The Runarounds
By Sioph W. Leal
The Runarounds beings with recent high school graduates’ Charlie Cooper (William Lipton), Wyatt (Jesse Golliher), Bez (Zendé Murdock), Topher (Jeremy Yun), Neil (Axel Ellis) and Pete (Maximo Salas)as they begin their summer. They are all on the cusp of adulthood, but with their different home lives comes different challenges. As a band, they are connected through their love of music but also the desire for stardom and success. Their summer is packed with romantic entanglements, the constant getting in trouble and also outgrowing your parents’ dreams, The Runarounds risk everything to fulfil their dreams.
The first episode of The Runarounds is the perfect introduction to the bad. We see the bandmates as they finish high school and embark on their summer, of which Charlie Cooper wants to be life changing. He’s thrown away his college acceptance in order to focus on his bad, determined to make this summer life changing to keep their new band together. Charlie is the central character and with his big “lover boy” energy, it’s hard to see what he loves more, the band or his fascination with Sophia Kinney (Lilah Pate) the ultimate “girl next door” type who has a complicated home life. Charlie is given a lot of plots from secret parentage, family financial struggles to his dreams of stardom, he remains one of the weakest characters and runs the risk of being overshadowed by the more dynamic ensemble.
For the first four episodes, Sophia Kinney (Lilah Pate) feels separate from the band. She has issues with her alcoholic father and a boyfriend that is perfect for her on paper, but she doesn’t quite feel that it’s right, on top of all that she is a poet. There’s not much else to her character other than she is the object of Charlie’s crush, so she is yet another underdeveloped character. The show is supposed to be the slow burn between her and Charlie but her serious demeanour distracts from any relationship building, making the love triangle between her and Charlie hollow and mechanical.
There are a few bright spots within the bunch of characters that may not seem as obvious. Amanda (Kelley Pereira) is a hard sell at first, but there isn’t anyone as loyal as her. She’s a reluctant team player, a type-A personality among the creatives but she refuses to be seen as less than because of this. Pete could have easily become the annoying cliché of a best friend, but he proves that what he lacks in musical talent he makes up for in determination and humour.
Wyatt (Jesse Golliher) has the most compelling arc, but he is often sidelined. Like Sophia, he has a very troubled home life, but he doesn’t have the security that she does. His mother kicks him out and he’s left to fend for himself, add to that his shyness and stage fright, you see him slowly overcome this throughout the episodes. Unfortunately, his screentime does not do him justice and he feels like he could have been the strongest story to tell, a story about not letting the darkness cloud you. Add to that the only friendship within the series that seems truly genuine is between Wyatt and Bez (Zendé Murdock). The two bring out the best in each other, encouraging the other to step out of their comfort zone but after the second episode, this is forgotten.
The Runaways is supposed to be about friends trying to make music, to achieve stardom with their band but there is shockingly very little in terms of the band performing until around the sixth episode. The songwriting only comes into the plot as a way to get Sophia and Charlie together. With this and the sparse performances, it’s a bit confusing as to what the show intended. There is a scene where The Runaround band mates are arguing about what genre of music they are, and you can’t help but feel this is reminiscent of the series. Is it a romantic drama? A coming-of-age story? An exploration of family issues and expectations placed upon children? It’s all of the above without committing to any of them.
The biggest letdown? For a show about a band, there's shockingly little focus on music. Songwriting only really appears as a narrative device to force Sophia and Charlie together, and performances are sparse. Even the band itself seems unsure of its genre—which, in a way, mirrors the show’s identity crisis. Is it a romantic drama? A coming-of-age story? A gritty exploration of family issues? The Runarounds tries to be all of these and ends up committing to none.
All is not entirely lost with The Runarounds. It certainly has an audience with 16–18-year-olds, more so if it didn’t have the random addition of the parental subplots that take up too much time. At times, The Runarounds feels like it’s trying to emulate Amazon’s previous hit, Daisy Jones & The Six, but for a younger audience without as much music until the latter part of the short eight episode run.