The Runarounds: Prime Video's eight-episode musical coming-of-age

Prime Video released The Runarounds, an eight episode musical coming of age drama created by Jonas Pate, on September 1. The series, set in Wilmington, North Carolina, follows a group of recent high school graduates who form a rock band and try to turn a summer dream into a career. The show stars the real life band members William Lipton, Axel Ellis, Jeremy Yun, Zendé Murdock and Jesse Golliher, who were cast after responding to an open call that yielded roughly 5,000 auditions.

Pate developed the series after discovering the group during casting for a past season of his other teen drama, and the band members appear as fictionalized versions of themselves. Lipton, the only one with prior professional acting experience, said he relied on coaching and aimed to "just buy in" to the performances. Pate described his directorial approach as asking the musicians to be vulnerable, "Just forget about the camera, be yourself and we will be good," he said. Vernon Sanders, head of television at Amazon and MGM Studios, said the project offered a "special show" built around an "incredibly talented cast and real life band."

The Runarounds premiered in Los Angeles at the Directors Guild of...