The Umbrella Academy (Netflix show)

The Umbrella Academy was originally a comic book series. Like nearly all the best Tv shows and movies these days. (See The Boys.) It had been on my ‘list’ for a while but I hadn’t gotten round to watching it because it just seemed to be yet another bunch of people with powers and whacky personalities who are trying to save the world from something nefarious. Which it totally is, but it is a really enjoyable one.

What’s it all about?

One day in 1989, 43 babies are born to unconnected mothers all over the world – the only thing they have in common is that they weren’t pregnant at the start of the day. An eccentric billionaire called Sir Reginald Hargreeves, who has a monocle and everything, travels around the world trying to buy all these babies so that he can bring them up at the Umbrella Academy. He is correctly convinced that they are special. Hargreeves eventually manages to buy seven of them.

Unfortunately, super-powered teenagers are notoriously angsty and the ‘family’ eventually splits up. Fast forward to the present day and Sir Reg has died, so the gang gets back together for the funeral. One of them had disappeared years before because he had gone on an exciting jaunt into the future. Now he is back and he had some mildly depressing news – the world is going to end in a few days and they are somehow involved.

Review

For the first episode I was still a bit on the fence. I had just finished watching The Boys and then launched straight in The Umbrella Academy. They are both about superheroes but holy shit are they different. But I was intrigued enough to give the second episode a go and by then I was starting to get won over. By the third episode, when all the characters are more developed and things get a bit darker, I was into binge territory.

There is quite a lot going on in the show, with lots of story lines and strange characters. My minor problem with the first episode was while it seemed ok and fairly fun, it seemed to just have the usual standard superhero types that it is hard to get excited about in the current comic obsessed age we are living in. To be fair, in the first hour you are introduced to the world they are in, all the characters and a bit of backstory and also the main plot line, alongside some sub-plots. So it is a lot to take in and you only get a glimpse of it all. But as I said, by the second and third episodes I was loving it. You gradually get to know them all and the story becomes a lot cooler and more convoluted than it initially seemed. Happily, there will definitely be a season two because I really like where The Umbrella Academy is going and am now fully invested. I even bought the comics.

So if the show is still on your Netflix list and you are on the fence, then give it a go. It is really worth checking out. Here is the trailer: