Finding Alice On Acorn TV, A Dark Comedy Where A Woman Finds Out Her Husband’s Secrets After He Dies

Dying could not appear to be inherently humorous, particularly to those that are going by way of intense grief after the lack of a beloved one, however there may be nonetheless room for darkish laughs to seep by way of. In Discovering Alice, Keeley Hawes performs a lady who strikes into the dream residence her husband designed, then finds him useless on the backside of some very unsafe-looking stairs the primary night time they transfer in. How can that be in the slightest degree humorous? Learn on for extra.

Opening Shot: Building tools outdoors a contemporary, concrete home. A girl frantically seems to be round her kitchen, then sinks to the ground and says, “The place’s the fucking fridge, Harry?”

The Gist: It’s apparent that Alice Dillon (Keeley Hawes) has been by way of one thing traumatic. She sits in a darkened lounge along with her daughter Charlotte Walsh (Isabella Pappas) and her in-laws Minnie (Gemma Jones) and Gerry (Kenneth Cranham). The curtains on this good residence are caught and gained’t open with voice instructions.

Exhausted with grief, Alice goes to mattress and in her goals we see the course of occasions: Earlier that day, Alice and her husband Harry Walsh (Jason Merrells) transfer with Charlotte into this contemporary residence that he designed and constructed. Not solely is it a wise residence, nevertheless it’s obtained oddities like a flight of stairs and not using a bannister. That night time, they’re about to go to mattress when she goes to the toilet and he goes all the way down to the kitchen. When she has no concept the way to flush the bathroom, she comes out to search for Harry, and she or he sees his lifeless physique on the backside of the steps.

Charlotte wakes her up and tells her that the police are there to ask extra questions. As an alternative of carrying black, one thing Harry hated, she modifies right into a shiny purple costume and inexperienced heels. The detectives begin to query Alice and Charlotte about how a seemingly wholesome 48-year-old man fell down a flight of stairs. They ask for the CCTV footage once they see the cameras all over the place. Alice thinks they’re accusing her of killing her husband, and Charlotte retains telling her she’s ridiculous.

As the following day or two goes alongside, Alice finds Minnie and Gerry popping in unannounced; Harry apparently gave them a key. Her way-too-affectionate dad Roger (Nigel Havers) and way-too-cold Sarah (Joanna Lumley) give her no emotional help; when she involves them for cash when Harry’s accounts are frozen, they balk. She goes and visits Harry within the morgue and is pointed to the unsuitable physique by the attendant Nathan (Rhashan Stone). However when she visits a second time, after the post-mortem, Nathan tries to cover the incisions along with his Tottenham Spurs hat and scarf.

Extra strangeness: She goes to the development web site workplace the place Harry’s firm is constructing flats, and she or he finds his assistant Yasmina (Dominique Moore) cleansing up after a break-in. She additionally will get a go to from a lady named Tanvi (Ayesha Dharker), a enterprise associate Harry by no means instructed Alice about; apparently, he wanted an investor for his mission. Minnie and Gerry pop in once more and produce a doc saying that Harry gave the home to them as safety in opposition to his cash points. They’ll have to promote the home with a purpose to pay the inheritance tax, and Alice kicks them out, insisting that they’ll accomplish that over her useless physique. Lastly, Charlotte finds a letter from a sperm financial institution, saying that Harry is behind in his funds to retailer his frozen semen.

What Reveals Will It Remind You Of? Discovering Alice ought to undoubtedly not be confused with Losing Alice, the Israeli thriller that stars Ayelet Zurer. This present is extra of a darkly comedian tackle loss and secrets and techniques, one thing akin to a present like Lisey’s Story, although extra rooted in the actual world.

Our Take: The explanation why Discovering Alice works is that we’re just about plunged proper into Alice’s grief, mere hours after mysteriously dropping her husband, and writers Roger Goldby and Simon Nye (Hawes is among the government producers of the present) can nonetheless discover humorous moments, like the truth that Alice can’t discover the fridge in her new residence. Why? As a result of Harry died earlier than he might clarify the ins and outs of this super-modern dream residence he designed.

Not one of the humorous moments within the present are gut-grabbing humorous, however that’s superb as a result of grim humor combined with overwhelming disappointment is pure method, particularly when Alice is portrayed as attempting to maintain the standard British stoicism within the days following Harry’s sudden demise. Everyone knows that she’s not protecting it collectively in addition to she’s making herself look, and Charlotte goes to must be the one to tamp down her grief to maintain her mom. However Charlotte may have her moments, as we see on the CCTV footage of her curled up in a ball on a random piece of flooring.

What will probably be attention-grabbing is discovering out the little mysteries surrounding Harry and his demise. Who was the particular person whose legs we see on the backside of the steps within the CCTV footage proper earlier than Harry fell? Why did the post-mortem discover that there are bruises on Harry’s shoulders, as if he was grabbed and held? How a lot cash did he owe, and to whom? And why did he’ll the home over to his mother and father? What’s up with the frozen semen?

Hawes does a superb job of displaying how Alice is attempting to maintain herself collectively within the face of all this craziness, even whereas waves of grief overtake her. All of the performances of the supporting solid feed into Hawes’ efficiency fairly nicely, and she or he’s in a position to stability the unhappy and the humorous with equal adeptness. As we get farther from Harry’s demise, and Alice strikes on whereas discovering out a few of what Harry is hiding, it’ll be attention-grabbing to see how she embodies a extra assured model of Alice, one which refuses to be pulled alongside in life anymore.

Intercourse and Pores and skin: None.

Parting Shot: As she cries over photos of Harry that pop into her head, the doorbell rings. On the door is George (George Webster), who says that he’s Harry’s son.

Sleeper Star: Joanna Lumley deliciously performs Alice’s mom Sarah at her most frigid, who appears to be virtually joyful that that no-goodnik Harry is out of the image, but in addition being the type of narcissist that Lumley has been taking part in since a minimum of 1992, when Absolutely Fabulous debuted.

Most Pilot-y Line: Harry truly set the password on the good residence’s management pill “1234”. Perhaps he simply didn’t get round to resetting it.

Our Name: STREAM IT. Discovering Alice strikes the appropriate stability between drama and comedy, disappointment and laughter, with a superb efficiency by Keeley Hawes at its heart.

Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about meals, leisure, parenting and tech, however he doesn’t child himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared within the New York Instances, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Quick Firm and elsewhere.

Stream Finding Alice On Acorn TV