In Who Were We Running From?, Bambi spends her life with her mother, moving from one hotel to another, not knowing what they are running from. The series is now streaming on Netflix.
Story
Bambi and her mother make luxurious hotels their temporary homes and have hopped from one hotel to another for a very long time. They have never had a house of their own like others.
Bambi’s mother seeks to be private, and she teaches her daughter not to get easily attached to the people they meet. Though she aims to keep their heads down, their life choices often attract attention. People grow suspicious of them, and for one reason or another, they often switch hotels after months of staying.
Bambi is no longer a child, and she soon figures out that they are not running away from anyone when she learns about the murders of a hotel manager and a doctor who had made her cry.
Performances
Melisa Sözen as the mother and Eylül Tumbar as Bambi give solid performances as a mother-daughter duo. Sözen effectively captures the rage that is inside Bambi’s mother and puts forth a brutal display of it when she confronts the people who have wronged her daughter.
At the same time, she is very calm and lovable when she is around Tumbar’s Bambi. Sözen certainly balances these two sides extremely well.
Meanwhile, Tumbar, as Bambi, displays an eagerness of wanting to know more about her mother’s life. The characters in the show describe Bambi as beautiful, and in these scenes where Tumbar shows that desperation to know more, her eyes reflect a certain kind of innocence, which is indeed beautiful.
Towards the end of the show, Tumbar transitions and grows as Bambi, after learning about the past of Bambi’s mother, showing a much-needed development for the script.
Positives
Who Were We Running From? brings a strong premiere episode that leaves you with a lot of questions. Also, the narrative implies that Bambi and her mother are running away from something, but there is also an uneasy feeling, which suggests that there is a lot more to this.
The show uses this mystery element and slowly gives enough developments and revelations through which it satisfies the viewers. Luckily, the show doesn’t stretch this mystery element too far.
The show keeps its focus on Bambi and her mother. It meticulously presents how past trauma affects and builds these lead characters; the parents of Bambi’s mother made her who she is, and just like that, Bambi’s mother did something similar to her daughter.
Lastly, the dialogues and conversations between Bambi and her mother make them a formidable duo. Over the course of seven episodes, one starts rooting for them.
Negatives
The first episode displays some inconsistencies that may make a viewer question some things. For example, if Bambi’s mother is really that particular and doesn’t want them to get noticed, why does she make choices that attract the most attention?
The finale of the series is emotional, but a stretched-out one. It takes a ton of time to reach a simple conclusion. Similarly, some scenes from the mother’s past are also slow and circle back to provide something the viewers predict beforehand.
Verdict
Who Were We Running From? is a well-paced, enthralling crime thriller that relies on the strong performances of Melisa Sözen and Eylül Tumbar. If not for their performances, the show would have easily become another forgettable crime thriller.
Who Were We Running From?
Director: Umut Aral, Gökçen Usta
Date Created: 2023-03-24 12:30
3
Also Read: Who Were We Running From? ending explained: Do Bambi and her mother get caught?