Critic Reviews

By the time you hit the fifth of its eight episodes you may find yourself yelling at the screen in amazed delight.

Run, the new HBO series created by Vicky Jones, who directed the stage production of Fleabag, is a beam of glorious light and a jolt of electricity. It’s also an absorbing piece of escapism. ... Merritt Wever and Domhnall Gleeson generate more heat than I’ve seen since … well, since Fleabag crossed paths with the Hot Priest in season two of Fleabag. ... By the fourth episode of Run, what started out as the honoring of a tantalizing, risky pact veers into something much more dangerous. Without seeing the last two episodes, it’s hard to say whether that tonal shift fully works. Either way, Run is still very much worth watching.

When Run is at its most authentic, it truly shines as a character study, honestly searching for how something so outlandish would really work. In those moments, it never shies away from the truth that we can’t run from ourselves, and Wever and Gleeson plays that sadness with aplomb. But again, once things start spiraling so out of control that it reaches territory that can never be undone in these characters’ lives, it has the potential to lose some of that authenticity as it moves towards bigger and bigger moments.

The best of “Run” has that razor-sharp wit that made Waller-Bridge famous, but it’s really the work by Wever and Gleeson that elevates it into a must-watch. ... Some of the plotting in the first five episodes of “Run” is a bit questionable but every time this threatens to go off course, Wever or Gleeson will find that perfect character beat. While I’m still not 100% sure the whole thing works narratively, these episodes have wonderful individual moments.

Run is distinctively Jones’ voice, but it has a lot of what made Waller-Bridge’s work so popular: dark humor, unstable chemistry, razor-sharp editing, and a narrow focus on the contradictions of human intimacy.

You may not know exactly where you’re heading at first, but Run promises — and plays with how much it wants to fulfill — quite the captivating treasure map along the way.

An exhilarating exercise in dark and bracingly original romantic comedy. [13 - 26 Apr 2020, p.5]

"Run" is a work that proves more surprising, shocking, seductive, funny and powerful the less you know about it, but it earns it trust from the top of the series through Wever's unwavering performance and her chemistry with Domhnall Gleeson as Billy Johnson.

Running just seven episodes, “Run” makes a strong case for short-term series. Stopping when it should, not when producers think it can’t be squeezed anymore, the half-hour series rarely lags, even when some twists seem forced. Waller-Bridge created the template for something like this. Now, Jones borrows the playbook and two extremely talented actors make it worth the risk.

An energetic hybrid of rom-com and action thriller whose half-hour episodes move as swiftly as the vehicle that is their primary setting.