Umbrella Academy Season 2 Review

  ***SPOILER ALERT***

The second part of Steven Blackman’s Netflix adaptation of the 2007 comic landed in our laps on July 31st, and if you weren’t excited enough already, a string of hype videos posted on Youtube of the Umbrella Academy students themselves will get you there.

The second season delighted, a particularly impressive feat considering how high expectations were following the success of the first season.

The Umbrella Academy centres around seven students with special powers adopted by a millionaire father that makes Matilda’s Dad look kind. As teenagers Diego, Allison, Luther, Klaus, Ben and Five learned to use their powers to fight criminals, guided by their chimpanzee butler (yes, chimpanzee) and their robot mother (yes, robot).

Image: Netflix

Vanya, played by Ellen Page as an adult, is told she has no powers, though it later transpires that she has a bizarre, telepathy, power control ability that’s stronger than any of her siblings. This revelation, coupled with some more abusive behaviour from her dysfunction, superhero family, leads to the apocalypse. In an attempt to save the world, Five, a time-travelling 65-year-old trapped in a fifteen-year-old’s body, transports himself and his six siblings into the past.

Season 2 opens with the realisation that Five, once again, made a few mistakes in his maths, and has managed to scatter his siblings throughout the three-year time period prior to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, in Dallas, Texas.

In the trailer, we see Five discover that the apocalypse has happened again, presumably in connection with the assassination of JFK and the season revolves around the family fighting to stop this happening, while all dealing with their new lives in the 1960s.

Allison’s (Emmy Raver-Lampman) newfound interest in civil rights activism is also a marvel to watch, bringing a new angle to a debate that has intensified in the last few months. Allison’s ability to manipulate anyone into doing anything by saying just a few words (“I heard a rumour”) is eventually used to deal with an aggressive policeman, in a plot line that forces the viewer to consider racism in post-war America head on.

The reason I started watching the show in the first place was to see another iteration of Misfits’ Nathan in Robert Sheehan’s depiction of Klaus, a troubled Vietnam vet who can summon and communicate with the dead. While Sheehan is not quite as funny in Umbrella Academy, Klaus is such a loving character, determined to do right that he’s just as entertaining to watch as Nathan. Sheehan is even funnier in the second season than in the first as a worshipped cult leader who is sick of the attention. His love story in this season is heart-breaking and would make the show worth watching, even if the rest of it was terrible.

Ben, played by Justin H. Min, returns as Klaus’ cynical, yet somehow also wide-eyed, side kick.

Tom Hopper brings a comedy to the character of Luther that transcends his good looks and wasn’t yet present in the first season.

Knife-throwing savant Diego (David Castañeda) as belligerent as ever, falls in love and becomes half of one of the most attractive iterations of Bonnie and Clyde I have been privileged enough to watch.

Aiden Murphy, our grumpy time traveller, who very much runs the show in the Hargreaves family, somehow managed not to age since the first season was released is just as great in this season.

Vanya’s story line is the only one that lulls, but it is still entertaining to watch her use her powers, and to witness the effects of time travel on her mind.

In summary, this latest, wacky, sci-fi, irreverent, comedy/drama/thriller from Netflix stands out from the rest and is well worth the watch. The plot, the characters, the set design, the costumes, and the twists make this show fabulous, and I can’t wait for season three.

Words by Katharine Hidalgo