So, while we see glimpses of actual kids playing Hal and Harper before their family is decimated by death and depression, Raiff plays Hal both as a 22-year-old in the present and as a 7-year-old while Lili Reinhart<\/a> plays Harper at 24 and 9. Those childhood versions contain glimmers of their adult selves (Harper also reads \u201cOne Hundred Years of Solitude\u201d during recess) while the adult versions contain the children they still are.<\/p>\n The family portrait gains heart-rending nuance when Raiff shows Hal and Harper\u2019s dad (Mark Ruffalo), who plunged into a deep depression 20 years ago, which accelerated the trauma caused by their mother\u2019s sudden absence. In the present, Dad and his girlfriend Kate (Betty Gilpin<\/a>) are selling the family home and about to have a baby, stirring up anew the cauldron of emotions for Dad and the kids.<\/p>\n \u201cHal and Harper are just flailing,\u201d says Raiff, who initially insisted to friends the show was not autobiographical, saying, \u201cThis is not my life.\u201d<\/p>\n Cooper Raiff and Lili Reinhart in \u201cHal & Harper.\u201d The pair of actors play the titular characters both as adults and children.<\/p>\n (Mubi)<\/p>\n Raiff says his girlfriend, Addison Timlin (who has a recurring role in the show), succinctly punctured the notion that he conjured these characters \u201cout of thin air,\u201d by telling him the show is \u201cabout the pain that we forget we remember.\u201d<\/p>\n When Raiff was 4, he experienced a major event in his family \u2014 he hasn\u2019t spoken about it publicly in detail \u2014 that shaped his perspective on his life and work. In his feature film, \u201cCha Cha Real Smooth<\/a>,\u201d Raiff played Andrew, whose mother was bipolar; like Hal, Andrew grew up quickly but stunted, has issues of codependency and hates being alone. (Harper, meanwhile, \u201ccarries all the pain of the family,\u201d Raiff notes.)<\/p>\n Raiff, whose storytelling is concise and economical, underscores those emotions with handheld camerawork as director of the series: \u201cUsually you\u2019d ask, \u2018What\u2019s motivating a handheld shot,\u2019 but here everyone feels shaky, so we\u2019d ask, \u2018What\u2019s motivating a stable shot?\u2019 The shots I like best in the show are where we\u2019re up in their eyes and it feels so immediate.\u201d<\/p>\n As for the show\u2019s cast, the unadorned psychological truths in the story is what drew them in. \u201cCooper sent me a 300-page PDF of the whole thing and it was the best script I\u2019d ever read,\u201d says Reinhart. \u201cI felt really sad when I finished reading it because I didn\u2019t want it to end.\u201d<\/p>\n Reinhart related to Harper because as a kid, she was an \u201cold soul\u201d who had \u201ca melancholy air\u201d and found it difficult to fit socially. To better understand Harper, she read Hope Edelman\u2019s \u201cMotherless Daughters\u201d and now sees her character as being \u201cin a constant state of dissociation, having lost her mom and immediately assuming the role of caretaker in the family. She covers up with armor and if joy creeps through, she smacks it away.\u201d<\/p>\n Gilpin was impressed by Raiff\u2019s attention to detail. \u201cYou could just tell from Page 1, how much care and thought he had about the backstory of every single character and what every moment should look like,\u201d she says. \u201cThe show feels very anti-algorithm; it\u2019s not treating the audience like they\u2019re stupid. There\u2019s so much intangible inexplicable behavior between people that feels exactly like what a family is.\u201d<\/p>\n Betty Gilpin plays Kate in \u201cHal & Harper,\u201d who is having a baby with Dad (Mark Ruffalo). \u201cYou could just tell from Page 1, how much care and thought he had about the backstory of every single character and what every moment should look like,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n (Mubi)<\/p>\n Raiff created his first version of \u201cHal & Harper\u201d as a web series when he was in college. He created a web series set in a bedroom where the younger versions talked every night about what their dad had said that day. Eventually he expanded his palette, adding the 20-something Hal and Harper, plus Dad and Kate, whose characters come to the fore in the third episode, which darkens the series\u2019 tone.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve had so many people talk about how painful it was to watch that relationship and how it took them a little bit to get past the third episode,\u201d Raiff says. He credits Gilpin, who was pregnant with her second child during filming, with providing insights that deepened her character. \u201cShe had so many amazing ideas and she clarified how important it was that Dad is missing out on the pregnancy journey.\u201d<\/p>\n Raiff had initially placed the series at FX, but he says executives at the network were unsettled by Dad and Kate\u2019s story. \u201cEvery note was about making it a college show and one exec said, \u2018You should go home and watch \u201cGreek,\u201d the ABC Family show,\u2019\u201d Raiff recalls. \u201cI knew I was in trouble then.\u201d<\/p>\n The network wanted Dad and Kate gone, but Raiff held tight to his vision. \u201cThe third episode is my favorite episode,\u201d he says. \u201cI know shows have to be funny and entertaining and the show is called \u2018Hal & Harper,\u2019 but the heart of the show is Dad realizing he wasn\u2019t a dad and telling himself the only way to give the universe and my kids some sort of justice is just to lay on this floor [in their old house] and just stay here.\u201d<\/p>\n As a result, Raiff got his show back and set out to make it independently; Reinhart signed on as executive producer to lend clout and Raiff budgeted the entire season for what he says was half the cost of the pilot at FX.<\/p>\n They received funding from Lionsgate, but after shooting, found fresh resistance. Raiff says executives wouldn\u2019t watch the whole series, so he showed an hour-long sizzle reel at a screening. \u201cExecs walked out sobbing, saying, \u2018I can\u2019t go back to work. I have to call my therapist and my parents,\u2019\u201d he recalls. \u201cWe were high-fiving each other. But there was not a single offer. Later I learned they thought, \u2018What do we do with this? It\u2019s so emotional.