The Runaways Season

A lackluster, or even downright bad final season of a show can have a negative effect on how people view the property as a whole. And while people will always have their favorite scenes that they may watch over and over again, if the series ends on a bad note even those moments can be soured to the viewer. For me, that is the case with Game of Thrones. I could rewatch the Red Wedding of the third season, or Drogon attacking the Lannister army in season seven again and again. However, after the poorly done final season I no longer feel as though I can watch those scenes with the same enthusiasm as I could before. And because of this, I feel as though Runaways season 3 will have that same effect on people.

With this new season of Runaways being the third and final season of the Hulu series, there was a lot that needed to be accomplished to allow the series to have an ending instead of an unresolved plot. Unfortunately, that caused the final season to be a structural mess. Between wrapping up the plot of Jonah, or rather The Magistrate, and his family the plot must also resolve a new contender by way of Morgan, and entity that shares some kind of connection with Nico. The episodes are stuffed to the gills with plot progression, character arcs and fluff, and it all just feels rushed. Side plots and mini character arcs that are meant to test and strengthen the bond between the Runaways comes up, has a few scenes and is then resolved either the next episode or in some cases the very same episode. And it is jarring because of that. Often throughout the season, this very rushed approach made the emotional beats feel hollow. The show didn’t allow for anyone to be able to take a moment of breath, to have an argument between two characters erupt and then things to settle. The worst offense of this being two romantic subplots that come up during the second half of the season. For two seperate members of The Runaways, they each meet someone that they develop a crush on in their first scenes together, proceed to have two or three scenes together until the main plot demands that the subplot ends and that the characters fulfilled their purpose, and then they are whisked away and no one mentions them again. Those two subplots ended up feeling so unnecessarily added to just fill out each episode’s run time that it ended up being a waste of precious screen time that could have otherwise been dedicated to expanding on the history of characters like Morgan or more of certain parents trying to patch up the division between them and the Runaways or even handle moments of forgiveness between the teens that seemed to have been handled off screen. There are plenty of other examples that can be listed off one right after the other regards to how the writing suffered greatly from trying to resolve everything that has been building up over the course of just 10 episodes

Now that isn’t to say that everything in this season was poorly done. The core cast of the teens and their parents was all around pretty good. Everyone felt very comfortable in their characters and how they each interacted with each other felt genuine. And the special effects team did very well with giving us moments where Nico’s magic and Old Lace felt real, and had a weight to them as if the characters were in fact interacting with a real dinosaur or were being hit by magical spells. But these positives were still being held down by the lackluster story and the downright bad structure of the season. I really wanted to like this final season of Runaways, and I wanted this show of lovable kids trying to stop their parent’s evil plans, but the way the final season was handled ruined that. There is enjoyment to be had, but if you’re looking for a well done ending then The Runaways season 3 isn’t the place to look. 

Overall, while the core cast does their best to save the poor writing and structure of this season with their chemistry, the rushed story and chopped up plot lines are too difficult to ignore. Leaving the show off with a bad taste in your mouth.

I give it a grade of C-.