THE UMBRELLA ACADEMY Season 2 Spoiler-Free Review; "[It] Greatly Improves On The Show's First Year"

THE UMBRELLA ACADEMY Season 2 Spoiler-Free Review; "[It] Greatly Improves On The Show's First Year"

The Umbrella Academy season 2 has been on Netflix for a week now, and if you're still on the fence about checking it out or just keen to see if our verdict matches yours, you need to check out this review!

Review Opinion
By JoshWilding - Aug 07, 2020 12:08 PM EST
Filed Under: The Umbrella Academy

Compared to some of the other comic book TV shows available to watch right now (The Boys, for example), The Umbrella Academy never seems to receive quite as much as attention. The first season made for compelling viewing, and the second - which arrived on Netflix last Friday - is actually even better. Bringing back the same cast along with a couple of impressive new additions, this trip back in time to the 1960s is firing on all cylinders, even if it does repeat a few past mistakes. 

With the members of the Umbrella Academy separated in the past, a good chunk of the ten episodes is devoted to bringing them back together, something which can be in equal parts fun and frustrating. In fact, aside from a handful of interactions here and there, the team mostly remains separated until the finale when we finally get to see them come together and work as a unit (something it would be good to see a whole lot more of). In terms of each respective character's story arc, some work better than others, with Vanya, Diego, Alison, and Five definitely standing out from the rest of the family. Using Alison to tackle the race equality issues of the time is a smart move, and one which perhaps needed to be explored on more than just a surface level. Unfortunately, he biggest loser this year is Luther, as he's not given anywhere near enough time to shine despite a fair few great moments. 

Despite that, every main cast member is fantastic, though Aidan Gallagher steals the show in every scene he's in. Ritu Arya's Lila is another standout, and hopefully someone we'll see a lot more of moving forward (assuming The Umbrella Academy is renewed for a third season...which it really should be). 

Looking ahead to the future, it is time the Netflix series move on from the Apocalypse and the idea of Vanya being out of control, as season two is perhaps at its weakest in the moments devoted to those plot points. Thankfully, a jaw-dropping cliffhanger points to a game-changing new direction for the show after this latest batch of episodes, and hopefully, a lot more Pogo (it's hard to escape the feeling he was M.I.A. for the most part due to budgetary concerns). The series benefits from each episode having a shorter runtime, and when you get watching, it's hard to stop. Ultimately, that binge factor is a sign that this season of The Umbrella Academy does work, and regardless of what's happening on screen, it's never not fun to spend time with these characters. Just as season two improves on season one, it's now down to a third season to improve on this one again, and it's at that point we might have a legit classic comic book TV show on our hands. 

Visually, The Umbrella Academy remains a delight, with great visual effects, plenty of edge of your seat action scenes, and a killer soundtrack which will no doubt see you adding a lot of new tracks to your Spotify playlist. The show is also delightfully violent in places, but it's the twists and turns of season two which are most likely to grab your attention. Oh, and like Avengers: Endgame before it, it's another comic book property to have some real fun with time-travel without ever getting too confusing or convoluted. With so many loose ends from season one addressed and the characters all moved forward in mostly satisfying ways, it feels like a fresh start is coming for The Umbrella Academy (not a bad thing, admittedly), but that hopefully won't mean saying goodbye to the wackiness of these first two years. 

The Umbrella Academy season two greatly improves on the show's first year, and a combination of great characters, memorable performances, and crazy twists will leave you desperate to return to this wonderfully quirky world for a third season as soon as possible.
 

IF
THE UMBRELLA ACADEMY's Final Season Gets Mixed Reviews & Series Low Rotten Tomatoes Score
Related:

THE UMBRELLA ACADEMY's Final Season Gets Mixed Reviews & Series Low Rotten Tomatoes Score

THE UMBRELLA ACADEMY Season 4 Trailer Finds The Hargreeves Family Stranded In The Final Timeline
Recommended For You:

THE UMBRELLA ACADEMY Season 4 Trailer Finds The Hargreeves Family Stranded In The Final Timeline

DISCLAIMER: As a user generated site and platform, ComicBookMovie.com is protected under the DMCA (Digital Millenium Copyright Act) and "Safe Harbor" provisions.

This post was submitted by a user who has agreed to our Terms of Service and Community Guidelines. ComicBookMovie.com will disable users who knowingly commit plagiarism, piracy, trademark or copyright infringement. Please CONTACT US for expeditious removal of copyrighted/trademarked content. CLICK HERE to learn more about our copyright and trademark policies.

Note that ComicBookMovie.com, and/or the user who contributed this post, may earn commissions or revenue through clicks or purchases made through any third-party links contained within the content above.

