Runaways: Destiny
November 24, 2017 8:38 AM - Season 1, Episode 3 - Subscribe

The teens attempt to pull back the curtains and see what's behind their parents' seemingly perfect lives, all while trying to avoid being discovered. Catherine attempts to do a little investigation of her own of the kids.

AVClub: Marvel’s Runaways gets prehistoric in its best episode yet
It’s a beautiful thing to watch, how seamlessly Runaways melds superhero trope with high school soap; it’s not telling a comic book adventure and a high school drama at the same time, it’s using one genre to tell the other.
Birth. Movies. Death: Marvel’s RUNAWAYS: A Character-Driven Departure (contains major book spoilers)
This is Marvel’s best show since Jessica Jones (and really, its only good show other than Jones and Agent Carter), and the driving force behind it is well-rounded characters whose simple motivations (despite mysterious circumstances) force them into ethical and personal dilemmas. What little mysteries the show contains unravel at a consistent rate, so even if we’re headed for some late-in-the-season twists or cliffhangers, chances are they’ll be built up to with the reveal of more and more information, delivered almost exclusively as dramatic dialogue with specific intent.

Runaways is a show where exposition feels crucial because of how closely tied it is to character development, and it’s one where the setups of these living, breathing characters yields the desire to see them interact in all possible permutations while acting in self-preservation.
posted by 1970s Antihero (6 comments total) 1 user marked this as a favorite
 
Awww, yeah. I am SO happy to see that they're not skimping on the velociraptor SFX. I was especially worried after Iron Fist, where they couldn't even bother to show Danny Rand punching a dragon, where Danny is a character whose central conceit is that he friggin' punches dragons.
posted by 1970s Antihero at 8:43 AM on November 24, 2017 [4 favorites]


It's so awesome that Molly's comics design with the animal ear hats serendipitously worked with the advent of the women's march pussy hat so they could have her wear one. Such a cool little touch.
posted by jason_steakums at 2:43 PM on November 24, 2017 [8 favorites]


This was an interesting episode for how it continued to seem to push the story further away from the comics in order to expand the drama and, perhaps, to change some of the events from the comic that may be an improvement and draw the story out some more. There is, for example, some indication that Alex and Chase might end up with different long term arcs with their fathers providing potential cause for different action. Geoffrey Wilder is getting a lot of emphasis and his values seem to be moving the furthest from the rest of the Pride, so some conflict there could arise which would potentially affect Alex, while Victor Stein is shaping up to be the most villainous and extremely controlling, which will undoubtedly play into Chase's future actions. I'm guessing those dynamics will cause a shift from the events of the comics in some fashion.

Unfortunately, on a craft level, there are still a lot of things that dig at me in this episode. Alex setting up a big meeting at the beach, which everyone attends for three minutes only to leave again is the kind of superfluous action that feels like lazy filler rather than providing any greater meaning. The flashback, fine in itself I suppose, is feeling like the same kind of narrative crutch that made the first season of Arrow so annoying and caused me to abandon it with its constant looks back to "the Island". There is some suggestion that Tina, Nico's mom, is also exceptionally evil, given the burn mark on the hand mention at Molly's parents funeral, but that seems a bit iffier to me since her husband Robert is being cast as both deceptive in his affair and ignoring of Tina's emotional needs and a bit too glib about his defense of her, almost demanding it be seen as false. I'm guessing they'll make Tina more sympathetic and Robert less so as a twist going forward.

Speaking of the Minoru's, I found the "Let's go out for sushi." thing a bit distracting in how it was presented since it goes straight to white stereotype of Japanese people and didn't play as natural for me. That the Minoru's might well enjoy sushi, just as Geoffrey Wilder might indeed carry some lingering conflicting attitudes towards his former neighborhood, or Darius and his buddies would listen to rap music is all perfectly fine in concept, how it's been presented is causing me some issue, but in a way I'm hoping will be bettered and expanded upon more usefully later on once other writers get involved.

This episode did have a couple gender flipped moments of sexual expression, with Gert giving Chase the gaze and Nico doing the kiss me to distract them act with Alex, which is a start, but not entirely successful in how it was pulled off since it still showed the events in a way that didn't really subvert the tropes.
posted by gusottertrout at 5:55 AM on November 27, 2017 [3 favorites]


So it's an edgy teen drama from the folks who did The O.C.? Alright. And there's a lot of sex and mystery going on among the parents like in Desperate Housewives or the first season of Mistresses? Uh, ok. Could be... Plus there's a dinosaur in the basement. ummmm

Yeah, don't think I can really sell this one to my wife. Heck, so far I'm having a hard time selling it to myself. When I can't decide if there's not enough or too much mystery going on, there's an issue.
posted by GhostintheMachine at 4:44 AM on December 8, 2017


When I can't decide if there's not enough or too much mystery going on, there's an issue.

That pretty much sums up my experience with the show too, not weird or wild enough to keep me wondering, and not involved enough dramatically to develop care. It's hitting all the usual middle notes playing right to convention so far.
posted by gusottertrout at 5:54 AM on December 8, 2017 [2 favorites]


I've finally caught up to episode three and have found it entertaining, but not so much that I'm pulling at the bit to see the next episode. I read and loved Runaways way back when, but my memory is shot when it comes to anything other than the barest of plot points - which I don't know if that's a good thing or bad thing in the context of how the show is going.
posted by Atreides at 2:42 PM on December 11, 2017 [1 favorite]


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