THE PERFORMER | Lili Reinhart
THE SHOW | Mubi’s “Hal & Harper”
THE EPISODE | “Are You Watching?” (Nov. 30, 2025)
THE PERFORMANCE | There’s a decent chance you’ve never heard of this family drama, created by and starring Cooper Raiff (“Cha Cha Real Smooth”), with Reinhart (“Riverdale”) as his co-dependent sister, Mark Ruffalo (“Task”) as their emotionally adrift father, and Betty Gilpin (“GLOW”) as Dad’s pregnant partner. But now that its eight-episode run is complete — and the whole thing is available to binge, should you decide to subscribe to Mubi for a month and watch — we’d like to call attention to the series’ single most captivating, lived-in performance.
Reinhart, best known to TVLine readers as girl-next-door Betty Cooper on “Riverdale,” delivers her finest work to date as Harper, a young woman trying to forge her own identity while trauma-bonded to her brother and weighed down by a family that has spent two decades avoiding any real discussion about the pain and suffering caused by her mother’s suicide. And Harper’s need to break away and discover both herself and the parent she barely knew is what pushes the series toward its devastating final crescendo.
When Hal first learns that his sister is planning a major move after his college graduation — in part to connect with their mother’s family and, in the process, learn more about herself — it doesn’t go particularly well. Harper is practically begging him to understand her point of view, and few lines hit harder than her admission: “It’ll be so hard to leave, but for the first time, I really want to be apart.” When Hal storms off, she’s left screaming into her pillow, torn between feeling indebted to the sibling she helped raise and shackled by a relationship that no longer allows her to grow, all while carrying lasting grief and anger toward the mother whose unthinkable choice has shaped their entire lives.
Mubi screenshot
At this point, it’s worth noting that “Hal & Harper” frequently cuts to flashbacks to fill in the pieces of their childhood — but more often than not, it’s simply Raiff and Reinhart playing their younger selves, completely straight. Once you buy into the device, it becomes incredibly affecting, and it’s here that Reinhart floors us. In one standout scene from their grade-school years, Harper returns from a playdate where she’s exposed for the first time to what a “normal” family looks like — a mom and dad, siblings without codependency issues — and decides to run away. When her father catches up to her, she collapses into his arms, sobbing, “I want my mom, please. I want my mom.” She’s a child caught in circumstances she never chose, confronting a truth no kid should have to face — and it’s here, mired in Harper’s agony, that Reinhart delivers her most heartbreaking turn.
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Which performance(s) knocked your socks off this week? Tell us in the comments!
