Cooper Raiff first broke onto the scene in 2020 at SXSW with his debut feature film, Shithouse. In 2022, he went to Sundance with his sophomore effort, Cha Cha Real Smooth. Now, Raiff has returned to Sundance with his first miniseries, Hal & Harper. All of Raiff’s work can be identified by his unflinching vulnerability and desire to meet people where they are, in all of their good and bad parts. Hal & Harper proves to be no different, but the miniseries format allows him to expand the scope without losing his trademark earnest openness to vulnerability.

Told across multiple timelines, Hal & Harper is the story of the Williams family. Hal (Raiff) and Harper (Lili Reinhart) spent most of their childhood in the sole care of their father (Mark Ruffalo). The viewer isn’t immediately made aware of the facts surrounding Hal and Harper’s mother. That revelation hangs over a few episodes of the series. What the audience can sense is that this loss, however it occurred, had a profound effect on all members of the Williams family. In the current timeline, Hal is a listless college senior whose next steps are uncertain. Harper, a few years older, works a job that pays the bills but is emotionally exhausting. Their relationship with their father is strained, but when he tells them his younger partner (Betty Gilpin) is pregnant and that he’s selling their childhood home, the family hurtles into an unknown none of them feel prepared for.

Hal & Harper, like Raiff’s previous works, is a clear labor of love that was shaped primarily by him. Raiff created, wrote, directed, and starred in the miniseries. It’s nothing short of extraordinary that a young filmmaker can have such command of so many major aspects of a television series. There’s a gentleness to everything Raiff touches. A vulnerability that comes from a scared, sacred place that encourages everyone he works with to wear their hearts proudly on their sleeves. All the characters in Hal & Harper are imperfect humans who are extremely aware of their shortcomings, but the series’ thesis statement is that change is possible if you want to try. Unfortunately, love isn’t enough to force a person to put in the effort to make a change. It’s something that must come from within.

Hal & Harper is Raiff’s most sprawling work, which is one of the benefits of moving into the world of the miniseries. Beyond the extended format, it feels more fully realized than his other works. That’s not to say that his previous films were lacking, but both Shithouse and Cha Cha Real Smooth focus on a straight male character played by Raiff. With Hal & Harper, he expands the focus beyond himself without ever creating the feeling that he was in over his head in the writing room. Raiff’s depth and compassion for other people expands with everything he makes. He approaches those different from him with curiosity and kindness, and that makes for a gentle piece of work that reminds us that life is fragile, hopeful, and all we’ve got.

The final episode of Hal & Harper opens with a dedication: “For the parents and the parentified.” Hal and Harper were forced to grow up too quickly after the loss of their mother, and Raiff made the decision to have himself and Reinhart play the child versions of their characters to highlight how quickly they were forced to grow up. The series fluidly moves back and forth in time as the audience sees how the characters’ past decisions continue to echo into their future lives. The show’s editing is extraordinary. At times, the cuts between the different timelines are harsh, as memories unwittingly come to the front of the mind of the characters. At other moments, these departures from the current time period are soft, the characters begging their minds to let them return to something simple when their reality is too crushing to bear.

One of the standouts of Hal & Harper is Reinhart. She’s best known for her portrayal of Betty Cooper on Riverdale, though it wasn’t a role that gained her critical acclaim. Hal & Harper is Reinhart’s first return to television since Riverdale ended in 2023. Her previous co-star, Charles Melton, quipped that “Riverdale was [his] Julliard” while doing press for his incredible performance in May December. It seems like Riverdale was also Reinhart’s Julliard, because her turn in Hal & Harper is so deeply lived-in that it’s a reintroduction to Reinhart as an actor. She will always be known for Betty Cooper, but Reinhart is much more than what Riverdale required of her.

Hal & Harper doesn’t have a release date, but when it comes to a screen in your home, know that something magical has found its way onto your TV. It doesn’t rely on dragons or monsters to create a fantastical world, but instead focuses on the human heart to create a series that envelops you in a sense of warmth. A reminder of life and its shortcomings that go hand-in-hand with the moments too beautiful to fully comprehend. Hal & Harper is Raiff’s finest work to date. He’s a true believer in the heart-on-your-sleeve mentality we could all use a little more of in our lives.

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