The Umbrella Academy TV Review
Many of you have probably watched, or are planning to watch, the new addition to Netflix: The Umbrella Academy. The sci-fi superhero show is based on a graphic novel created by Gerard Way, who is best known as the former front man of My Chemical Romance, and artist Gabriel Bá. Right off the bat, I could tell that this show was quirky, goth-y, and slightly surrealist, which aptly fits with the Gerard Way circa MCR brand. The Umbrella Academy revolves around a group of children who were all born on the same day to women that were, oddly, not pregnant prior to that day. A man named Reginald Hargreeves, a billionaire inventor, adopts seven of them, and it is revealed that (almost) all of them have supernatural powers.
With a premise involving time travel, dark humour, and characters aiming to “save the world from the impending apocalypse”, the major draw to this show for me was that it was a superhero show completely separate from the DC and Marvel universes. While I absolutely love the superhero stories associated with these two comic book giants, it’s refreshing to see a series that isn’t correlated.
I binge watched the show a few weeks after its release, hearing relatively mixed opinions from the friends and family around me. Once I watched it, I definitely understood why I was hearing these mixed reviews. Today’s post will discuss some of my thoughts on the show, and that despite its flaws, I still thought it was super enjoyable.
Warning: major spoilers for The Umbrella Academy below!
In a day and age where we are inundated with shows and movies (whether they are remakes, reboots or first of their kind) that are associated with Marvel or DC, it’s sometimes hard to keep up. Many of us know, however, that recently most of the Marvel Netflix shows were cancelled. Of course, this is pretty devastating for most of us viewers. People have speculated that this is because of the impending streaming service Disney+, which is going to have its own MCU shows like Loki and The Vision and Scarlet Witch. Regardless, with the constant back and forth deluge of Marvel and DC media, the trailer for The Umbrella Academy promised a marked independence in tone, genre, humour, and style.
Let me start by saying that the casting choices were excellent. Aidan Gallagher, the fifteen-year-old actor who plays the time and space-jumping Five, does a ridiculously great job at playing an eccentric and curmudgeonly old man in a young man’s body. Robert Sheehan (who is best known for his stellar role in the UK show Misfits) plays who I think is the most compelling character, Klaus, a drug addict that can summon the dead (perhaps I’m biased, because his heartbreaking storyline with Dave was one of my favourite subplots). Ellen Page, the most famous of the cast, plays Vanya, who in my opinion is the most frustrating, blindly naïve and annoying character – but, she plays the role convincingly. Tom Hopper’s character Luther starts off as somewhat flat, but as the season progresses begins to show more dynamism. Emmy Raver-Lampman plays Allison, who isn’t necessarily the most standout character, but she displays a solid performance as well. Mary J. Blige, an unexpected yet pleasantly surprising choice, joins the supporting cast as time traveling hit-woman Cha-Cha, whose partner is the bumbling Hazel (played by Cameron Britton).
Though the pacing was somewhat disjointed for me, each episode engaged me so much in its spectacular, rich, and saturated cinematography that I didn’t end up caring too much. Despite being too cluttered at times, which is not entirely unexpected of the first season of a show that’s trying to set up a foundation for future seasons, The Umbrella Academy is memorable because it’s so unique. From concept to execution, there is nothing quite like it out there. The soundtrack was one of its strongest components, a carefully curated playlist that synced up with each scene brilliantly, and also adhered to the overall atmosphere of the show. (You can find the soundtrack on Spotify here). Another personal note is that I love that it was partially filmed in Toronto, Ontario (the rest filmed in Hamilton, Ontario). As a born and bred Torontonian, I was able to tell where certain scenes were filmed, and there’s something incredibly exciting about seeing your home city displayed on screen.
I also love that we are living in the era where prestige television is rapidly on the rise. This means significantly less episodes than many serialized shows, which means less unnecessary filler material (here’s looking at you, The CW). The rise of prestige TV have been particularly brought about by channels like HBO, and more recently, Netflix originals. A show like Stranger Things is an excellent example of how less really is more. Umbrella Academy is only ten episodes long, and because it’s such a short series, there’s never really a dull moment. However, I’d say the only caveat to prestige television is that the rule “all the pieces matter” adheres more fully – essentially, this means that anything you see displayed on the show, no matter how minute a detail, is there for a reason that actively contributes to the plot. Because of this, viewers become more hyperaware of the details they are watching. A result of this is that it makes for a higher statistic of predictability.
This leads to my next point: my major issue with The Umbrella Academy was that most of its components were largely predictable. This is because the show used too many heavy-handed, textbook examples of foreshadowing. For example, Vanya popping mysterious pills from day one was a clear indicator to me that she probably had a power that was being suppressed by them. As soon as I noticed that, it wasn’t hard-pressed to realize that her power was probably so dangerous that she was likely going to be the cause of the apocalypse. Another was the introduction of Leonard Peabody. It was instantaneously clear that his presence was an ominous one: I got creep vibes from him the second he came onscreen, and I think this is largely because viewers were never convinced to think otherwise. Leonard always maintained a suspicious nature, and hell, we fully see a dead body in his attic only a few episodes in. I truly think that the reveal of him being Harold Jenkins would have been more surprising if the role of Leonard had been written as a true psychopath (ie. able to switch the creepiness on and off expertly).
Throughout the season, I never felt floored or shocked by any of the major reveals in the show. As far as the “mystery” element goes, the show falls short. For example, while I particularly loved the episode “The Day That Wasn’t” and thought that the final scene when Five changes the past was pure nail-biting entertainment, I ultimately wasn’t surprised by this ending because the title of the episode gave it away. It’s a spoiler in and of itself, indicating that whatever happened in this episode was going to be erased, likely due to time travel. I’m a bit upset at this, because the episode would have been so much more satisfying if I didn’t have a clue of what was going to happen.
Another component that bothered me was that the time period was thematically disjointed. Many elements of the visual setting and vibe indicate that it’s set in modern day or even the future (read: Grace is a robot, and Pogo is a monkey-man). However, the characters also use landline phones, old school desktop computers at the public library, and telephone booths. To quote a friend, the show “tonally tries to have the narrative perks of a period piece, but logistically uses modern convenience when it finds it applicable”. I’m also wary of shows that utilize time travel: it’s a huge undertaking to use time travel since, it’s very easy to complicate or miss even the tiniest details, which hinders the continuity. While The Umbrella Academy did a pretty good job with it, there are still some issues. For example, The Handler’s ability to freeze time is confusing, because if she has that ability, doesn’t that give her God-like powers to alter time herself instead of relying on The Commission? These are likely details that will be explored in further seasons, but there were definitely components about the time travel in Umbrella that were confusing. (If you want to watch a show that uses time travel immaculately, watch Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency)
Ultimately, I think the show ended on a high note that will allow for an even more compelling second season. Though I hope they don’t rely too much on the time travel element, I think there are a lot of questions that viewers are craving to have answered. In the finale we saw Klaus hone his powers, being able to tangibly materialize his dead brother Ben in times of crisis. The Hargreeves kids avoid being wiped out by the apocalypse brought on by Vanya, who is able to convert sound waves into massively destructive energy, by collectively going back in time to their childhood. It’ll be interesting to see how many of their memories they retain, if any, in the next season: and to see how the alternate, apocalypse-free timeline unfolds. All in all, The Umbrella Academy is an exciting show despite its ups and downs, changing the path of superheroes in media, and I’m excited to see what Season 2 will entail.
~ Z ~
Feature photo by Jim Kalligas on Unsplash
