TheBloodyCritique’s ‘Runaways’ Season 1 Review
Marvel’s Runaways is about a group of teenagers who reunite years after the death of their friend and stumble upon a conspiracy involving their parents. The group decided to investigate further into what they saw meanwhile the parents investigate them and a spiral of lies unravels. On a mission to discover the truth about their parents the Runaways find out that they each possess a unique power. There’s a feminist with purple hair and a pet philosiraptor, a sensitive jock who invents gloves that shoot lasers, a sexy Christian girl who glows and shoots rainbow beams, a girl with superhuman strength, a sexy gothic Wiccan with a magical staff and a black kid with a gun. It’s actually pretty good, it’s charmingly ridiculous.
After watching Inhumans prior to this my expectations were at an all-time low and Runaways was an extremely pleasant surprise! Is it a great show? No, of course not, but was I entertained? I was. I love the premise and I was very intrigued after the first episode, the Runaways are all established very well and it’s clear there’s a history between them, their parents are all friends too, co-workers at least and when the group reunite for the first time in years and stumble across their parents performing some sort of strange ritual in red robes seemingly sacrificing a young girl I was pretty much gripped. It’s an exciting build and it’s like we’re there with them uncovering this mystery.
The story is told through the perspectives of both the teenagers and the parents and we get a good sense of each of the characters, they’re balanced well and everyone is firmly established. All of these characters had a part to play in the story and although I thought a lot of the individual relationships fell flat the general chemistry between the group as whole works really well. All the parents were great too, James Marsters in particular who played Spike in Buffy the Vampire Slayer which is one of my all-time favourite TV shows delivers a great performance here! If you read my Daredevil review you’ll know I absolutely loved Vincent D’Onofrio’s performance as William Fisk and Marster’s actually cites that as an inspiration for his approach to the role.
Let’s talk about the Runaways themselves! Together their strong, individually not so much. First of all there’s Alex Wilder, played by Rhenzy Feliz, he’s the glue to the group I suppose especially at the beginning, he’s the reason they all reunite but outside of that, he doesn’t really do much, he’s the only member who doesn’t have a super power and honestly he just annoyed me, his face, his stupid fucking hair-cut and he’s just a bit of bitch. I didn’t like Molly either, she’s my least favourite character, everyone treats her like a child and she acts like a child but she’s supposedly only about three years younger than the rest of them, she was very irritating, she was a fucking retard let’s be honest!
Ariela Barer was excellent as Gert Yorkes, she was my favourite Runaway by far, there’s an awareness to her character vacant from all the others, she had more charisma and I loved the performance. Gregg Sulkin was good as Chase Stein, nothing amazing but sufficient enough, he’s like a cross between Robert Pattinson and James Franco. Virginia Gardner was great as Karolina Dean, a good Christian girl and in the closet lesbian and Lyrica Okano was great as Nico Minoru, a Wiccan bad girl and in the closet lesbian, apparently. I thought they did great with the characters, I was entertained by them all and I liked the dynamic between them and their parents as well, there’s a lot of good ideas here, it’s a well-made show.
I don’t want to set your expectations too high, or high at all to be honest, I went into this expecting dirt and I think that’s the best way to do it because it was a breath of fresh air after Inhumans but I was entertained all the way through, it was a lot of fun, it’s fucking stupid don’t get me wrong, certain moments felt underdeveloped and it’s definitely messy but it’s a lot of fun, I was entertained all the way through and I’m actually looking forward to the next season! I’m not quite sure if this would come under the category of guilty pleasure for me or if it’s actually good, either way I think I’m gonna give it a recommendation, it’s an easy watch and it’s a lot of fun. I’m gonna give Marvel’s Runaways 7/10.
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