''Run'' is an American
comedy thriller television series created by
Vicky Jones that premiered on April 12, 2020 on
HBO
Home Box Office (HBO) is an American pay television service, which is the flagship property of namesake parent-subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is based a ...
.
It stars
Merritt Wever
Merritt Carmen Wever (born August 11, 1980) is an American actress. She had roles in the Showtime television series '' Nurse Jackie'' (2009–2015), ''The Walking Dead'' (2015–2016), '' Godless'' (2017), '' Welcome to Marwen'' (2018), '' Unb ...
and
Domhnall Gleeson
Domhnall Gleeson (; born 12 May 1983) is an Irish actor and screenwriter. The son of actor Brendan Gleeson, he studied media arts at the Dublin Institute of Technology. He began his career by directing and writing several short films, and garne ...
, and one of its executive producers is Jones' frequent collaborator,
Phoebe Waller-Bridge
Phoebe Mary Waller-Bridge (born 14 July 1985) is an English actress, screenwriter and producer. As the creator, writer, and lead star of the comedy series '' Fleabag'' (2016–2019), she won various accolades, including three Primetime Emmy Aw ...
. ''Run''s
pilot episode
A television pilot (also known as a pilot or a pilot episode and sometimes marketed as a tele-movie) in United Kingdom and United States television, is a standalone episode of a television series that is used to sell a show to a television netwo ...
was directed by Kate Dennis.
In July 2020, HBO canceled the series after one season.
Premise
Cast
Main
*
Merritt Wever
Merritt Carmen Wever (born August 11, 1980) is an American actress. She had roles in the Showtime television series '' Nurse Jackie'' (2009–2015), ''The Walking Dead'' (2015–2016), '' Godless'' (2017), '' Welcome to Marwen'' (2018), '' Unb ...
as Ruby Richardson, a woman looking to reinvent herself
*
Domhnall Gleeson
Domhnall Gleeson (; born 12 May 1983) is an Irish actor and screenwriter. The son of actor Brendan Gleeson, he studied media arts at the Dublin Institute of Technology. He began his career by directing and writing several short films, and garne ...
as Billy Johnson, a successful life guru
Recurring
*
Phoebe Waller-Bridge
Phoebe Mary Waller-Bridge (born 14 July 1985) is an English actress, screenwriter and producer. As the creator, writer, and lead star of the comedy series '' Fleabag'' (2016–2019), she won various accolades, including three Primetime Emmy Aw ...
as Laurel Halliday, a woman whom Ruby and Billy meet while on their journey
*
Rich Sommer
Rich Sommer (born February 2, 1978) is an American actor, best known for his portrayal of Harry Crane on the AMC drama series ''Mad Men'' (2007–2015) for which he earned two Screen Actors Guild Awards along with the ensemble cast. He is also ...
as Laurence Richardson, Ruby's husband
*
Tamara Podemski
Tamara Podemski (born October 16, 1977) is a Canadian film and television actress and writer.Rick Garrick"Indigenous multidisciplinary artist to host 13th Annual Outside Looking In Gala in Toronto this Spring" ''Anishinabek News'', March 9, 2020. ...
as Babe Cloud, a police detective
*
Archie Panjabi
Archana Panjabi (born 31 May 1972) is an English actress. She has had various roles in both British and American television including as Maya Roy in ''Life on Mars'' (2006–2007), Kalinda Sharma in ''The Good Wife'' (2009–2015), Nas Kamal ...
as Fiona, Billy's former personal assistant
*
Shaun J. Brown as Ryan Everwood, a police detective
*Jake Bover as Scooter Richardson, Ruby's son
*Kelsey Flower as Daniel
Guest
*
Stephen McKinley Henderson
Stephen McKinley Henderson is an American actor. Henderson trained at Juilliard School for acting and later became a resident member of the Repertory Theatre of St. Louis from 1976 to 1981. He came to prominence as a character actor often perfo ...
as John ("Run")
*
Annie Golden
Annie Golden (born October 19, 1951) is an American actress and singer. She first came to prominence as the lead singer of the punk band the Shirts from 1975 to 1981 with whom she recorded three albums. She began her acting career as Mother in ...
as Marjorie ("Run")
* Maxwell Simkins as Hunter Richardson ("Chase")
*
Deirdre Lovejoy as Mary Dixie ("Fuck")
*
Saamer Usmani as Derek ("Kiss")
Episodes
Reception
Critical response
The
review aggregator
A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews and ratings of products and services, such as films, books, video games, music, software, hardware, or cars. This system then stores the reviews to be used for supporting a website where user ...
website
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...
reported an 84% approval rating with an average rating of 7.04/10, based on 38 reviews. The website's critical consensus states, "Though it can't always sustain its frenetic pace, ''Run'' sharp subversions of romcom clichés are never less than entertaining thanks to Merritt Wever and Domhnall Gleeson's electrifying performances." On
Metacritic
Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...
, it has a weighted average score of 74 out of 100, based on 21 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".
Alan Sepinwall
Alan Sepinwall (born October 19, 1973) is an American television reviewer and writer. He spent 14 years as a columnist with ''The Star-Ledger'' in Newark until leaving the newspaper in 2010 to work for the entertainment news website HitFix. He ...
of ''
Rolling Stone
''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason.
The magazine was first known fo ...
'' praised the two central performances, with Wever in particular garnering critical acclaim. He wrote that "the heat between them is palpable enough to carry this oddball mix of sexual farce and
Alfred Hitchcock
Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock (13 August 1899 – 29 April 1980) was an English film director. He is widely regarded as one of the most influential figures in the history of cinema. In a career spanning six decades, he directed over 50 featu ...
thriller".
Ratings
References
External links
*
{{HBONetwork Shows
2020s American black comedy television series
2020 American television series debuts
2020 American television series endings
American English-language television shows
HBO original programming
Television series by Lionsgate Canada
American thriller television series