It is nice when your faith in a show, however small, is rewarded. The Umbrella Academy’s first season contained a myriad of interesting elements that never cohered into anything truly superlative. Thank goodness a time jump injected some personality and life into the show as the second season is truly a delight. Building upon the great characters and performances, the show pushes them into new arenas and new shenanigans.
When we last saw them, the Hargreaves siblings were escaping the apocalypse (that one of them caused) by jumping through time. Time travel is not an exact science though and though they all end up in Dallas, Five has dropped his siblings into different times. Luther (Tom Hopper) has become a fighter under the employ of Jack Ruby, Diego (David Castaneda) is in a mental institution, Alison (Emmy Raver-Lampman) is in the thick of the Civil Rights movement, Klaus (Robert Sheehan) has made Ben (Justin H. Min) an unwitting spectator as he gains a cult, and Vanya (Ellen Page) is playing nanny on a farm. Five, however, has been dropped right as the apocalypse has seemed to follow them into 1963. Traveling back, he has to unite his siblings so the family can stop the apocalypse. Again.
If The Umbrella Academy has one thing going for it, it is the characters. The show has a lot of plot machinations but it would not work without the actors bringing them to life. It was so nice to see how the story leaned on the history of the characters and pushed them forward into new areas. Even when they are being stubborn or obstinate, they are progressing forward, both on their own and as a family. I loved seeing the characters, freed from the tyranny of their own timeline, actually come together as a family and gain new perspectives on their powers. Every actor is great and fully believable, but the sneaky MVP of this show is David Castaneda, whose Diego gets to be bad ass and emotionally deep.
Much like the characters, the show’s visual language and panache have take a step up. Those dance sequences, the fight scenes, the brilliant use of powers from the opening to the ending! There’s just more color and life in the visuals, making the show incredibly engaging and propulsive. This perfectly compliments the renewed sense of joie de vivre put into the scripts. The Umbrella Academy is one of the year’s most entertaining watches and definitely worth binging.