With visions of "Inhumans" still fresh in my nightmares, I put off watching "Runaways" for months. When I did finally decide to give it a try, I was pleasantly surprised with what I saw. (The show airs on the SYFY channel in the UK).
The premise is a group of teenagers discover that a charity that their rich and successful parents work for, is a front for weird scientific experiments, human sacrifice and murder. They begin a covert investigation of their parent's actions, and along the way discover skill, talents and even powers that they didn't know they had.
My initial scepticism about the show wasn't dampened by our initial introductions to the characters who seem to be very much teen cliché's - Jock, Nerd, Goth, Activist - but fortunately, the show is better written than to stick too closely to those tropes. In fact, the show is pretty well written overall. The dialogue is sparky and often pretty funny - this runs on too to some of the parental interaction. There's a degree of action across the series, but mostly it's about the characters. The kids forming a familiar bond against the mistrust and lies that dominate their parents and their cult like charity.
Less successful are some of the special effects, some things are fine but series' showiest two effects are a bit shaky. Those are Karoline's glowing and "Old Lace" the Velociraptor, who oddly looks better as a CGI effect, than as an actual puppet. I'd was fortunate that I came to the end of the first season and then only had to wait a week or two for the second to begin - but I can imagine that it would have been an underwhelming finale to anyone who then had to wait months for the next season. Performances can be a bit patchy too, but cinematography, set design and direction are all pretty good. I like that music theme too.
Not as good as the Netflix stuff, but also nowhere near "Inhumans". Season one of "Runaways" was decent and I'm happy to crack straight on with the second run.
The premise is a group of teenagers discover that a charity that their rich and successful parents work for, is a front for weird scientific experiments, human sacrifice and murder. They begin a covert investigation of their parent's actions, and along the way discover skill, talents and even powers that they didn't know they had.
My initial scepticism about the show wasn't dampened by our initial introductions to the characters who seem to be very much teen cliché's - Jock, Nerd, Goth, Activist - but fortunately, the show is better written than to stick too closely to those tropes. In fact, the show is pretty well written overall. The dialogue is sparky and often pretty funny - this runs on too to some of the parental interaction. There's a degree of action across the series, but mostly it's about the characters. The kids forming a familiar bond against the mistrust and lies that dominate their parents and their cult like charity.
Less successful are some of the special effects, some things are fine but series' showiest two effects are a bit shaky. Those are Karoline's glowing and "Old Lace" the Velociraptor, who oddly looks better as a CGI effect, than as an actual puppet. I'd was fortunate that I came to the end of the first season and then only had to wait a week or two for the second to begin - but I can imagine that it would have been an underwhelming finale to anyone who then had to wait months for the next season. Performances can be a bit patchy too, but cinematography, set design and direction are all pretty good. I like that music theme too.
Not as good as the Netflix stuff, but also nowhere near "Inhumans". Season one of "Runaways" was decent and I'm happy to crack straight on with the second run.
