4 min readTHERE ARE ALL different kinds of television shows. Sometimes, you hear about a show long in advance, and it becomes something that’s eagerly awaited. HBO’s Lanterns, which starts its run this week, was announced way back in 2023. I Love LA, the HBO comedy series created by and starring Rachel Sennott, was getting hype before it even had a title. But there are also a few shows every year that come out of nowhere and take everyone by storm. Think Adolescence in 2025, or even Apple TV’s Widow’s Bay, to a degree, earlier this year.
The show taking everything by storm at the moment is Sterling Point, a hybrid coming-of-age story/teen drama/mystery series that debuted on Prime Video last week and has since earned nothing but positive buzz and strong word of mouth. Sterling Point comes from creator Megan Park, whose movies My Old Ass and The Fallout have both been critically acclaimed, and now gets to take her stab at a new generation’s version of Dawson’s Creek or The O.C.
Sterling Point has a simple enough premise. The show follows Annie (Ella Rubin), a high-achieving high schooler whose summer is thrown off when she doesn’t get into the college-prep program she’s long dreamed of. That comes at the same time that she finds out her estranged maternal grandfather has left her (and her twin brother) a mysterious parcel of land in Canada. When their dad (Jay Duplass) refuses to divulge any additional details about the land or her grandfather, she decides to head up north and find out for herself—and so the series is born.
It’s a classically soapy and juicy setup for the type of show Park clearly wants to make, leaning not only on plot-filled episodes where a lot of stuff happens, but strong characters whose motivations make sense. There are also lots of surprisingly beautiful shots of Canadian waterfront vistas and landscapes, which are all very nice to look at.
Where the show really shines, however, is its cast. Rubin leads things with a strong performance, her experience in top-notch movies like Anora and the very fun The Idea of You (alongside her doppelganger Anne Hathaway) clearly paying off. She’s joined by established actors like Duplass and Jeffrey Dean Morgan, along with a sea of promising newcomers, including English actress Bo Bragason (who will next play Princess Zelda in the forthcoming live-action The Legend of Zelda movie).
But perhaps the most intriguing member of Sterling Point’s cast is the actor playing Annie’s goofy-but-charismatic twin brother, Connor. While the show follows Annie’s continued adventure to Canada, it opens in New York (and with a great Olivia Rodrigo song that will certainly get stuck in your head), putting Annie’s bond with Connor up front right away. The two have sibling chemistry that’s both believable and funny, and the kind of thing you instantly want to see more of.
Connor is played by Keen Ruffalo, who, yes, is the son of exactly who you think he’s the son of. Keen, the first child of actor Mark Ruffalo and Sunrise Coigney, was born in 2001, and clearly he’s picked up on some of his dad’s (who you know from movies like You Can Count on Me, Spotlight, Poor Things, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, 13 Going on 30, his ongoing role as The Incredible Hulk in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and countless others) on-screen charm and charisma. Even in the early episodes of Sterling Point, when Keen’s role is primarily on the other side of phone calls Annie is making back home, we see how he plays an air-headed, rich, but still funny kid with ease and a great sense of humor.
One scene in the show’s second episode finds him ordering a gourmet takeout cheeseburger (from New York City’s famed 4 Charles Prime Rib), talking on the phone with his sister, and playing with bubble bath bubbles all at the same time. Of course, the phone ends up submerged in water, but Ruffalo manages to make it all look like one natural motion—and leaves viewers eager and hopeful that his next scene will be just as entertaining.
Yes, Keen Ruffalo is Mark Ruffalo’s Son
Ruffalo made his acting debut as a child, appearing in blink-and-you’ll-miss-’em roles in his father’s movies Begin Again (as an extra) and Thor: Ragnarok (in a quick cameo), before deciding to take acting up in earnest far later and more recently, after spending a bit of time in college at Drexel University prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.
He’s far from the first second generation familiar name to make a splash in the entertainment industry. Recent years have seen performers like Lewis Pullman (son of Bill), Wyatt Russell (son of Kurt), Jack Quaid (son of Dennis), and Patrick Schwarzenegger (son of Arnold) among the many who’ve made their impact felt on television or in films. Could Keen Ruffalo be the next to join that group?
Last year, he appeared in an episode of his father’s HBO show Task as Tripp, a character whose date with Maeve (Emilia Jones) was ruined when her uncle Robbie (played by Tom Pelphrey) walks in on them and chases him out. He also appeared in three episodes of his father’s underseen series Hal & Harper, which you can watch on Mubi. His only other role is in the Green Day-inspired film Nimrods, which coincidentally is out this week.
“It just takes a long time,” Keen told Entertainment Tonight when asked for the best advice his father gave him about acting. “There’s a lot of auditions before you hear anything back… It’s a hard thing to do.”
Ruffalo has become a fan favorite in early days of Sterling Point, and you can find him on Instagram below.
