The Prestige TV Podcast - 'Run'

Episode Date: May 4, 2020

Four episodes into its seven-episode run, now is the perfect time to jump into HBO's 'Run,' the romantic drama starring TV powerhouses Merritt Wever and Domhnall Gleeson. Hosts: Chris Ryan and Juliet Litman Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hello and welcome to TV concierge's a daily podcast where ringer staffers help you navigate the crowded TV landscape. I am Chris Ryan and today I am joined by Juliet Litman to discuss where we're at with HBO's run. We've hit the mid-season point for run and what better time to kind of take stock of what this show has become. Juliet, what's the quick pitch on run as it stands now? The quick pitch on run is it is a romance crossed with a little bit of a little bit of a little bit. bit of mystery and a little bit of thriller and a lot of transportation. So basically Merritt Weaver, who you might know from Unbelieveful or Nurse Jackie, plays Ruby, who reunites with her, like, college boyfriend, Donald Gleason, who plays Billy, and they're both running from their lives.

They text each other, run. And then the other responds run. And then they have like, that's a code to meet in New York City, though. She lives in California and he lives in the UK. Or maybe Ireland. You never know when those Irish, you know, they're so. It sounds like he's living out. of a suitcase. Yes. He might be a bit of a vagrant and a miscreant as we're learning with each episode. And it's really fascinating. Like, I was drawn in by the cast and like the promise of a 30-minute romance show on HBO. Like, what could be better? It's not exactly that. And it's a little hard to be like, yes, definitely watch run. But I'm certainly not like, no, skip it. It's a really fascinating and unique show. Yeah, you know, I think it's kind of a, I wouldn't say it's an absolutely new genre,

but it's basically a screwball thriller at this point where they've got themselves back on a train. So if the first few episodes take place, they meet at Grand Central Station, and then they get on a train going west. And they, I think the best episode of the show is the previous one where they get off the train in Chicago

and have like a day-long romance and also a lot of hijinks going on in Chicago. And now they're back on a train in Chase. And each episode we learn a little bit about the character's backstory. and about where they're kind of at in their lives, and it sort of builds towards why they would do this in the first place. But now we've kind of introduced this third lead character, for lack of a better term.

That's Fiona, who's played by Archie Punjabi, who anybody who's watched The Good Wife would remember as Kalinda, like a really beloved character on that show, who left under strange circumstances to say the least. I'm sure we'll get to that. And now she is kind of like the antagonist of the show. She plays Billy's, I guess,

erstwhile assistant slash C. manager, yeah. He obviously has been using her as a PA, but she really does everything. And they have seemingly have some secrets between the two of them. And she has been sort of inserting herself in their getaway by pretending to be a friend of Ruby's and then also popping up at little points texting Billy and showing up and talking to him. And she's really like kind of driving this thing now. And now we have a bag of money in the whole situation, which is a classic kind of crime thriller trope is like as soon as a bag of cash shows up, everybody starts betraying each other.

But the screwball part of it just is like you have to kind of go along, suspend disbelief and go along with the logic of the show. And like you said, like, I don't know if it's perfect, but it certainly isn't a huge investment. There's only three episodes left. And the 30 minute runtime kind of makes it like, I have to stick it out and find out what happens. If you started watching, there's no reason not to. And there's also no reason to not start watching.

Like to begin with Merit Weaver and Dominole-Lecin are like two of their best actors of their generations. Really, and kind of an interesting pair because A, their chemistry, I think actually has built and is better four episodes in than it was in episode one, which is kind of very true to life with an old relationship that you're trying to resuscitate when you kind of come together based on the expectations of what you were like 15 years ago, but you both have matured. And we've now learned that she attempted to be an architect and it didn't work out. and she feels poorly about her career, but really positively about her children, but mixed on her husband. And he, we don't exactly know yet,

but he is like basically like a public speaker who bombed. Is that right, Chris? Is that how we're supposed to interpret it? Yeah, I think he is a self-help guru, self-styled self-help guru, who has come up with some kind of,

uh, kind of a kinder, kinder, gentler version of like the secret, you know, or like for guys. And, was confronted at a talk he was giving by someone who said that their loved one committed suicide

because of his advice that they stopped taking their meds. And rather than deflect it or try to handle it, he basically, like, admitted guilt and then was stuck in this hotel with three days worth of conventioneers surrounding him while he had just admitted that, like, his advice had led to this guy's death or this character's death. And there also is another layer of secrecy underneath of that with whether or not he was ever going to be kind of using his story with Ruby as part of like fodder for his talks and also whether or not the Fiona character has been obscuring Ruby texting run to him at various points in her life. Right. Because there's a couple of flashbacks. Right. And this is like kind of a good point to jump in. I recommend you watch all four. But I think

having this background and going to watch it actually is helpful because it'll it'll move it along a little bit. And now we're kind of like in the central question of if you watch The Bachelor, is he in it for the right reasons? Like was he genuinely hoping to see her again or not? And understanding his motivations is a lot more difficult than understanding hers. But she's also like way more likable. Like you're definitely, I find myself, I mean, not that you have to pick sides, but it is very much like a tete, a tte. And now there's a third sort of antagonist. And it's very much like a rotating sort of who's got who's got the talking stick.

