"The Umbrella Academy": Why it works, where it fails, and where can it go for Season 2?
- Sam Tarter
- Jun 18, 2020
- 6 min read
In early 2019, Netflix released their most unique and ambitious streaming series yet with “The Umbrella Academy,” inspired by the Dark Horse Comics series written by former punk band lead singer Gerard Way. Coming at a time when magical stones of infinite power, sentient androids, and inter-team civil wars were already common plotlines and focal points for audiences, “The Umbrella Academy” felt fresh, nuanced, and completely unique when the superhero genre seemed barren of new ideas.
The show follows seven estranged siblings who reunite after their adopted father’s death, and must put their differences aside and their superpowered abilities together when their long lost sibling warns them of an incoming apocalypse. The siblings consist of Luther: the team leader and team muscle who is lacking in brain power, Diego: knife expert, marksman, and hot head assassin, Allison: mind-controlling actress and supermodel whose life comes crashing down after a misuse of her powers, Klaus: junkie and alcoholic who can see and speak to the dead, Five: time travelling and teleporting assassin who is an 80 year old man stuck inside a tween’s body, Ben: the only deceased sibling who communicates with Klaus as both his conscience and guiding moral compass, and Vanya: violin expert who was born without any special powers or abilities.
But even with a fun cast, fantastic action setpieces, and a fist pumping soundtrack, the 10 episode series is far from perfect. Its flaws and shortcomings are prevalent, but having made it over the large hurdle of establishing the universe and providing each of its heroes with an origin, there are many areas to improve and become superhero perfection in its sophomore season.
Here is my list of what to keep, what to improve, and where (and when) to go for Season 2 of “The Umbrella Academy”, debuting July 31 on Netflix.
What to Keep: The Soundtrack
From the very opening scenes of the series, viewers can tell that even when the show slogs or screeches to a halt, there will always be a toe-tapping, upbeat tune going along with every action sequence, or an intriguing or lighthearted motif playing in the background. Heavily influenced by the 70s and 80s soundtracks from the “Guardians of the Galaxy” series, the show does itself a great favor by having music by famous artists such as “The Kinks”, “The Doors”, and “Queen” play during pivotal action scenes and comedic moments, while also providing unknown artists or lesser known covers during the smaller, more personal scenes. I hope that with the potential time traveling plotline of Season 2, we are given more music across different eras that keep each episode fun, fresh, and exciting like its prior season.
What to Improve: The Comradery Between Characters
While the show often mentions the siblings growing up and saving the world together, we are never shown their childhood years aside from the occasional flashback (which usually revolve around Vanya’s isolation, rather than the team’s first adventures and escapades).
Furthermore, we as an audience are closed off from seeing the sibling’s reasons for their estrangement, and are only given hints at the family’s falling out and the Academy’s downfall beyond the minor mention or off-handed remark between siblings of their shady past. Due to a majority of the inner conflict between siblings only being mentioned, not shown to the audience in flashbacks, the team’s reunion and eventual collaboration to provide emotional support and eventually prevent the apocalypse can feel forced or out of place in the series’ first half. It is only in the latter half of the series that the siblings’ efforts to save and assist each other feels genuine, authentic, and heartwarming. I’m sure the second season will not have this problem once again, as the relationships between siblings have been rekindled and reforged, but I tremendously hope that there will not be another falling out, so that we as an audience can enjoy the Academy as a team and as a family, not as bitter rivals forced to work together for a common cause.
What to Keep: The Action
Whether it is a shoot-out inside of a coffee shop, a deadly game of Cat and Mouse inside an empty department store, or a team-up brawl inside the mansion, a bowling alley, or at an opera theater, the action sequences of the first season were all spectacular. Almost every action scene was able to show off each sibling’s unique abilities, and even showed off some collaboration between power sets and weapons. Hopefully the second season will continue with each hero working together and in each other’s favor, instead of basic one on one fight scenes that it could fall victim to.