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Cooper Raiff on the set of \u201cHal & Harper,\u201d which he also directed. He chose to make the show independently after encountering some resistance to the story. (Mubi) <\/p>\n Reinhart was despairing. \u201cIt was so heartbreaking when we thought the show may never be seen because it doesn\u2019t fit a bingeable content square box,\u201d she says, adding that she thought, \u201cI will never do independent television again.\u201d<\/p>\n Then Raiff took \u201cHal & Harper\u201d to the Sundance Film Festival<\/a> in January, which led to Mubi buying it. In an email, Mubi\u2019s chief content officer Jason Ropell said seeing a finished product made committing much easier. \u201cIt removes any uncertainty around execution,\u201d adding that while there are risks, he can \u201csee an appetite in the market for this model.\u201d<\/p>\n Indeed, \u201cHal & Harper\u201d is part of a small but growing trend of indie TV that hopes to reimagine the industry the way indie film did. Actor and creator Kit Williamson<\/a> (\u201cUnconventional\u201d) notes that there had been an initial burst in the last decade where web series were made on the cheap and successful ones were bought by major players, citing Issa Rae\u2019s \u201cAwkward Black Girl,\u201d which led to \u201cInsecure\u201d on HBO \u2014 a network that also bought \u201cHigh Maintenance\u201d \u2014 while Netflix snatched Williamson\u2019s \u201cEastsiders.\u201d<\/p>\n But the new path involves fully financing an entire ready-for-TV season to sell. Williamson chose this route for \u201cUnconventional\u201d because he wanted to make an unabashedly queer relationship show \u201cwritten without respectability politics in mind, so I\u2019d need to find a different pathway.\u201d (He sold it to the queer-oriented streamer Revry<\/a> and it can be seen on platforms like Philo and Pluto.)<\/p>\n Gilpin notes that the industry is playing it safer and safer, with networks even running \u201csecond watch screenings\u201d \u2014 to make sure a person scrolling on their phone can still follow the plot of the show on their TV. \u201cWe have to keep pushing each other to make things that don\u2019t pass that test,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n Michael Polish, an indie filmmaker who has ventured into indie TV with \u201cBring on the Dancing Horses,\u201d says just as filmmakers once went outside the studio system to make more challenging fare, so will showrunners.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s a general frustration with the development process bottleneck and the hesitancy to take risks,\u201d Williamson says, \u201cthough whether or not it\u2019s a gold rush is yet to be seen.\u201d<\/p>\n Lili Reinhart, who co-stars in \u201cHal & Harper,\u201d also signed on as an executive producer. \u201cIt was so heartbreaking when we thought the show may never be seen because it doesn\u2019t fit a bingeable content square box,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n (Mubi)<\/p>\n The biggest success story has been the Duplass brothers, who sold \u201cPenelope<\/a>\u201d to Netflix, and \u201cThe Creep Tapes<\/a>\u201d to Shudder. Additionally, comedian Shane Gillis had a Netflix hit with \u201cTires\u201d and Michele Palermo, a playwright and TV writer, landed \u201cMiddlehood\u201d on Prime Video.<\/p>\n The trend is even taking root in animation (which costs more to produce), says Orion Tate, founder and chief creative officer at Buck, which has several shows in development he hopes to make independently. \u201cWe want to build these shows from the ground up and then get a deal,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n Claire Taylor, chief programming officer at SeriesFest, which showcases episodic TV, says more studio executives and production companies are coming to SeriesFest to shop.<\/p>\n \u201cFilmmakers like Mark Duplass and Cooper Raiff are showing you can tell the story you want to tell,\u201d she says before cautioning, \u201cit will take more of these success stories for filmmakers who don\u2019t have that cachet.\u201d<\/p>\n Indeed, Polish\u2019s series can be seen in Europe and on Paramount+ in Canada, but not yet in America. Polish says the indie film world has more distributors and festivals. \u201cA lot of different avenues have been set up over the years,\u201d he says, adding that Sundance adding a section for TV pilots was a big step for this field. Raiff adds that independent TV will gain a legitimate foothold, but only when a streamer sets up its own department for buying independent shows.<\/p>\n And Reinhart has come around on the idea, saying, \u201cindependent TV is challenging to say the least, but I was so lucky to have this experience.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe may not be seen by the largest group of people ever, but it\u2019s a show that sticks with you,\u201d she says. \u201cI would rather have made a show that really impacts the people who see it than a bigger one that just sits on a streamer forever and no one cares.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hal is having trouble adjusting to first grade. At night, he tells his sister, Harper, who\u2019s in the…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":310646,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5123],"tags":[156871,1582,276,19919,156870,31245,246,56528,41210,18996,2961,67605,224,5337,4659,938,156869,4370,73406,124110],"class_list":{"0":"post-310645","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-betty-gilpin","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-california","11":"tag-character","12":"tag-cooper-raiff","13":"tag-dad","14":"tag-family","15":"tag-hal","16":"tag-harper","17":"tag-kid","18":"tag-la","19":"tag-lili-reinhart","20":"tag-los-angeles","21":"tag-losangeles","22":"tag-netflix","23":"tag-network","24":"tag-raiff","25":"tag-show","26":"tag-tv-series","27":"tag-williamson"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115389385650451662","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/310645","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=310645"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/310645\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/310646"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=310645"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=310645"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=310645"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}} <\/p>\n
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