Is Marvel's 'Runaways' On Hulu Any Good? Here's What The Reviews Have To Say
Interested in another Marvel TV show — one about a group of precocious superpowered teens? No? What if I told you it's from Josh Schwartz and Stephanie Savage, the duo behind "The O.C." and "Gossip Girl?" Also, it's based on an acclaimed comic by Brian K. Vaughn (who also wrote the stupendous "Saga"). Hulu's "Runaways," debuting with three episodes on November 21, is a bonafide teen drama in the MCU. Does the show balance the best of its two genres? Here's what the reviews have to say:
The Premise Doesn't Stray Much From The Original Comic
It's essentially The Breakfast Club with powers, involving six high schoolers who were once close but are now tied together because of what they think is their parents' shared charity work: Alex (Rhenzy Feliz) is a nerd, Chase (Gregg Sulkin) a jock, Nico (Lyrica Okano) a goth, Karolina (Virginia Gardner) a good church girl, Gert (Ariela Barer) an outspoken activist, Molly (Allegra Acosta) the younger kid who tags along.
[UPROXX]
The anniversary of [their friend] Amy's death prompts Alex to try to get the gang back together, if only for one night. Though that folly is dismissed by almost everyone in quick succession, a series of unrelated events manage to steer the sextet to a common location, where they happen to witness to an unspeakable truth about The Pride, the elite parents group populated by their respective, well-off folks.
[TVLine]
This Version Tells Both The Teens' And The Parents' Story
The ability to take properties that might have been ghettoized as "teen TV" and make them into multigenerational stories has always been a Schwartz/Savage hallmark, and there's no question that the parents in the Runaways TV show are much more nuanced characters much more immediately than they are in the comic.
It also likely helps that Brian K. Vaughan spent a month in the writers room; according to the showrunners, he saw the show as a chance to tell the full version of the Runaways story rather than constantly writing issue-to-issue on a comic book series he thought might get canceled.
[Nerdist]
The Teen Ensemble Cast Ranks Among The Bests Like 'Riverdale' And 'Gossip Girl'
Schwartz, Savage, and company continue to have a great eye and ear for casting and writing young characters. Even though it's a slow burn waiting for each kid to realize what they can do (only a couple of powers are on display even briefly in the first hour), the kids themselves are so well-articulated, so quickly — and so impeccably cast — that a version of the show without superheroes and villains would probably still be compelling.
[UPROXX]
All of their unsteady hormones, smartass dialogue, sullen teen resentments, tack-sharp costume design — the air between them combusts, something like what happens when Betty and Veronica team up on Riverdale, another shambling show that on occasion can thrill. The young performers ace every swoon, carp, side-eye or moment of sweaty, awkward turned-on confusion.
The Parents Are Equally Well-Crafted Characters
As Leslie, Annie Wersching (24) gets to play a variety of notes as megachurch guru, patronizing wife (to Kip Pardue) and dutiful (?) daughter, while the pairings of James Marsters (Buffy)/Ever Carradine (Major Crimes), Brittany Ishibashi (Emily Owens M.D.)/James Yaegashi and Ryan Sands (The Wire)/Angel Parker (The People v. O.J. Simpson) each deftly tackle complicated unions. Playing Gert's bohemian folks (who adopted the tragically orphaned Molly), Kevin Weisman (Alias) and Brigid Brannagh (Army Wives) winningly deliver comic relief, with the latter evoking a young Annie Potts.
[TVLine]
The kids are all right, especially Barer. But — at the risk of showing my age — the adults are fascinating. As a bioengineer husband-and-wife team prone to hipster-parent oversharing and crunchy dietary restrictions, Kevin Weisman and Brigid Brannagh are my new favorite TV couple. Also brilliant: Brittany Ishibashi as Tina, the perfectionist CEO with a magic staff desperately arm-twisting her distant husband into date night, and Ryan Sands as Geoffrey, a street criminal "reformed" into universe-denting evil.
So Far, It's Very Different From Netflix's Marvel Offerings
Though the pace is drastically slower than the comic's, it feels positively breathtaking compared to Luke Cage or The Punisher, not only because it has so many characters to bounce around between who all feel like narrative equals, but because Schwartz and Savage are by nature aggressive storytellers. The O.C.'s first season moved at a rate that makes the Runaways comic feel like a Henry James novel in comparison.
[UPROXX]
Runaways works at its best pinging the kids' diverse perspectives off one another, or pairing them off to investigate their parents' misdeeds, but seems repeatedly prone to wheel-spinning. All six witness their parents commit a heinous act early on, though the first four episodes fall into a familiar pattern of kids discovering some other inexplicable oddity in their home lives, and scrambling to cover it up before the parents catch on.
Early On, 'Runaways' Picks Up Some Serious Teen Drama Subjects It Hopefully Won't Mangle
Runaways is built largely for the YA mindset, and does manage to capture the angst of growing up (and apart). It's an angry — almost sad — series at times, full of disappointment and powerlessness. There are aspects of abuse and sexual assault that come into play, bullying, and metaphors for puberty and isolation around every turn. Because the more Marvel-ous superpowered elements are fairly low-stakes early on, it can feel like Runaways isn't certain what tone to strike.
There's an original moment in the first 60 minutes which will likely unsettle many fans, at which point Virginia Gardner's Karolina is almost assaulted at a party by some awful friends of Gregg Sulkin's Chase. Though it might seem like a superfluous amendment that verges on exploitation, it's actually handled well and leads down the line to a bigger and more poignant storyline about misogyny and victim blaming that the showrunners are clearly very committed to exploring.
[Nerdist]
When It Works, The Comic Book Twist On An 'O.C.'-Like Setting Makes Perfect Sense
Led by early director Brett Morgen and Roxann Dawson, the first four episodes are well-realized in the ways that count, beyond the uniformly proficient character introductions. There's a California opulence that conjures associations with Schwartz's The O.C. The special effects, kept somewhat more limited than fans of the comic are likely to be expecting, are decent. And, not to spoil anything but because it's important for comic book fans, Old Lace is introduced about as capably as one could hope for.
There's a deep vein of dark comedy here, a satire of point-one-percenters that deepens the more recognizable superpowered-teen melodrama. After all, to get a house like that? You'd have to be a supervillain.
If You're A Fan Of The Original Comic You Might Be Upset That Kids Don't Immediately, Y'Know, Run Away
In the first four episodes (the only ones released for review of the ten-episode first season), the teenagers don't even runaway. Instead, they stay put, investigate, and the show tries to follow six teenagers and all of their parents. It makes for a show that lacks focus and has none of the energy that made the comics such an enjoyable read.
[Collider]
This is the first time a Marvel TV show has stunned me: Why in the era of binge-able continued-narrative TV series would the producers kill dead their momentum? How could they so wildly misapprehend the appeal of their own premise?
TL;DR
Although it stumbles when actually integrating the superhero genre into the soapy teen world of a show like The O.C., there's ample potential on display here moving forward.
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