The first bit of information I heard about The Umbrella Academy was a volley of mixed reviews from my friends, who seemed go on and on about how weird it was. Weird, as it turns out, is not that far off from a perfectly accurate descriptor.
In all ten hours of season one, I had trouble deciphering what genre the show could possibly be categorized under. It could have fallen under anything from dystopian to thriller to drama to sci-fi to comedy to romance, and you’ll have a hard time believing me unless you sit down and dedicate yourself to Netflix’s newest addition for a whole week as I did. The Umbrella Academy is certainly a rollercoaster of entertainment, but is it worth the watch?
On October 1, 1989, 43 women across the globe gave birth simultaneously, despite not showing previous signs of pregnancy. Seven of these supernaturally gifted children are adopted by Sir Reginald Hargreeves, a strange and eccentric billionaire, into a makeshift family and fractured superhero team that he calls the “Umbrella Academy.” The show is based on Gerard Way’s comic book series of the same name, and follows the dysfunctional Hargreeves siblings on their rampant mission to solve their father’s death, define their identities, and stop the end of the world.
Imagine making yourself a smoothie using the most unremarkable foods in your kitchen, tasting it, and realizing that somehow, from all these mediocre ingredients, you’ve made a strange, but tasty, concoction that you can’t set down. This bizarre metaphor is the equivalent to my post-binge reaction to “The Umbrella Academy.”
Even after giving myself a few days to digest “The Umbrella Academy,” I still have trouble figuring out whether I truly liked the show for its good content, dealt with it for its dramatic flair, or put up with its weird bits and bobs until the end because I could never abandon any show, bad as it may be. I can’t say I was invested in any of the characters from the start either, and if I had been, and he or she had been played by a phenomenal actor or actress, then they might have been the only reason I continued watching.
There were no such characters. By the final episode, I found that the characters I ended up most liking were perhaps the ones I wasn’t supposed to like, and those I was supposed to like I ended up hating.
In truth, I don’t think any of the characters were meant to be liked. Creator Jeremy Slater made it clear from the start that the Hargreeves siblings were not without their flaws. With each passing hour, I grew more and more annoyed by Luther’s (Tom Hopper) need to constantly be the stifling good guy. I was irked by Diego’s (David Castaneda) unflattering melodrama. I despised Vanya’s (Ellen Page) dull and self-pitying disposition, and I just didn’t like Sir Reginald Hargreeves (Colm Feore) at all by the final episode. Performances aside, the general makeup of each character felt unappealing, worn, and frustratingly typical.
At times, the tone of the show bothered me nearly as much as some of the character development. There were scenes as slow and syrupy as a kiss-in-the-rain romance, and others that gave off the same brooding intensity as any procedural crime show on TV.
What bothered me the most were the action scenes; all 200, it seemed, of which never ceased to have a catchy, upbeat ‘80s or ‘90s rock song playing in the background as a donut shop exploded or a man’s head was shot clean off. If that doesn’t seem out of the ordinary, envision every action scene in the Marvel movies that had Led Zeppelin or “Mr. Blue Sky” playing in the background, condensed into a one hour episode. Having “Istanbul” by They Might Be Giants in one of the first action scenes of the season was exciting, because I do enjoy that characteristic of Marvel movies, but by the eighth, ninth, and tenth time, I was tired.
The biggest critique I have for The Umbrella Academy is pacing. Without giving anything away about the story, although I don’t know how I would be able to summarize such a crisis of plot holes, the show felt overcrowded. There were times I lost track of everything I was meant to keep track of in terms of significance to the plot, and even though one hour episodes seems daunting, each hour goes by quickly when there’s three hours worth of content shoved into that time frame.
The tone and approach to exposition was inconsistent, and the characters were at times almost laughably obnoxious. But The Umbrella Academy is not the worst show I’ve seen. In fact, despite all that I just covered, what worked about the series worked well, and what worked best were the performances. Yes, the entire story was completely haywire, and anyone who didn’t watch the entire show consecutively would have easily gotten lost among the crime-ridden and thrilling twists and turns. However, I found myself invested in this catastrophe of a plotline, somehow swept into the hurried yet brilliant character relationships by the actor’s convincing performances.
Ella Culleton (‘20) said on the show, “If you have free time and you’re not looking for a good show and you’re not looking for a bad show, you should watch it.” If what you want out of a TV show is enticing family drama involving estranged superheros and tossed up with rampant doomsday themes, no logic whatsoever, and a plot with a questionable amount of plotholes, then The Umbrella Academy might just be it. While I would not go as far to say The Umbrella Academy is a must-see, I do think you can watch it, find it somewhat entertaining, and then promptly move on with your life.