Series review: Umbrella Academy Season 2

What's up, you primitive fucks? Today, I'm here to flex my huge IQ on you troglodytes by reviewing a TV show. That'll fucking show you. But, anyways. Today I'm going to be going over the recent season of Umbrella Academy. I think this show was getting a lot of hype when it first dropped, due to the fact that it's a creation of My Chemical Romance's Gerard Way. However, for me the first season was decently enjoyable, but I wasn't insanely in love with it or anything so I was just kinda meh about this season before starting it. However, I actually found that I enjoyed this new season way more, I definitely felt much more emotionally invested this time around and think it was a huge improvement from the first.

This season's premise is somewhat similar to the first season, with Five traveling through time and witnessing another coming apocalypse with his family dead, then having to figure out what the fuck caused. But, this time while also having to gather his family back together over a fucked up time split across the 60's. Which makes for a fun background setting for the season, in my opinion. Especially because the strongest part of this season is watching how each character handles living in the 60's and what paths each of them have taken.

Each of their situations are pretty unique, and it's really interesting to watch them all interact in total different ways than what we saw in the first season. Like, for example, watching as Luther has transitioned to beating ass harder than he eats it in an underground boxing ring. Then when they inevitably get back together to stop doomsday and try to get along, we get to watch as everything is a shit show since they as a family are very fragmented. But there's a shit ton more story and things going on this season than just trying to stop the end of the world.

For example, one of the characters becomes obsessed with wanting to stop the assassination of John F. Kennedy, to the point where they're acting like a junkie and Kennedy is the holy grail of black tar heroin that must be saved. All these side stories really help get things moving in different directions, and it just works well. One thing you'll have to kind of just ignore and not let bother you though is all the plot holes that the time travel elements bring into question. Time travel as a narrative usually always is like a broken condom with big plot holes being involved, and it's pretty much the same here. Though, that shouldn't really be a problem when the show features a talking goldfish and a decrepit 60 year old man who has sex with mannequins in the body of a teenage boy.

While the narrative is a strong point for sure, the characters are probably the strongest thing in this season with how fleshed out they've all gotten since the first season. In the first season there was only really 2 characters that I actually really gave a shit about, where as this season you genuinely do get invested and start to care about each of the characters as they progress and grow. There definitely was some issues with some of the characters though, but mostly with just how they were under-utilized. It's hard to really get into it without spoiling stuff, but one I can mention is Luther. He's kinda been buried behind everyone else this season, where he's almost a side character that only has one important part through the entire show. I would liken him to being a comedy character honestly, which is kind of a shame since I think his backstory definitely has a lot of depth in comparison to some of the other characters on the show that just didn't get explored.

The world building and designs in the show were done pretty well. I especially enjoyed the retro aesthetic they made for The Commission, looking like some straight up 50's government agents hunting down an alien that went on a wild ass probing spree. Some of the backdrops for scenes that they created as well was just fun and I thought looked pretty neat. Another thing I think the show did well was the cinematography, not everything is mindblowing or crazily well done. But, there's sections where they get pretty creative with how they filmed things and it helps with keeping things entertaining quite a bit.

The main thing I have an issue with for this season that I'd like to mention is the pointless arguments they write into each episode. These characters get into some of the most dumb fucking fights for absolutely not reason, beyond the writers just needed to throw in some drama for the fuck of it I guess. A character will see a french fry laying on the ground and then immediately flip over a table and call another character an absolute grease filled caveman for not eating a hole in the wall over it being there. Just shit that makes no sense to fight over, and it happens a lot. I get we're supposed to see how dysfunctional they are as a family unit, and that each person is fucked up in their own way. But, it just gets old pretty fast.

Overall, though, the show is a big improvement over the first season. I had a lot more fun with watching this season, and I'm actually really looking forward to season 3 at this point. The characters are way more interesting and fun this time around, the action has been improved pretty well, the side stories are fun and just the overall narrative is better from the first season. Again, suspend your disbelief with the time travel stuff and just pucker your asshole up to get through the grating pointless arguments that don't make sense from time to time, and you'll enjoy yourself I'd reckon.

But, yeah. That's about it. So, until next time you fucking nerds.

Later!