Run
Merritt Wever & Domhnall Gleeson drop everything in an energetic, menacing series from Vicky Jones.
- Published by David Knox
- on
- Filed under Reviews, Top Stories
Get your motor runnin’. Or perhaps your high-speed rail.
Run is an energetic black comedy that is always one step ahead of the viewer, led by two delicious actors who sparkle with the material.
Created by Vicky Jones (Fleabag), the plot for this one is littered with spoilers…
Merritt Wever (Nurse Jackie, Unbelievable) stars as Ruby, a suffocating LA wife and mother whose life takes an inexplicable detour when she receives a message on her phone: RUN.
And run she does, dropping everything and grabbing the first flight she can to New York City to board a cross-country train.
“I won’t be home after lunch. I won’t be home at all,” she tells her family.
But The Amazing Race this is not. Instead she meets Billy (Domhnall Gleeson) and so begins a complex duel that keeps the viewer guessing: what is their history, where are they headed?
Or as Ruby asks, “Who does this?” Indeed.
The dialogue from Jones crackles, is full of sub-text, at times echoing a Pinter play. Multiple episodes take place predominantly in the confines of a moving train, a challenge Aussie director Kate Dennis tackles with aplomb. As a result it is heavily a two-hander, but who can complain with Wever and Gleeson leading the way? Episodes never outstay their welcome at a digestible 30 minutes.
Also featuring are Archie Panjabi and Phoebe Waller-Bridge.
Expanded by several flashbacks, the full picture of Ruby and Billy’s menacing relationship reveals over time. By that time you already have tunnel vision for these two anyway.
It’s safe to say there’s nothing quite like Run on television right now.
Run 8:30pm Thursdays on FOX Showcase.
3 Responses
Episode 1 I wasn’t feeling it
Episode 2 I was intrigued
Episode 3 I was hooked
Not many shows that are ahead of the viewer and it’s getting good. Just took some time to get there for me
Good review David. I was likely going to watch anyway, but this review makes that 100%.
Just a note that it does not look like the “double episode” is screening tonight. Seems to be only 1 to me.
Thanks for alerting me, maybe there was a change, not sure. Tricky to review without dropping lots of spoilers I have seen elsewhere…. Funny it screens same time as ABC Comedy replay of Fleabag.