HBO’s ‘Run’ Is So Good It Will Give You Tingles All Over

Here’s what I can tell you about HBO’s newest series Run: it feels impossible that anything better than this series will grace our screens this year. It’s that good.

Run is a new half-hour series from creator Vicky Jones, a writer and playwright you may have heard of because she directed a little stage show called Fleabag. Phoebe Waller-Bridge is a frequent collaborator and serves as an executive producer on this series (she might pop up in an episode as well), and you can feel her influence right away (a woman telling her vagina to “calm down” while she’s in Grand Central station, for one).

Without giving away more than the trailer has, as this is certainly a show to go into with as little knowledge as possible, Merritt Wever stars as Ruby, a woman who gets a text on a normal morning while she’s sitting in a Target parking lot that simply reads “RUN” from a guy saved in her phone as Billy, played by Domhnall Gleeson. The next thing you know, the duo find themselves on a train traveling across the country, with a variety of adventures ahead.

You will recognize immediately that Run is the kind of show that, as you’re watching it for the first time, you’re already excited to go back and watch it over again, with all the knowledge you’re picking up along the way. It’s exciting and intriguing and creative in a way few romance/comedies are ever allowed to be, as it dips liberally into the thriller and action genres along the way. Plus, Weaver and Gleason are so perfect here it’s impossible to imagine anyone else stepping into their over-worn, sole outfits.

The beauty of Run is that we’re given tiny clues about their lives, who they are, how they know each other, what they tell each other, and even more, what they don’t. Ruby and Billy fall into their default antagonistic relationship from the very first moment we see them together. It’s a cat and mouse game where each serves as both cat and mouse, with the fun coming from not quite knowing who’s which at any particular moment, from the ways they look at each other and flirt with each other and tease each other and hurt each other. In any other situation, I would purely detest two people running up and down the aisles of an Amtrak train, but here, it’s just so wonderful. Shining through all the mysterious layers these characters possess, one thing remains abundantly clear: they have a strong connection, and somehow an even stronger sexual tension. Run will give you the best blue balls of your life as these two inch physically closer with every interaction and swap glances that say everything their mouths don’t or can’t or won’t. Just when you think there might be a resolution, or a climax if you will, another speed bump arises and they’re on the run.

It’s clear there are very intelligent women behind this project as the emotions this show elicits are as precise and perfect as the storytelling. Run is simultaneously a comedy, thriller, drama, action, and romance all in one. It’s incredibly smart and so, so exhilarating in every scene, as new discoveries are afforded to the audience, and often to the characters themselves. Both Ruby and Billy are able to be layered and mysterious and mischievous yet undeniably raw and vulnerable with each other. The show never lets up on being intriguing and sexy and keeping viewers guessing. Sure, it’s awfully rude that this show is only 30 minutes, but that half-hour will suck you right in and you’ll be desperate to never be spit back out.

Run premieres Sunday, April 12 at 10:35pm on HBO. 

Where to stream Run