RATING: 4.5/5 Bag of Chips
It’s been over a week since Netflix dropped the 2nd season of the deliciously bizarre TV adaptation of The Umbrella Academy, a comic book series of the same name written by Gerald Way and illustrated by Gabriel Ba. Did the new-breed dysfunctional superhero family deliver much of the weirdly fabulous entertainment we all expect this time? Yes, and more.
THE SEASON
Picking up from the apocalyptic events of Season 1’s finale, Five (Aidan Gallagher) saves the Hargreeves siblings from being wiped out along with the rest of the world. However, he again botches the time jump by mistakenly sending the Academy members to different years within the early 60s – in a Dallas, Texas alleyway.
Starting their new lives in the new timeline, we soon find Luther (Tom Hopper) as an underground fighter managed by Jack Ruby – the eventual killer of Lee Harvey Oswald, the eventual murderer of US President John F. Kennedy. Allison (Emmy Raver-Lampman) finds herself in a local civil rights group standing up against racism, while Klaus (Robert Sheehan) accidentally forms a cult based on his quoting of pop song lyrics from the timeline’s future, and is still hounded by the ghost of the departed Ben (Justin H. Min). Diego (David Castañeda) gets locked up in a mental asylum predicting JFK’s assassination, stuck with new friend Lila Pitts (Ritu Arya). In a Dallas farm, Vanya (Ellen Page) suffers amnesia while serving as a nanny to mentally challenged Harlan (Justin Paul Kelly), the son of Carl (Stephen Bogaert) and Sissy Hooper (Marin Ireland).
Trying hard to manage the responsibility of getting the gang back together again, Five takes over the place of conspiracy theorist Elliot (Kevin Rankin) as a headquarters of some sort, while getting tracked by The Commission’s Handler (Kate Walsh).
MY OPINION
While The Umbrella Academy’s Season 1 set the tone for the show’s ‘anything-can-and-will-happen’ narrative playfulness, Season 2 feels much more focused and easier to follow than its predecessor without losing any of its quirkiness (No mannequin love this time around!). The web of storylines also seamlessly flow in and out of one another, giving our heroes and villains time and space to tell their individual stories without sacrificing the narrative pace.
Averaging 47 to 50 minutes per episode, the second season feels faster and breezier, never letting go of the audience’s attention while properly setting up all the story arcs to a big finish in the finale. In other words, The Umbrella Academy Season 2 is all lean meat and no fat – with every character and story beat contributing to the satisfying end and the cliffhanger.
It’s also fun to see major characters being added to the show’s lore, with Ritu Arya’s Lila being this season’s definite standout. Among the leads, Aidan Gallagher’s Five is the character to watch this season, but needless to say, all our heroes get enough time to shine in their different ways – from the comical (Luther’s and Klaus’ arcs) to the grounded and serious (Vanya’s and Allison’s arcs).
If I’m forced to nitpick anything in this season, I would say (while avoiding spoilers) that I have a minor complaint about a certain character just showing all her strong powers in the finale, and would have preferred if it was set up throughout the show rather than doing a one-time big reveal. But like I said, that is a minor nitpick, and certainly didn’t affect my enjoyment of this show at all.
MY OPINION
What else can I say? If you like comic book and superhero stories, you’d love every bit of The Umbrella Academy. And even if you don’t, you should absolutely give it a try because this certainly is a Netflix gem that deserves all the praise it’s getting.