A girl’s night is not always good when you’ve got a young kid in tow. That’s what one learns when watching Running With Violet (if they didn’t already know). For those somehow unfamiliar with the Youtube series, here’s a basic description of Season 1. After Miranda (Marie-Claire Marcotte) has some struggles with her toxic husband Blair (Jamie Spilchuk), she decides to hang out with her hairstylist and friend Jolene (Rebecca Davey) for a girl’s night. Already that’s pretty hard considering Jolene already has a daughter named Violet (Violet Alfred) and only ends up having to take her with them. It starts out with Miranda admitting her husband’s body is in the trunk, and somehow Violet’s babysitter Frankie (Jessii Vee) gets roped into the scenario as well. It isn’t long before their trip out of their local smalltown leads them right into an operation involving drugs ordered by Blair, and somehow everyone they met on the trip has some freaky coincidental connection. From a waitress named Stella (Claire Armstrong) to a couple of Norweigan soil investigators everyone is somehow converged into both the main plot and the side-story. It’s extremely strange to describe how they’re laced together. Strange how Blair’s drug dealer “Daddy” (Maria Vacratsis) is in love with Jolene’s father (John Boylan) and the soil researchers somehow arrive at his farm later after meeting Jolene and Miranda.
Now Season 2 comes off as even darker as the first season. While the two main characters are taking a vacation after all that had happened, a young lady named Samantha (Andrea Bang) invites them to her house for some partying and even gets them into working in Bae Mine, a beauty product business she operates with her partner, Xorge (Amy Matysio). Eventually, they return to Pictonville to continue on with their fresh start. Jolene remarries her police officer husband Nick (John Cleland), and Miranda finds new love with a female officer named Rosa (Debora Demestre) back from Season 1. Despite the beauty products biz going fine, Jolene and Miranda come across some common and uncommon issues such as the mail courier secretly swiping their packages, controversial ingredients in their products, dissatisfied customers, trouble with their employers, and even more crazy scenarios.
Other side stories include Violet’s inability to cut properly with scissors, Frankie bonding with Stella after the first season finale scenario, and Rosa trying to explain to her elderly mother that her ‘buddy’ is really her lover. Even more interesting is how Daddy’s former workers are now having to find somewhere else to work but still occasionally turn to their past lives of crime. Given all the happenings I guess it’s lucky poor little Violet isn’t really that aware of her surroundings. It’s a blend of extremely dark comedy where it either comes off as very funny or very disturbing. Season 1 was only a little freaky, but season 2 was much more strong on the gloominess and came off even more dark. In fact, it’s much more of a mixed bag than season 1, which makes it all that more interesting and gripping to watch. While some of the characters are still the same from season 1 some of the others seem a bit more developed to seem either better or much too different than usual. All of the actors portrayed in this come from a variety of places in Toronto’s film industry or have a certain online presence. Rebecca Davey and Marie-Claire Marcotte have had a history of writing and acting in productions together in the past, Jessii Vee has quite the high count of subscribers on her Youtube channel, and a large amount of supporting characters have already got quite a list of roles they’ve done besides this series. The locations share quite a bit of contrast throughout the season. The lovely blues and sand-browns of Florida really show pure bliss at the beginning and as the series progresses back to the fictional town of Pictonville, everything is shown to be dreary indicating just how dreadful things are slowly turning out to be. All in all, Running With Violet shows that kids and crime life are a bad mixture, especially when you’re a mother of a kid. Much more twisted than CBC’s Workin’ Moms though sort of in the same vein, you’ll be freaking out and/or laughing at the outcomes of the two main characters as well as everyone else given all the happenings. It doesn’t just focus on two best friends and a little girl, but just about anyone involved with them.
