ALICE AND JACK. WED AND THUR 9pm - ch 4 - tv pace. No spoilers

[Blondeshavemorefun]

I’m sure I did a thread for this but can’t find it

starts tonight. On wed and thur for 3w

Alice, played by Andrea Riseborough – yes, the Andrea Riseborough of Academy Award-nominated notoriety (https://www.digitalspy.com/movies/oscars/a43777187/oscars-changes-andrea-riseborough-controversy/) – meets Jack, played by Domhnall Gleeson, with all of his About Time (https://www.digitalspy.com/movies/a509440/about-time-review-richard-curtiss-directorial-swansong/) romantic-lead kudos.

If you loved Gleeson in that Richard Curtis gem, you will probably fall for him in this, since he's playing much the same sort of bloke.

Jack is an awkward but adorable lab scientist who becomes utterly besotted with spiky female finance-bro (sis?) Alice, who resolves to keep him at a remove the length of several bargepoles.

After the pair spend the night together, Alice unceremoniously asks him to leave and never contact her again.

So far, so romantic. We then scoot forward a couple of years and find Jack has had a child with the rather warmer Lynn (Aisling Bea).

Then Alice calls and the wheels of ill-fated romance are set in motion

The six-parter has been ambitiously billed as a "love story for the ages". That might be a stretch, given that the mood of Alice & Jack is utterly at the mercy of melancholic Alice, helped along by an earnest strumming score which at times feels fittingly bittersweet and at others is reminiscent of hotel foyer music.

As the pair's offbeat and somewhat unlikely connection bubbles away across the years, the question of the piece becomes why is Alice so determined to push Jack away? When the answer comes, the melancholia only quadruples.

Oh, is there one?

The architecture around Alice is a metaphorical device.
A lot of her character is underground and dimly illuminated.

Could this get any weirder?

Putting a positive spin on Alice... because of her childhood abuse and the defences she created because of that, she is a really really late bloomer when it comes to relationships.

Yes it's very weird.

I feel now they are walking around like a pair of lost ghosts talking about a barely existing past and an imagined unlikely future.
It's now painful in a different way!
One more ep to go....

So I missed last week's episodes but caught last night's and thought I'd give it another go....

so my question might not be relevant or it might have been addressed last week,..

BUT when he found out he had Ehlers Danlos AND that it was genetic AND, as the consultant implied, his parents likely died from it, surely his (their!) first thought should have been, not 'ok it's not a total disaster' but HANG ON, I've got a kid! How will that impact her?

For me it just further cemented the very self-absorbed nature of their relationship.

I've just realised I missed an episode!

Literally watching now

Would any sane nurse say you can put your hand on mine when doing iui

Or have sex just before on the clinic bed

I think Ill be glad when it's over!
Quirky is one word, ridiculous is another....

Yes he didn't seem concerned about his ballereina daughter after his diagnosis

But also could they tell that from a scan of baby

Or why did he have tests done

Not sure why they are abroad at end of e5

I've come this far so will watch e6 tonight

But gawd it's hard work

Oh, I think that happens with IUI — I know lesbian friends did it recently, and the woman not being inseminated had her hand on the device/ inseminator/ whatever it is called.

I mean, it’s not exactly a precision thing, is it? If you were self-inseminating with donor sperm at home, you’d just be shooting it up there and not getting up for a while. (If anyone remembers the weirdly hilarious scene in Maggie’s Plan where Greta Gerwig has just self-inseminated in her empty bath and is trying to answer the door while staying horizontal…)

I mean, some other things in the series were far more unlikely, like Celia going from total ballet novice to dancing solo en pointe apparently almost overnight, or Alice contemplating a second date, far less marriage, with dopey Danny!

I watched the first episode last night and I don't think it is. I like detail and things to take their time. Otherwise dramas can be superficial. It makes me feel a bit like it's a 90s thing, I'm rationing it to one each evening.

Alice's character changes from week to week . She's now happy and seems to be properly in love , but that could be due to the circumstances .

Has she had an abortion or was a [supposed] positive test down to hormonal changes because of her illness . It's all a bit odd .

I assume she had to have an abortion before he chemo.

He hasn't had his heart operation yet though has he? It feels like Episode 6 will be a race to the death. Who will keel over first her or him. Or will it be so raw-mantic and they pass away the same day? (which is just the kind of ludicrous ending this ridiculous drama script would serve up)

I did wonder about baby

Only thanks to this thread did I realise there is more than 4 episodes! I'm going mad. Just watched episode 5. She seems to have undergone a personality transplant.

Didn't know it'd be about terminal cancer fucks sake

He had tests done because he was poorly in the taxi.
He must have gone to hospital after that

So I was right that they died the same day. Ludicrous.

Ah now — he did live until the next morning, just about!

This doctor who's dealing with Jack's aneurysm is a bit strange

I don't want to watch someone have cancer

I didn't think they were abroad? I thought they'd decided not to go and were having a drink in England?

Oh I believed in them more by the end, and the looking back seemed more believable than first time round. I liked them more too.. why was his aneurysm not sorted?! And why did Celia shred what was in the box?

And please, someone, where did Alice get her clothes?