As the first episode of Alice & Jack begins, Jack talks about love. In the past, Jack (Domhnall Gleeson) meets Alice (Andrea Riseborough) at a pub. He reveals he is a biomedical researcher. He is working on Hashimoto’s disease right now. Alice thinks he is a crusader. After he cures Hashimoto’s disease, Jack guesses he’ll move on. Alice suggests he’ll move on to one disease after another, but it’ll mean nothing to him because he’ll be dead. Jack admits this is his first time using the app. He questions whether this is how it always goes. Alice keeps prodding him with questions about his work.

As for Alice, she says she makes money. She thinks of it like a defense fund. Jack says he works around the corner, but he isn’t suggesting they go to his office. They end up going back to Alice’s apartment instead. After they have sex, Alice wakes Jack up and tells him to get out of there. As Jack gets dressed, Alice tells him he is great, kind, and handsome. Jack offers to call but Alice would prefer he didn’t. She doesn’t want him to text either. The next day, Jack’s friend tells him not to message because Alice told him not to. Alice contemplates messaging Jack but doesn’t. She ends up clearing the conversation instead. Three months later, Jack seems to have a breakthrough at work and yells for Paul.

Later, he gets in touch with Alice to tell her about it. They meet again so he can tell her about it. Alice isn’t thrilled with his beard. Jack admits he saw her with someone else after they were together. He questions whether she has been with the same person twice. Alice says tonight will be the first time. She shaves his face as Jack says she wasn’t careful with him. Alice says she’ll try to be because this is different. Alice invites him out to do something tomorrow. Once he says yes, she asks him to spend the night. They lay in bed together. Alice seems to have a nightmare before calling for Jack. He returns with drinks and begins calling her name. Alice pleads with him to never do that again.

After eating, they go to an art gallery together. They look around for a while before Alice asks the receptionist if they have anything by Emily Kirby. She gets upset when the receptionist is unable to help. Jack urges her to get a handle on whatever is going on with her. Alice says this was her mistake before leaving. Later, Jack tries to get in touch with her but she doesn’t answer. He gets a message from Alice who doesn’t want to be rude to him. She asks him to let it be. Jack speaks to Paul (Sunil Patel) about Alice. Paul reveals his father would say people will usually disappoint you. He thinks Jack should just find a great one and he doesn’t think Alice was one. Jack says they’re on the boat because he needs to do something life-affirming but it isn’t helping.

A year and a half later, Jack gets a call from Alice but he doesn’t take it. He ends up shutting the phone off to shut it up. Lynn says daddy is silly for burning the sausages. At work, Jack tells Paul about the call. He admits he couldn’t tell the mother of his new baby the truth about Alice. Jack hopes Alice will know what the silence means and she’ll never call him again. Paul says Alice is here and Crystal is bringing her through. Once she arrives, she learns that Jack is engaged or married. Alice says life eats sensitive people, but that doesn’t make them crazy. Jack went to a therapist who said he was nuts. He admits he wasn’t eating or sleeping and he was drinking. He drinks with Paul who keeps talking to him about love which is a dopamine rush.

He is introduced to Donna who learns he isn’t okay. Jack tells Alice he learned that life is simple for most people by watching them. He went to see Seven Beauties to cheer himself up. He meets Lynn and talks to her about the movie. In the present, Jack tells Alice about his conversation with Lynn. They end up going to bed together and Lynn gets pregnant. Lynn wonders if they’ll ever forgive themselves. Jack asks if she’d consider having a child outside of marriage. She says no. Jack doesn’t think he can deal with an adoption either. Jack suggests he wanted to marry someone just like her when he was growing up. He argues they shouldn’t rule it out in the next 28 hours. Jack tells Alice about it in the present.

Lynn tells Jack she wanted a great and stupid romance. Jack knows the situation is not ideal. Lynn kisses him. Alice apologizes for calling and turning up out of the blue. She just thought his life had stood still without her. She reveals that her mother passed away on Thursday due to cirrhosis of the liver. Alice believes it was caused by her father. Seeing her dad is one of the many things she can’t imagine facing without Jack. She says she will and she is happy for Jack.

 

Alice & Jack Review

The opening episode of Alice and Jack leaves a lot to be desired for a number of reasons. For starters, the series is trying too hard to be wacky. If it’s not trying to be wacky, it certainly is because the characters and dialogue are very odd. The comedy attempts aren’t really working in the first episode. The dialogue is unrealistic more than anything.

The story in the first episode was a bit all over the place with loosely interconnected scenes. Although it may change in future episodes, there isn’t a legitimate connection between Jack and Alice. If Jack wasn’t telling us how much he was in love, we’d probably never know it. The two main characters are pretty unlikable in the first episode and that certainly isn’t going to help matters.

Alice is overbearing and rude while Jack is just a pushover. If Jack had any common sense and a backbone, he would run for the hills allowing the series to end gracefully after one episode. Instead, this is going to drag out for six painfully dull episodes that will probably amount to very little. It may get better as the relationship between Jack and Alice depends, but I am mostly pessimistic about the series.

The opening episode scores a 5 out of 10. Recaps of Alice & Jack can be found on Reel Mockery here. Find out how to support our independent work at this link. Learn more about advertising with us here. Discuss this show and others with friends at the Reel Mockery Forum.