Has anyone else watched The Umbrella Academy on Netflix? I’d be interested to hear your thoughts on it. I found it interesting, creative in some ways, and yet frustratingly cliched in others. And the ending…trying not to give anything away when I say it was spectacular, jaw-dropping, unexpected, and ultimately not very satisfying.
Netflix’s popular new series is both fascinating and frustrating. Wildly, amazingly creative in some aspects, it’s disappointingly cliché’d in others.
The show is based on a series of comic books that bear only superficial resemblance to Marvel’s or DC’s many series. (Then again, I haven’t read the comics on which it’s based, so it’s possible the show bears little resemblance to its source material, as well.) The super-heroes here are a group of very disparate characters, all born on the same day to mothers who hadn’t even been pregnant the previous day. (And no, we get no explanation for that phenomenon, one of many things you’re just expected to accept as is.)
Sir Reginald Hargreeves manages to buy seven of the babies and adopts them, knowing (apparently) that they will develop super-powers, and trains them to be super heroes, ready to save the world when annihilation threatens. (How he knows all of this is just hinted at.)
So he sort-of raises and trains the kids, though he’s either thoroughly incompetent at it or has an agenda so secret none of us are ever privy to it. Their android mother and sentient chimpanzee butler do a better job of connecting with the kids than their “human” father. In any case, they grow up to be a bunch of seriously messed-up adults who leave to make their own lives as soon as they can.
The death of their father brings them back together in the elaborate mansion where they grew up. The sudden arrival of the missing Number Five interrupts the minimal funeral. (Yes, Number Five. Daddy dearest couldn’t be bothered to give the kids names. Most of the others were named by ‘Mom’.) Anyway, Number Five’s gift is time travel, and he’s back from the future with bad news. The world ends in a few days and they’re the only ones who can stop it. Lest that mission be too easy, there’s a temporal guardian agency intent on preserving the timeline that insists the annihilation must happen and will stop at nothing, including mass murder to ensure it. (Nope, no explanation for any of that, either.)
There’s a lot to unpack in this show and things I loved, things I liked, and more than a few things that had me gnashing my teeth and pulling hair out.
First the good. The story is intrinsically fascinating. It starts off with a great hook–women who weren’t pregnant are suddenly giving birth. The children are an interesting assortment of flawed and damaged people. And the saving-the-world-from-destruction plot line has a lot going for it- compressed time line, high stakes, difficult operations, etc.
Other than Ellen Page as Vanya (Number Seven) and Mary J. Blige as ChaCha, most of the actors were unknown to me. Despite that, the acting ranged from very good to superb.
The sets are incredible, particularly the house itself. A lot of care and effort went into its arrangement and furnishings, and it works well. The way the show uses music and dance is spectacular. The music integrates beautifully with the story line. Dancing is important to the story, as well. Some of the fight scenes are choreographed to look like dancing.
One of the most wonderful visuals of the entire series comes at the end of the first episode when someone puts on music and all of the resident Hargreeves family start dancing. But each one does so alone, in wildly different styles, and the way each moves is exactly right for their character. Then the camera pulls back and…you really need to see if for yourself.
Creativity abounded in the details of the story. I’ve already mentioned the set decorations, especially in the house, but in other places as well every piece of background is thought out to work with the story and reflect character. The costuming similarly works well. The masks Hazel and ChaCha wear are a bizarre reflection of their crazy actions. Their sputtery, puttering car contrasts with their well-oiled and maintained armory. “Mom”’s odd embroidery and what she does with it as she malfunctions. So many more things…
That said, for all the wonderfulness, it didn’t really rise to the levels it could have, mainly due to the writing. As I mentioned, I’ve never read the comics this show is based on, so many of the problems may revert back to the material. But comics and film are different media so obviously a lot of reworking had to go on. Some of these problems could and should have been avoided.
The whole thing is over-long at ten fifty-minute episodes. There’s a lot of plot to fit in and many of the extended set pieces are wonderful, but it still feels padded. At the same time, the story left a lot of loose ends, some of which they are likely saving for the next season. Still I wish we’d had more explanation for some of the odder bits of the story. Why does Hargreeves have a sentient chimp for a butler? Who created robot “Mom.” Why does the Temporal Guardian agency even exist? What’s the story with Delores? And many, many more.
A lot of things didn’t make sense. Of course that’s almost a given when you add time travel into the mix. It always seems to create paradoxes and inconsistencies. But if Hargreeves was trying to raise gifted children to save the world, why did he go about it in the worst way possible, getting one of them killed and ensuring that the others would all end up sufficiently damaged to be ineffective. Several other inconsistencies I’d like to mention would venture into spoiler territory, so I won’t. But trust me, they’re there. Maybe season two will answer all those questions…
And finally, for all the wild creativity on display in set design, costuming, music, and dance, a lot of things about the story are surprisingly cliched. The super-powered kids, while varied, are not exactly unique: Number one, the big white dude is hugely strong and not particularly bright. (Hulk smash!) Number two is Hispanic, a fighter, a master of throwing knives, and a hothead. Number three is an African American woman who is beautiful, sensual, and can command with her voice. Number four, the gay drug addict, talks to the dead. Number five, the time traveler, is probably the most interesting, a fifty-year-old man in a fourteen-year-old body. (Unfortunate side effect of his ability.) Number six, the Asian, is dead, but still participates in the story, courtesy of Number four. And Number seven, Vanya, who appears to have no power at all, is a depressed sad sack of a woman.
The plot twists and turns as the story progresses but pulls off only a few true surprises. In fact, most of the big shocks fall flat because you knew they were going to happen well in advance. In just about every case where the show wanted to surprise, they went with the most obvious possible twist, and since they are twists, I really can’t talk about them here. Suffice it to say, I saw most of them coming a long way in advance.
To give credit where it’s due, though, the final confrontation did produce a couple of wicked and wonderful shocks I didn’t see coming. That’s the reason I’ll be tuning in for the second season.
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