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tenebrix · 5 years

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The Umbrella Academy review

OK, so I haven’t done this in a looooooong time...

But, here is my review of season 1 of the Umbrella Academy.

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The Umbrella Academy is an adaptation from the Dark Horse Comics publication of the same name by Gerard Way and Gabriel Ba. The basic premise of the story is in 1989 43 women unexpectedly and without any sort of connection became pregnant and gave birth to 43 children. Sir Reginald Hargreeves sets out to adopt as many of these children as he could, he found seven. This is not your typical superhero team, to start with they mostly all hate each other, mistrust one another, and they all have some serious daddy issues. When we are introduced to the Academy they are already disbanded, one of their own has been missing for some time and another died under mysterious and violent circumstances. They are brought together for the funeral of their father. It is during the funeral that Number Five returns from the future with a warning. “The world is going to end in eight days.”

The majority of the events of season one are taken from vol 1: The Apocalypse Suite and some elements from vol 2: Dallas. The show does a rarely good weiving of the events of the story to make its own path. The show uses the element of time travel as a very important backbone for the story, within the comics this plays out more in Dallas. As well, the argument can be made that the true villain of the season was not the White Violin but the Commission. At certain moments the show felt dragged and slow, the dialogue felt the same daddy issue or just bland writing. But the show has its moments in which it picked up the paced and the story began to deliver it’s potential. One of the many comparisons that have been made about the show is House of Haunted Hill with X-Men, I would agree with the comparison of the family dynamic with the meta-human aspect. Music plays a very important part in the show, it’s can be even viewed as an emotional drive of the story. My one problem is that at times during action sequences it felt like certain camera movements were lacking any sort of sharpness of clear style of what it wanted to be. Does it what to be Zack Snyder or does it want to keep it real time? The weird slow-mo at certain moments it looks sloppy. One can tell that the majority of the budget of the show went, if not to Ms. Kate Walsh, it went into the creation of Pogo, Sir Reginald’s talking chimp. Pogo looks beautiful in his scenes, he really does come to life when he appears with the other characters. Because of this, I think it’s why Ellen Page’s White Violin transformation suffered. The end result was a bit lackluster in what the comic present. Of course, having Ellen Page turn into a literal human violin would be a bit too much. But, the pale makeup with white glowy contacts that was used in the show was really a poor choice of what could have been done.

The general performance from the actors in the show was fairly good for the most part. At certain moments the performance feels very bland and humorless, but again taking into account that this group of people doesn’t really get along, like each other, have kept in contact for some time, and again the “cornerstone of their story” their daddy issues. It felt deliberate that the scenes were carried out that way, slow, dragged out moments between people who can’t get along. Granted after a while it was overplayed it wasn’t until the end that, perhaps, they may have overcome that and can now hold a conversation without making us the viewer uncomfortable in season 2? Who knows. The potential for this show to expand is great, but the problem will come with what they are willing to sacrifice budget wise moving forward with the CGI. The one thing that I found a bit distracting was Vanya Hargreeves, Number 7, looked too much like Ellen Page. it doesn't seem like she did so much to create a character that is different from who she is. I wasn’t a fan of Number 3, Allison Hargreeves, in the comics, still not a fan in the show. Emmy Raver-Lampman as Number 3 did a good job. Still, not my favorite character. Number 2, Diego Hargreeves played by David Castanada, was brilliant! Granted we didn’t get to see the Kraken use his power of holding his breath underwater, we mostly were treated with his expert aiming skills. HIs relationship with Dec. Eruda Patch was meh, there was hardly any time to develop some sort of emotional groundwork for what happens next to them. Number 6, Ben Hargreeves, is dead but we got treated with his presence as a ghost, that being said I need more of Justin H. Min’s performance as Ben in the next season! MORE OF NUMBER 6! Number 4, Klaus Hargreeves, played by Rober Sheehan did much better than I expected. This is one of the examples of characters that suffered because of the budget. Number 4 in the comic hovers over the ground, and he needs to be barefooted in order for his powers to work. Also, like many characters who have the abilities to read minds or seeing the dead, he falls victim to the stereotype of the character who has to be under a heavy amount of drugs in order to function. Thankfully Sookie Stackhouse, from True Blood, didn’t fall victim to this. Number 1, Luthor Hargreeves, played by Tom Hooper, I mean where do I begin with this one. The bodysuit needed A LOT of work and I do mean A LOT of work. His performance was ok for the one note for a broody character with severe daddy issues, you know like Bruce Wayne minus the money. His performance was good for the most part, again one note with the same repetitive issues. But it improves none the less. Number 5, The Boy, played by Aiden Gallagher, he was meh. To be fair, good actor, but, again typical stuff when you ask a young actor to portray someone who is older than them; broody, humorless, angry, drunk, and some sort of weird attraction to an inanimate object. I personally think, the actor looks too old for the role, but again my opinion. He was also missing the savage killer aspect fo the character. I kept hoping for Number 5 to cut loose as he does in the comic and we get to see more from him. HIs relationship with Delores the Mannequin was cute and weird. Mary J. Blige as Cha-Cha and Cameron Britton as Hazel brilliant casting, their characters needed to be a bit more fleshed out. Their companionship was a good match, their comedic timing needed A LOT of work. But, still, they have the potential for improvement. Kate Walsh as the Handler from the Commission, YES! I need more of Kate Walsh! I just need her to become the overall villain in the show, or I just need her to be more in the show. The Commission has the possibility to be a great main antagonist for the Academy if they don’t plan on bringing Doctor Terminal any time soon.

In Conclusion, the Umbrella Academy season 1 adds itself to a buffet of comic book related tv shows, yet it sets itself apart for its main focus on family dynamic and focusing on the hero aspect second. The show has a lot of ground to play with and given the freedom to follow the comics or expand on their own it leaves the door open to a series of stories to be told, hopefully not all will be “Daddy-centric”. The show is not perfect no first season ever is, but it was the potential, it has also laid a good foundation to grow from and make it a good show. As for season 2, more Time Travel, more Kate Walsh and bring Doctor Terminal. I would like for the show to explore more Sir Reginald’s background a bit more and show the audience that he is not human but an alien, spoilers for those who haven’t read the comic. Also, Abhijat needs to show up in the show, REPRESENTATION MATTERS! The Umbrella Academy is a solid B+, it’s a slow start but it picks up. Is it binge-worthy? That’s up to you.

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