1 2
QuietStorm
QuietStorm - 8/7/2020, 12:23 PM
Going to start on this once I wrap up with the Expanse this weekend.Then i'll try and finally tackle Agents of Shield
HeavyMetal4Life
HeavyMetal4Life - 8/7/2020, 12:30 PM
@QuietStorm - The Expanse and Agents of SHIELD- two all time greats right there!!
lawndart
lawndart - 8/8/2020, 2:13 AM
@QuietStorm - the second season of UA builds nicely on the foundation season one provided
regularmovieguy
regularmovieguy - 8/7/2020, 12:25 PM
OT:

Lovecraft Country debuts to a 79 on Metacritic, 100% on RT.

Horny.
regularmovieguy
regularmovieguy - 8/7/2020, 12:25 PM
81 on MC, my b.
tmp3
tmp3 - 8/7/2020, 12:42 PM
@regularmovieguy - My most anticipated show of the year, can't wait. Anyone who's seen Last Black Man in San Francisco already knew that Jonathan Majors was a damn good actor, but it seems like Jurnee Smollett-Bell's great in this too. Nice rebound from BoP, lol.
tmp3
tmp3 - 8/7/2020, 1:16 PM
@regularmovieguy - Dude, they just announced the guy who was in charge of content & programming for HBO is gonna be taking over the role for both HBO and HBO Max now. Pretty huge deal, I guess the quality of Max Originals will be a lot closer to HBO-level with them being under the same management now.
regularmovieguy
regularmovieguy - 8/7/2020, 1:18 PM
@tmp3



Pay the man.
MyCoolYoung
MyCoolYoung - 8/7/2020, 2:22 PM
@regularmovieguy - anything with Jurnee gets a watch for me
regularmovieguy
regularmovieguy - 8/7/2020, 3:26 PM
@MyCoolYoung

Looking forward to see more of her. Can’t hold what her brother did against her - as terrible as it was.

I watched BOP again last night, don’t know if she’ll be Black Canary again but she was fine.

Kind of wish that movie was played a little more straight.
regularmovieguy
regularmovieguy - 8/7/2020, 3:26 PM
*seeing more of her
tmp3
tmp3 - 8/7/2020, 4:01 PM
@regularmovieguy - He’s gonna cast Ana De Armas in the Faye Dunaway role lol
regularmovieguy
regularmovieguy - 8/7/2020, 4:12 PM
@tmp3

Bruh I was thinking the same thing 😂
MyCoolYoung
MyCoolYoung - 8/7/2020, 5:49 PM
@regularmovieguy - same here. In a movie where I felt like no one stood out I feel like she was the standout if that makes sense. I still haven’t rewatched BOP but I’ve been meaning to. I just didn’t dig Harley too much first time around.

Yeah her brothers a dumbass
regularmovieguy
regularmovieguy - 8/7/2020, 5:55 PM
@MyCoolYoung

That was my first time rewatching...

I liked Robbie fine enough. But I just can’t get behind how the movies edited, and narrated.

It’s just too much. And the going back and fourth between “let’s take this back to the beginning” was just unnecessary.

I don’t think BOP is terrible like a lot of people do, and Ewan McGregor was having a blast in his role. It’s fiiiine.

It just doesn’t go beyond meh.
MyCoolYoung
MyCoolYoung - 8/7/2020, 6:13 PM
@regularmovieguy -

it’s not terrible at all it’s exactly what you said meh. I don’t know why movies, television, or music can only be the greatest ever or the worst. It’s not the case at all.

I felt it was a little deadpoolish more so for the worst than the better. If they go further with Harley I hope they take notes from the animated show.
Rosraf
Rosraf - 8/7/2020, 12:27 PM
Season 2 wasn’t bad. I enjoyed watching it, but I enjoyed Season 1 more.

The re-do of the apocalypse plot and Vanya was indeed a drag. Sadly, I think that is going to be a re-occurring thing each season. “The apocalypse will always happen, and Vanya will always be the cause”. (...until 5 and Vanya sacrifice themselves to stop it (my guess as to where this is eventually headed)).

If that plot is indeed part of Season 3, I hope they find a way to make it a side plot. But there most definitely WILL be a Season 3, and I will definitely watch it.
tmp3
tmp3 - 8/7/2020, 12:40 PM
@AzulaCipher - Yeah, it felt pretty derivative, they repeated a lot of beats from season 1 imo
ScarletWarlock
ScarletWarlock - 8/7/2020, 12:38 PM
What really helped the pacing is that they reduced the episodes runtime by about almost 10 minutes. Episodes don't need to be that long, especially a bingeable show where you drop the entire season all at once. This is what they should've done with the Marvel shows, lower the episode count to 8 and drop the episode runtime, it would've vastly improved the pacing and budgeted the show more properly.