What to Improve: Making Each Character Feel Fleshed Out
By the season finale, some characters have grown, changed, and overcome terrible loss. But others have sadly stuck to their basic one note character trait: Luther is still just as incompetent a leader as he was before, maybe even more so; Allison is still mourning her divorce and the loss of custody of her child; and Vanya is still just as pissed off at her siblings as she was before the Apocalypse. Since each episode has such little time to dedicate to action, story progression, and character development, only a select group of characters like Klaus, Five, and Diego are given complete arcs and have grown as heroes. But when the audience cares more about Ben (the deceased sibling acting as Klaus’ moral compass) than the team leader and main villain, there must be something done to make each member of the Umbrella Academy feel worthwhile and essential to the team.
What to Keep: The Mixing of Genres
Mixing genres inside a contained season is no easy task, but “The Umbrella Academy”, with its characters crossing various lifestyles, is able to mix sci-fi, gothic horror, street level crime, detective thriller, and even “slice of life” storytelling into its first 10 episodes. Bringing these characters together from various backgrounds and categories makes for not only a diverse and rich story, but allows the show to make each episode unique and different from the previous one. Even if the Hargreeves siblings get stuck in the past, I hope that the showrunners and screenwriters can keep each episode fresh and different, so that season 2 will not fall victim to a mid-season slog like its predecessor.
What to Improve: Embrace the Absurd (and Gives The Team Better Powers)
Compared to other superhero series and movies that have come before, “The Umbrella Academy” is a special case: it is unique and feels completely original, but is still less ambitious than other stories, and I believe it has only reached the cusp of greatness. What makes the comics so great and unique is the absolute absurdity of the powers and abilities that the team has, and just how powerful and creative their abilities are. If Season 2 is given a bigger budget, then there are obvious improvements to make to the team, and the best place to look for is directly in the comics: Luther can be given his jet pack from the comics and can become more than just “the muscle”; Klaus can have telekinesis, making him a greater fighting force and better asset than simply talking to the dead; and most importantly, Allison can become one of the most powerful members on the team, as her abilities are more than just mind controlling, but can actually warp reality and bring new life forms or objects into existence. If the team is more powerful and more balanced, then there will be no reason for certain characters to be limited to being the “lookout” for missions, and there will no longer need to be lines or jokes explaining why certain characters are not in the fight.
What to Keep: The Comedy
Perhaps one of the show’s greatest strengths is its dark humor and the cast’s comedic timing. Whether it is the absurd idea of Number Five having the mind of an 80 year old man, the witty banter between Klaus and Ben, or the sheer stupidity of Luther and Diego’s feud and mid-funeral fist fights, each of the characters is given their moments to shine in the joke department. The two comedic highlights of the series are Klaus and Number Five, and when you put the duo together, the audience is given comedy gold. Even with the somewhat dire circumstances that Season 2 will start with, I hope that the series will keep Klaus and Five in good spirits, and that we are given more episodes of them together.
What to Improve: Keep the Academy Together
Perhaps the only smart thing to come out of Luther’s neandrathal mouth during the entire first season is that stopping the Apocalypse requires “the full force of The Umbrella Academy.” For the betterment of the show and the storytelling, I hope that the screenwriters take this idea and stick to it. The biggest flaw of the first season is undoubtedly how jumbled the middle section feels. Despite having already brought the team together through their father’s funeral, the show decided to immediately split them up again. While there are some smaller team ups along the way that make for great fun and compatibility between the cast members, it is only until the final three episodes that the team is fully together, and those are considered the strongest of the first season. Hopefully for season 2, the series will spend only one episode bringing the team together after their time travel mishap, and then continue with larger team ups and bigger stories. The cast and characters are at their best when they are all together, not at odds with each other, so here’s to hoping that season 2 will keep them as one big super dysfunctional family.
The first season of “The Umbrella Academy” is available for streaming on Netflix, and the second season premieres on July 31.
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