Alice & Jack

There are some television dramas that are simply bad: the plotting is implausable, the dialogue clunky, the acting wooden. 'Alice and Jack' doesn't have these problems; but in spite of this, it isn't very good. One problem it faces is a standard challenge for writers of romantic dramas: the viewer is expected to know that the central characters would be good together rather better than the characters themselves, as the drama lies in us watching them overcome the obstacles in their way. The obstacles faced by Jack in this drama are very simple: the Alice we meet is a selfish lunatic, the consequence of some deep family trauma. This makes it hard for the viewer not to simply wish that Jack will run a mile, so the story compensates by making Alice a genius. For example, when she decides to make amends, she simply lets him share in her ultimately successful plan to make millions speculating on oil futures. The whole framing is rather odd, as if her extraordinary qualities somehow excuse her obnoxiousness. The drama's other problem is something it actually does quite well, but does too much of. Most of us have some experience of falling in love, and of that sensation where everything in life seems heightened, in beauty as well as pain. Much of 'Alice and Jack' occurs in a gorgeous, almost hyper-real portrayal of the world; and in small doses, this would be fine, capturing how things might feel to its protagonists as key moments. The problem is that "much of" is a big understatement. Alice and Jack's entire world seems to consist of falling in (and out) of love with each other. This is not a story where mutual affection has to be squeezed in around the mundance realities of life; Alice's financial aptitude ensures there are no arguments about who's going to pay the rent this month, while all sympathetic figures in the story are good looking, and when tragedy strikes in the end, the central characters are both given those mysteriously beautiful and dignified deaths that sadly few people get off the television screen. I know some people have said they would have liked for Alice and Jack's best friends to be better developed, but personally I don't think much promise was missed there: they basically function as emotional support animals, dedicating their lives to the welfare of their fundamantally superior friends.

In summary, you could take a selection of scenes from this and make what looked like a trailer for the greatest love story ever told; but in fact, what we get in full is less of a story and more of a trailer spun out over six parts, all affect and no actual realism. The leading actors do their best with the material, but can't altogether save it.