The main cast of the six teens pretty much look like they’ve walked off the page of a comic book. Despite some minor initial misgivings Rhenzy Feliz (Alex), Lyrica Okana (Nico), Allegra Acosta (Molly), Ariela Barer (Gert), Gregg Sulkin (Chase), and Virginia Gardner (Carolina) are all amazing in their respective roles. Gert and Chase already being my personal favourites, just as they were in the comics. The parents too are great, too many to list individually here, but all round the cast is sublime.
Based on the 2003 series, RUNAWAYS tells the story of the aforementioned six teenagers discovering that their parents are in fact super villains, specifically involved in the ritualistic sacrifice of young runaways to some ancient beings known as the Gibborim. One of the main differences in this adaptation however is that the parent’s group, known as The Pride, act as a sort of inner circle to a wider organisation, The Church of Gibborim, clearly styled on the Church of Scientology and its sinister and pervasive hold over modern Hollywood.
It’s these kinds of changes that really flesh out Hulu's version of RUNAWAYS. Not that the characters were ever one-dimensional before, but now the kids and parents alike are fully realised three- dimensional beings that you believe have existed for years before the story begins. The parents have their own intertwining sub-plots wholly separate from the kids and the main story, something that promises to mean that none of the sixteen main cast are superfluous, all with something to contribute.
Another change: We discover early on that Nico had an older sister who died two years before the events of Runaways begin, an event that drove the former friends apart, something not in the comics at all. Also, there’s the fact that Molly is slightly older than her comic book counterpart and is technically a different character altogether. Being Molly Hernandez not Molly Hayes, her parents having died years ago before she was adopted by Gert’s parents, avoiding any messy legal issues over the fact comic book Molly is a mutant, with a good few appearances in X-Men comics over the years. Fox may have been able to stake a claim so best to avoid that altogether. All of this however works to the shows benefit in the capable hands of it's show runners, adding deeper mysteries to be discovered.
The opening triple bill turned out to be a great idea as thematically it serves as three acts telling one movie-length pilot story. First in “Reunion” we saw the kids reluctantly get back together in after a few years apart, only for them to discover the truth of what their parents are up to. Then in “Rewind” we got to see that same day that lead up to that moment from the parent’s point of view, fully committing to the idea that they are as much a part of this show as the kids. Then in the third part, the young Pride-lings began their plan to discover just exactly what their parents involved in, how they’ve managed to keep it a secret and if at all they can prove it and put a stop to it. It’s in episode three that the ball really gets rolling and the most impressive visual effect takes place – the thing I was most anticipated and they pulled it off spectacularly.
You see the kids each have some kind of power or ability derived from their parents. Molly is, or more accurately was, a mutant with super human strength. Nico gets a hold of her mother’s magical Staff. Carolina discovers she glows with a rainbow spectrum of energy when she takes off her Church of Gibborim bracelet, possibly hinting that the Church’s L. Ron Hubbard style founding might not actually be all that crazy. Chase is the C-grade jock son of a resentful tech genius and entrepreneur, though it’s hinted he has a knack for engineering on a smaller scale and Alex is a bit of a prodigy owing to his parents being two of the most powerful figures in organised crime in California. But it’s Gert that hands down always had the hardest gift to realise on screen. In the comic her parents were time travellers, here they’re simple bio-engineers. Either way, they came up with the same plan to protect their daughter from anyone that might wish to cause her harm; even other members of the Pride, a nod to those fact Molly’s parents’ deaths may not have been an accident. You see, The Yorkes got Gert a pet Deinonychus, a 3-metre-long, raptor-like dinosaur that is engineered to obey Gert’s metal commands. Thankfully the production on Runways decided to use a mix of animatronics and CGI as Gert’s dino looks amazing, even for a TV budget. It really puts some of Marvel TV’s other efforts... ahem, INHUMANS... to shame.
With the truth about their parents known to them, a bungled sacrifice promising to cause rifts within The Pride as their crimes threaten to expose them to the rest of the world and Gert's literal dinosaur now on the loose, I cannot wait until the next episode. I fear Hulu may have spoilt me with these 3-minute-binge-worthy-episodes as now we have to wait for the story to unfold one episode at a time. But I can dig it because RUNAWAYS is a hit.
Written by Nick Whitney, RUNAWAYS Beat Writer
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