Run: HBO’s New Series Dissects the Reality of a Fantasy Ideal

This review originally published on March 30th, 2020

Who hasn’t, at some point, fantasized about just running off and leaving it all behind? No time to pack, no time to think, just go. That is, essentially, the premise of HBO’s new half-hour series Run. Merritt Wever (Unbelievable) and Domhnall Gleeson (Star Wars) star as a pair of college exes (Ruby and Billy) who, 17 years later, are making good on a promise that if one texted “RUN” to the other and they responded in kind, they would do just that. Their plan—involving planes, trains, and automobiles—thus ensues over the course of a week, where the duo then decide to stay together or never see each other again.

It sounds glamorous, but the reality is anything but. Slowly, we learn the truth about Billy and Ruby’s lives outside of this adventure, and where they are now (at the age of mid-30s-ish). Most of the early episodes (5 of which were available for review) take place on a cross-country Amtrak train, a wonderful cramped space that director Kate Dennis incorporates into the beats of the story itself. There are moments of fantasy or excitement, but mostly the interactions (between two people who have been apart for almost two decades) are believably awkward. There’s a lot of emotional honesty hidden between their conversations though, as they flirt with the natural rapport of people who were once in love yet hold back so many truths about themselves.

Run, which comes from Vicky Jones—a frequent collaborator of Phoebe Waller-Bridge (who appears in a brief and distracting cameo)—is billed as a comedy, but it feels more like a quirky, dramatic stage play. Wever and Gleeson are outstanding together and apart, as Ruby and Billy try to hold on to the glimmer of a faint ideal while being repeatedly reminded of what (and who) they are running from, and the consequences of it. There’s no break from the consideration of their real lives amid this crafted escape, and it leads to constant, natural shifts in tone from joking to uncertainty to sniping to partnership. The two are insecure and and hesitant with each other in some ways, charmingly in sync in others. The strange in-betweenness of their circumstances is reflected in the setting; conversations happening at twilight, dawn, an afternoon spent in a new city for hours waiting for your hotel room to be ready; being tired, not having brought the right things, not having showered—but still managing to find joy and adventure.