Hal & Harper

Hal & Harper isn't just a show-it's an experience. From the very first episode, I felt pulled into a deeply personal and emotional world. The series blends memory, trauma, and reality in a way that's both poetic and haunting. The transitions between scenes and timelines are executed with such precision and feeling, it's like watching thought and emotion unfold on screen.

The dialogue is a highlight-raw, honest, and beautifully vulnerable. It's rare to find writing that feels this real. I felt seen, understood, and strangely comforted by the characters' openness. Harper's arc especially resonated with me-her longing, her silence, and her need for safety are portrayed with stunning depth.

The visual symbolism, like the scenes of adult Harper and Hal attending school, spoke volumes about grief and emotional stagnation. It's subtle, but incredibly powerful once you catch it.

In short, this show doesn't just tell a story-it feels it. Hal & Harper is for anyone who loves introspective, emotionally layered storytelling. It stays with you long after it ends.

Hypnotised by the strong visual language and creative story structure about young adult siblings living on fragmented memories of a mother who abandon them at an early age, leaving their bipolar father to bring them up. The story picks up with surprising news from their father (another brilliant performance by Mark Ruffalo) that unconsciously triggers the dominos to fall, as each one struggles to deal with their own dilemma, but also attempting to be there for each other. Creator, Cooper Raiff, not only plays Hal, but wrote and directed this powerful series of a fractured family unit dealing with the dismantled past while rebuilding a blurry future...

Really uninteresting "day in an average life" series. It's not exciting. Not extraordinary. Not special in any way. Theres no "unusual aspect" to anything. It's ordinary scenes about ordinary topics. There's no "there there".

I found little humor.. and very little to engage a viewer.

Is Hal supposed to be "on the spectrum"? If not.. seems like he may be. Really puzzling thing is ...why are two grown adults attending 3rd grade???

The story is "all over the place" and so fractured each of the independent storylines for these family members fails to garner much interest.

The entire series appears to be predicated on one line of dialog "you had to grown up too fast." It bounces back and forth between timeframes.. and none of it is comes together in a cohesive manner.

All the acting is good.. Not a real fan of the abundant "emo" music soundtrack.. but the story.. the story just isn't there.

Even after the finale I'm left wondering.. why did I waste my time??? There's no payoff, no ending one can't predict. Absolutely nothing unexpected.

There's just no reason to watch this series.

Excellent soundtrack and decent acting make it a watchable experience, but the pacing is incredibly slow like sitting through a five-hour indie film with no fast-forward button. The plot lines themselves aren't bad but one trope sticks out awkwardly and doesn't quite blend in with the rest.

It's the kind of show that's ideal if you're home sick and need something gentle to drift in and out of. Not a hate watch, just not gripping. Mark Ruffalo is always solid and the other main actors and bit parts are solid... but this might worked better as a tight, well-paced feature film than a stretched-out series.

I think the story is too disconnected to be impactful with the choice of storytelling they used. If this was a spin off to something and the characters had a template for people to follow maybe this would be better but it just doesn't work.

This is like some sundance garbage that's too convoluted to follow but everyone praises it as art because it makes them feel using film techniques. This would have made more sense as an anthology as it's main goal doesn't seem to be telling a story, the main goal is to invoke a feeling.

This would have made more sense as an anthology as it's main goal doesn't seem to be telling a story, the main goal is to invoke a feeling.