Sure. He's got the conch. Yeah. It's like a shift. It shifts all the time, and I find myself really looking forward to when Merritt Weaver is, she's got it in her hands. She's just a really amazing actress. I feel like she's on this great run right now very much helped by unbelievable. And I feel like she's really come into her own. I mean, we've literally watched her go from character actors on Nurse Jackie to lead actress and run with a couple other notable credits in between. And she's like one of the best TV actresses right now. Yeah, she's sort of entering like the Carrie Coon zone of must watch if she's on. And I loved her in Godless, which was a mini series that was on Netflix, a Western a couple of years ago where she basically plays like a Butch,

rancher gunfighter woman. She's really great in that. Weirdly, there was so much goodwill for these two actors for Merritt Weaver and for Dominole Gleason going into the show that I feel like it was almost like when they put two great NBA players together and it doesn't work out.

You know what I mean? Like, it was, it was like, I love Don McGleason and I love Merritt Weaver. And then I just figured together they would basically carry Grant and Lauren Bacall or something, or, you know, Spencer Tracy and Catherine Hepburn. And they're just not. And part of it is the fact that this is a show that's really more about people's failings that it is about their successes. Right. That's an interesting point.

I also, I love Donald Gleason, love. I love Brooklyn. It's one of my favorite movies, his episode of Black. of Black Mirror, Be Right Back, is hands down, like one of my favorite hours of serialized television ever and just an absolute stake

to my heart. It's so moving. I think we need to ask, does Don McLeese have it? Like, maybe he should just be a fairly obscure character actor. I'm not sure he's a leading man. And I say that with so much affection.

It doesn't help that his character feels a little undercooked. Like, it feels like something that's been come up in a writer's workshop. Like, what have we had a self-help? guy who really needed a lot of help himself, you know? Yeah. Yeah, he also like, you know, I feel part of the press for the show was like, wish I'd got more shots in Star Wars and just like

bad note right now, you know, not how you wanted to go. Ultimately, where I net out with this show, though, is like if it was a 10 week, one hour episode show, I might cash out. I might have cashed out at a certain point. But it's 2020 and they're making TV. lots of different ways now and they're presenting to us in lots of different ways. And I just feel like the investment is such that I'm going to stick it out just to find out what happens and to see if anything kind of any wrinkles pop up over the next couple of half hours. Also, I have to see the premise, like just really pleasant. I like a TV show on a train. Like, give me more of that. The episodes of the Crown when the Queen is on the train and she's traveling and like her personal locomotive is like

so delightful. For some reason, like the very like, romantic and pastoral idea of the tell of like the of a train as your mode of transportation obviously it captures the imagination and it just really works well for very cerebral shows i mean which i include the crown in like and i know that you and and andy talked about how this show is more like a play on the watch um and i think that the train really contributes to that as well because yeah it's like a confined setting that really closed circuit yeah a good idea for a show yeah and was a really good good moment in this last night's episode when they're trying to figure out what to do about Fiona, the Kalinda character. And Merritt Weaver, Ruby, is like, we're on a train. She literally could not

have gone that far. And I really enjoyed that, like, meta moment. And I felt like, you know, pardon the pun, but I felt like it was like picking up steam as a result of that. Yeah. Like, understanding, having laid a lot of groundwork and, like, understanding, like, where the show is going now. It is somewhat subversive because I think that even, even at episode, episode four, I'm not entirely sure that these two people belong together. And that's an interesting journey to go on. Because usually you're watching something and you're just, you're just longing for them to work it out because you've gotten so much of an investment in these two characters. You and I've talked before about normal people and just like the amount

of kind of emotional investment you have in the two main characters in that show and just hoping that they don't hurt each other too badly. In this show, I'm like, you know, it doesn't sound like either of them have like particularly satisfying home lives separate from each other, but I'm not sure they're going to find it with each other. No, no. It's also kind of funny watching like a romance where you're like, well, this clearly isn't it? Like, clearly it's not going to work out. You're not even rooting for it to work out, but you're just curious out where it's going to go. And that also makes it subversive. Like, that's really different for TV and movie romance. And I think in like the post-flebag world, there's like such a desire for these quirky British shows.

and this is not a British show, but it just feels, I mean, Vicki Jones, who writes it as British, right? Yeah, it feels like transposed from England. I was talking about that on the pod where I was like, this feels like it could have taken place on a train from London to Liverpool or something. Yeah. It also very much feels like it could have been a book or play and adapted.

It just feels like literary and different. And like it's kind of like on its own level, which I enjoy because I think when you watch like a lot of Netflix or Hulu, like all these platforms kind of, develop a house style, and this defies all the house style, including HBO. I enjoy it. I enjoy it, too. It's a good point to jump in.

Like, watch all four in a row and then watch the next three as they play out over the ensuing three weeks. Yeah, I don't even think if you listen to this whole podcast, like any plot points that we said probably won't even make any sense to you. So you should just go ahead and jump in. Jump in. You know, hit us up. Let us know what you think of it.

We'll probably come back for the finale and talk about that. Juliet, as always, it's a pleasure chatting TV with you. Likewise.