What to watch tonight: Alice and Steve on Disney+ is the sharp, anti-rom com you need in your life
Nicola Walker was on the phone to her agent the moment she read the script to say, 'I want to do this'
Alice and Steve has a star studded cast, a sharp and witty script, and offers a fresh take on the regular rom-com - it's the ultimate 'wrong-com' for your watch list.
All episodes air on Disney+ from June 8, and here's another excellent reason to tune in for your next binge watch: when Alice actress Nicola Walker (The Split, Unforgotten,) read the script, she immediately phoned her agent to say, "I want to do this."
Across six episodes, the series follows long-time friends Alice (Nicola Walker) and Steve (Jemaine Clement.) However, the action begins when a devastated Alice feels betrayed by Steve when he starts dating her 26-year-old daughter Izzy (Yali Topol Margalith.)
Alice spirals, believing she will lose both her best friend and daughter in one swoop, and decides the only way forward is to do whatever she can to end the relationship.
Alice really will stop at nothing, including sabotaging Steve's career, and her husband Daniel (Joel Fry,) is terrified at this new and frenzied side to his wife he's never seen before.
Before long, there's a darkly comic all-out feud, and nobody is going down without a fight...
Sophie Goodhart (Sex Education) is the creator and writer of the series, and she was inspired to write the character of Steve by a real life friend of hers.
"I do have a very good friend called Steve," she says, explaining that he liked to date much younger women.
She adds, "Once, when Steve was single he made this very jokey remark about my daughter, which I thought was a great premise for a show," and that's how the idea for Alice and Steve was born.
Describing how Alice might be feeling when she finds out her daughter is dating her best friend, Nicola Walker says, "It is indescribably confusing and totally unacceptable. Steve is overstepping so many lines."
She adds, "She’s worried for her daughter, appalled by Steve, and deeply hurt by them both. Thinking she might end up as her best friend’s mother-in-law is one of the scenarios that Alice runs through in her head."
"Those are exactly the thoughts that are tormenting her."
Speaking about what drew him in to say yes to playing Steve, Jemaine Clement says, "The premise is so fun. I love telling people the situation and the story, and they always gasp or they're intrigued."
He reveals he felt the same when he read the script - both shocked and excited. "There's lots of drama in it, I'm not used to doing such dramatic things," he says.
The actor concludes, "The tension is huge at times, and then it's funny again. I like the way it moves around between those two states."
It's a very fine line between looking at a man and being disgusted that he can't just date a woman his own age, and two people who are genuinely in love and age shouldn't matter. And this is a show that perfectly and hilariously breaks down those concepts.
Alice and Steve airs from June 8 on Disney+.
