would you be angry at Steve? If you were Steve, could you be comfortable in a relationship with Alice's child? Whose dilemma is more understandable to you and why?
Alice and Steve has several scenes in which Izzy affirms how much she likes Steve and wants to be with him. Why is this important to our enjoyment or understanding of the drama? How would the show change if it appeared Steve coerced Izzy into a relationship?
TV Details
- Premiere date : June 8, 2026
- Cast : Jemaine Clement , Nicola Walker , Joel Fry
- Network : Hulu
- Genre : Drama
- Topics : Friendship
- TV rating :
- Last updated : June 9, 2026
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