Skip to main content

CAPTIVE HEARTS (ALICE AND JACK)

© Channel 4, PBS & Fremantle

If you're still recovering from 'One Day,' do you really need another romantic drama right now?

'Alice and Jack' boasts Andrea Riseborough and Domhnall Gleeson as lovers struggling to properly connect.

If its lead actors' pedigree isn't enough to woo you, the Channel 4 and PBS miniseries also has Aisling Bea, Sunil Patel and Aimee Lou Wood on board.

But while the casting is all well and good, is Victor Levin's writing strong enough to avoid unfavourable comparisons with David Nicholl's Netflix epic?

© Channel 4, PBS & Fremantle

Riseborough plays Alice, a loner who works in the world finance with a sharp mind and an equally sharp tongue.

Gleeson's Jack is a reserved, Uber nerd who works in biomedical science laboratory hoping to find a cure for various diseases.

The couple meet in a London bar via a Tinder style dating app and immediately hit it off.

So successful is this first date that Jack ends up accompanying Alice back to her apartment for what she insists is a one night stand.

© Channel 4, PBS & Fremantle

Of course, it doesn't turn out that way and the two remain in contact, inevitably drawn to each other like moths dancing around a light even when they are involved in relationships with others.

Levin's six part drama charts the ups and downs of the couple's relationship over a decade as they flit in and out of each others' lives as lovers and as friends.

On a hiatus from Alice, Jack ends up getting Aisling Bea's quick witted Lynn pregnant and marrying her.

However the marriage crashes and burns pretty quickly when Lynn realises Alice is an itch her husband desperately and constantly needs to scratch.

© Channel 4, PBS & Fremantle

After helping Jack get back on his feet, Alice springs a surprise by announcing an engagement to Tommy McDonnell's successful football agent Danny despite insisting she could never marry.

Asking her crestfallen on-off lover to give her away on the big day, he at first balks at the suggestion but soon swallows his pride, even if you can tell it's killing him.

During the six episode run, we learn Alice had a dysfunctional family upbringing.

While nursing his feelings for Alice, Jack also strives to be a devoted dad to his daughter Celia despite Lynn's constant badmouthing of him to her as she gets older.

© Channel 4, PBS & Fremantle

'Alice and Jack' captures those moments of bliss and moments of heartache in a relationship that should have been much more 

It's a downbeat tale aboutpeople who just can't get out of each other's heads but struggle to be together.

Levin and directors Juho Kuosmanen and Hong Khaou seem to be aiming for a 'Normal People' or 'One Day' for fortysomethings.

However that's where it all falls down despite the best efforts of a decent cast because the writing just can't match the dynamism of those two miniseries.

© Channel 4, PBS & Fremantle

For 'Alice and Jack' to work like 'Normal People' or 'One Day,' you need to believe in the central relationship.

However it's hard to understand throughout why Alice and Jack are magnetically drawn together.

She is a flinty financier with a tendency to disappear from time to time who then tries to buy back Jack's affection.

Jack is a glutton for punishment who half heartedly enters a marriage with Lynn, knowing she is always going to be second best but pretending otherwise.

© Channel 4, PBS & Fremantle

When that marriage fails, he seems locked in this pattern of behaviour, sabotaging other relationships because of his fixation with Alice.

Unlike the sparks between Connell and Marianne in 'Normal People' and Dexter and Emma in 'One Day,' though the chemistry between Alice and Jack feels flat - although Riseborough and Gleeson do their best.

Alice is too volatile, too flighty for viewers to understand what Jack really sees in her.

Jack comes across a bit of a lovelorn doormat who wanders around taking all the blows that rain down on him.

© Channel 4, PBS & Fremantle

As a result, 'Alice and Jack's is a frustrating watch.

Riseborough and Gleeson are superb actors.

However the sparks you want to see fly never materialise because the script grinds through its gears slowly.

Bea, Patel, Wood and McDonnell provide decent support but the show trundles along, waiting to be put out of its misery.

© Channel 4, PBS & Fremantle

By the time Levin's miniseries reaches its glum denouement, you're kind of relieved it's all over.

Despite being handsomely shot by Max Smeds, 'Alice and Jack' simply doesn't do enough to justify its six episode run.

You feel the show could have been easily pared back to four episodes - although even that may be a stretch.
 
Like 'Normal People' and 'One Day' it wants to ram home that message that only love can break your heart.

© Channel 4, PBS & Fremantle

But so too can watching great actors struggling with a script that fails to articulate the rationale for that love in the first place. 

'Alice and Jack' is like 'One Day' for depressives.

That should tell you everything you need to know.

('Alice and Jack's was broadcast on Channel 4 in the UK on February 14-29, 2024)

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

A FAMILY DIVIDED (KIN, SEASON TWO)

© RTE & AMC+ Recently  in a review of 'The Dry' for the Slugger O'Toole website,  I wrote about it being a golden age for Irish TV drama. And it is. Last year saw Sharon Horgan's Irish Film and Television Award winning black comedy ' Bad Sisters ' delight audiences on Apple TV+. Fran Harris ' The Dry ' has made a bit of a splash on Britbox, RTE and ITVx. ©  RTE & AMC+ North of the border, Channel 4's ' Derry Girls ' and BBC Northern Ireland's 'Three Families' and ' Blue Lights ' have really impressed audiences. However over the past eight weeks, one show has muscled its way back to the front of the pack. 'Kin' is a gangland drama made by RTE and AMC. The first series hit our screens in September 2021 and made an immediate impression with its high production values and gripping storyline. © RTE & AMC+ The tale of a south Dublin crime family, the Kinsellas sucked into a feud with a more powerful gang hea

FATHER TIME (FRASIER - REBOOT, SEASON ONE)

© Paramount+ & CBS Studios It's been one of the most eagerly anticipated shows of 2023. It's also been one of the year's most feared shows. 'Frasier' - The Reboot was always going to have huge expectations to live up to. For 11 seasons, the original show was a massive ratings draw on NBC in the US and on other TV stations around the world. © Paramount+ & CBS Studios Adored by critics as much as it was by audiences, the 'Cheers' spin-off built up a huge fanbase with a combination of smart writing and brilliant comedy acting. It netted an impressive haul of 37 Primetime Emmy awards. Even after the final episode aired in May 2004, the Seattle-based sitcom has remained a constant presence on our TV screens, with Channel 4 in the UK airing it every morning. So when it was announced in 2021 that Kelsey Grammer was reviving the sitcom, there was considerable joy in some quarters and trepidation in others. © Paramount+ & CBS Studios Many wondered how wou

TWO SOULS COLLIDE (BALLYWALTER)

© Breakout Pictures & Elysian 'Ballywalter' isn't about Ballywalter. The Northern Irish coastal village simply provides a backdrop for director Prasanna Puranawajah and screenwriter Stacey Gregg's delicate tale of damaged souls coming into each other's orbit and helping each other cope. If anything, Belfast features more than Ballywalter in Puranawajah's movie but we know  that title was already taken . Seana Kerslake plays Eileen, a twentysomething university dropout who has gone off the rails and is back living with her mum, Abigail McGibbon's Jen. Taking on the job of a taxi driver, she has to endure the opinions of customers who don't think it's a job for a woman. © Breakout Pictures & Elysian Eileen doubles as a barista and can be pretty spiky with the customers in both jobs. Disillusioned and dejected, she hides behind drink as she struggles to come to terms with the death of her father, the sudden ending of a relationship with a cheati