When I started watching The Umbrella Academy, I was excited and intrigued by the vision unfolding before me. It felt like I was immersed immediately into the mind of the creator of this world. The colors of the scene, with the camera work invoking the panels of a comic book, to the characters themselves: everything felt unique. It felt original. And that originality is hard to find.
Alas, like all good things, its end came swiftly just as the show’s final few episodes. There was something fundamentally wrong with the writing. It relied far too much on the tired trope of “let’s hide information that would make us all better because I think I’m protecting you when in reality, I’m making everything worse”. This needs to end. This trope is extremely overdone in the last couple episodes and… Oh, what’s this? The creator of the upcoming Witcher tv show wrote them… Hmm, past credits include the trainwreck that was the Defenders… Which also suffered from this trope. Oh no, there’s a pattern. I digress.
The Umbrella Academy succeeds best in their character’s abilities, with some being rather refreshing in today’s overfilled superhero world. For example, one of the characters is named Number 5 and he is an old man in a child’s body with the ability to teleport through space, and later on, time. Klaus, played by one of my favorite actors – Robert Sheehan, has the ability to talk to the dead, and potentially more. He nulls himself with drugs and alcohol to avoid being able to do so (and who can blame him… To an extent at least). Luther is number one, and he’s a rather large man whose story I’d rather not spoil. The rest are a girl that can cause mind control by starting sentences with “I heard a rumor…” and a boy that can throw anything with accuracy but prefers knives, and Ben. Ben is cool. I don’t wanna spoil Ben.
The antagonist is twofold; following the usual pattern of a baddie in the middle of the show, only to reveal the real baddie towards the end. And speaking of the end. Disappointing. And, I’ll be honest, selfish. I don’t see any of the characters as heroes. Maybe that’s the point. And if so, that’s fine, I’m not gonna watch season 2.
Spoilers from here.
Again, I did warn. I have to talk about that ending.
Ok.
Allison (Rumor girl) shoots near her completely evil sister’s ear, rendering her unconscious, and blasting a beam into the moon and blowing it up. Instead of killing one, she damned humanity. Yea. That’s not a hero in the remotest sense of the word. This is a story about 7 assholes with power. And what do our “heroes” do? They get number 5 to teleport them back in time. It’s like my grade 4 stories, “and then I woke up… but my dreams were actually visions of the future”. It’s like did the story even happen, or will it have an effect on this next timeline? Speaking of, The Flash suffers from overusing the idea of let’s go back in time. Anyways, back to The Umbrella Academy.
Fun fact, the 6 assholes made the 7th an evil asshole by refusing to tell her a single thing. By isolating her, and forcing her to seek comfort in the arms of a stranger, and later lover, who proves to be a baddie.
Honestly, the whole story can be avoided if they acted rationally, and explained to their sister.
Also, why did the budget go to Pogo mostly? I mean, it was great idea and from the get-go, obvious to be the equivalent of the dog/cat/animal that you know is gonna die.
I can’t recommend this tv show. I can recommend reading the summary and you’ll get the same amount of satisfaction.
Bogdan's Review Blog 