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The Umbrella Academy (Netflix, Season 1)
43 inexplicable babies were born with superpowers; seven were adopted by eccentric millionaire Reginald Hargreeves and raised to fight crime as the Umbrella Academy. By the time they’re thirty, their lives are an unholy mess and the apocalypse is nigh.
Some of the changes they made from the comics (particularly Luther not having a gorilla-body for a never-explained reason) are very sensible. I also give them credit for race-lifting several of the characters and actually doing something with the deceased Number Six. The fact that they take the hanging, unexplained “weirdness” threads from the comic and turn them into actual plot points to be explored makes a huge difference. (The fact that apparently cell phones don’t exist in this version of 2019 is just annoying. Also, the complete lack of coping or communication skills from anyone in that goddamn family, as explicable as it might be, is still insanely annoying.) They also revamp the superpowers to get them on a closer scale (Diego’s useless water-breathing in the comics was replaced by telekinetic control of thrown knives; Allison was downgraded from reality control to just mind control; Klaus doesn’t regularly hover or channel dead superheroes) which both puts them more on even footing and keeps plotlines under control. (Honestly, most of the plot works because they’re such broken people: Hazel fights off Luther because Luther has been on the moon and hasn’t been in a fight in four years. Why didn’t Klaus summon up the ghost of the villain? Because he was messed up from withdrawal and doesn’t fully understand his powers. And the siblings don’t actually talk because they’re all giant bundles of different neurosies.)
They also explore the majority of the map from the first two comics series, and end up with a number of hanging threads the comic never had. The Commission is still out there as a major villain, and their motivations for causing the apocalypse are inexplicable. Reginald Hargreeves is an alien in the comics; given that he is “human” in his flashback (and according to autopsies), carries a standard violin with him from wherever he came from, and appears to have some prescience of coming events; my best guess is that he’s actually from Earth’s future, right when a different apocalypse is happening. The comic basically discards Vanya after the first plotline; when she’s played by the biggest star, we know that isn’t going to happen. Allison might get her voice back and might regain her powers; but I think there’s also the possibility that she’s got more mind-control secrets in her backstory to come out.
The music selections are solid, as one might expect from a series created by a band’s frontman.
Overall: This hangs together better than the original comic did and makes for a fun watch, if you like terrible life choices and superpowers. Which I clearly do. Season two is completely off the map of the comic and should be interesting.
Some of the changes they made from the comics (particularly Luther not having a gorilla-body for a never-explained reason) are very sensible. I also give them credit for race-lifting several of the characters and actually doing something with the deceased Number Six. The fact that they take the hanging, unexplained “weirdness” threads from the comic and turn them into actual plot points to be explored makes a huge difference. (The fact that apparently cell phones don’t exist in this version of 2019 is just annoying. Also, the complete lack of coping or communication skills from anyone in that goddamn family, as explicable as it might be, is still insanely annoying.) They also revamp the superpowers to get them on a closer scale (Diego’s useless water-breathing in the comics was replaced by telekinetic control of thrown knives; Allison was downgraded from reality control to just mind control; Klaus doesn’t regularly hover or channel dead superheroes) which both puts them more on even footing and keeps plotlines under control. (Honestly, most of the plot works because they’re such broken people: Hazel fights off Luther because Luther has been on the moon and hasn’t been in a fight in four years. Why didn’t Klaus summon up the ghost of the villain? Because he was messed up from withdrawal and doesn’t fully understand his powers. And the siblings don’t actually talk because they’re all giant bundles of different neurosies.)
They also explore the majority of the map from the first two comics series, and end up with a number of hanging threads the comic never had. The Commission is still out there as a major villain, and their motivations for causing the apocalypse are inexplicable. Reginald Hargreeves is an alien in the comics; given that he is “human” in his flashback (and according to autopsies), carries a standard violin with him from wherever he came from, and appears to have some prescience of coming events; my best guess is that he’s actually from Earth’s future, right when a different apocalypse is happening. The comic basically discards Vanya after the first plotline; when she’s played by the biggest star, we know that isn’t going to happen. Allison might get her voice back and might regain her powers; but I think there’s also the possibility that she’s got more mind-control secrets in her backstory to come out.
The music selections are solid, as one might expect from a series created by a band’s frontman.
Overall: This hangs together better than the original comic did and makes for a fun watch, if you like terrible life choices and superpowers. Which I clearly do. Season two is completely off the map of the comic and should be interesting.