People don't understand that the the writing and budget are very synonymous. Umbrella Academy is only 8 episodes and likely has a significantly larger budget than the Marvel shows that were on Netflix, pay attention to how many times they visit the mansion, the barbershop, the place where Five use to work, and Luther's fight ring. That's due to budgetary reasons. The writers have to write around these set pieces, and the same went for the Marvel shows. That's why there was virtually no scale to them because every episode of Luke Cage was relegated to walking down the street or being in Pop's shop or the nightclub. It gets stale seeing the same conversations had over and over again, so lowering the episode count and length allows them to tell the proper amount of story, because the showrunners aren't given enough money to increase their story market. They're beyond limited.
GhostDog
GhostDog - 8/7/2020, 12:41 PM
So far its just a remix of season 1
Rosraf
Rosraf - 8/7/2020, 12:44 PM
@BlackBeltJones - They mix it up just on time. Imo
Gizmo1221
Gizmo1221 - 8/7/2020, 12:48 PM
Season 2 was pretty bad ass in my opinion. WTH with the dad (I was so shook) and the ending was pretty good too.
FearTheLiving
FearTheLiving - 8/7/2020, 1:00 PM
Honestly I thought it was just okay. Felt like a rehash of the first season in a 60s setting. Not to mention they keep [frick]ing over Ben's character and Hazel and Chacha were barely mentioned.
tmp3
tmp3 - 8/7/2020, 1:09 PM
OT: Noah Hawley's Star Trek film put on the back-burner, delayed indefinitely
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat-vision/noah-hawleys-star-trek-back-burner-1306485
regularmovieguy
regularmovieguy - 8/7/2020, 1:31 PM
@tmp3



In all seriousness I just want a release date for Fargo S4
MrCamw1
MrCamw1 - 8/7/2020, 2:22 PM
@regularmovieguy - same.
kider
kider - 8/7/2020, 1:25 PM
@Godzillakartt - this site covered it multiple times. When the first trailer dropped there was also an article on it.
Origame
Origame - 8/7/2020, 1:19 PM
Look, I'll agree this season was still really good but its definitely not an improvement over the first one. In fact its mostly just following the same ground as the first one, with number 5 showing up and trying to prevent the apocalypse in a few days.
MrCamw1
MrCamw1 - 8/7/2020, 1:25 PM
Some power inconsistencies and time travel issues aside, solid second season.
BrothaMajor
BrothaMajor - 8/7/2020, 4:28 PM
OT:

Ive been playing Avengers all day. It wasnt supposed to launch until 9pm. Dont know how ive been getting to play, but hell yeah.

Super good game
regularmovieguy
regularmovieguy - 8/7/2020, 5:02 PM
@BrothaMajor

What happened to @KingBlitzFlame
Nebula
Nebula - 8/7/2020, 5:15 PM
I'm on the penultimate episode now. This show is just so good, and fun. Yay.
regularmovieguy
regularmovieguy - 8/7/2020, 5:58 PM
@Nebula

Still need to watch. I’ve heard good things about the show I just haven’t pulled the trigger.

My high school buddies still give me shit for going through a My Chemical Romance phase in high school 😂
tvor03
tvor03 - 8/7/2020, 6:32 PM
Loved season 2, even though it mostly felt like season 1, part 2. It felt like half the characters were still dealing with the same problems they had in season 1, and finally resolved them here. Season 3 seems to be taking things in a totally different direction.
MUTO123
MUTO123 - 8/7/2020, 10:26 PM
Off-topic: this sounds really cool (and anything with Kaitlyn Dever is an instant must-watch for me).

http://bloody-disgusting.com/tv/3626844/image-gallery-takes-hulus-monsterland-anthology-series-premiering-october/
lawndart
lawndart - 8/8/2020, 2:15 AM
Number 5 is now my favorite character
Rosraf
Rosraf - 8/8/2020, 2:55 AM
@lawndart - My sneaking suspicion is that the whole series will wind up revolving around 5.

On some level, 5 knows the apocalypse is actually inevitable (caused by Vanya, or arguably 5 himself), and the entire series is 5 using his power to put it off awhile/stall so he can spend time with his siblings on little “Goonies” adventures, to make up for having missed out on a big chunk of their childhoods and living a long, solitary life the first time around. I suspect 5’s original “miscalculation” resulted not in him reverting to his younger age (he meant to do that) but that he meant to go back further and arrive back when his siblings were still that age as well. But now instead of getting years to spend with them, he only gets as long as he (and they) can keep delaying the apocalypse (which 5 will eventually figure out he can actually prevent by sacrificing himself and maybe Vanya).
lawndart
lawndart - 8/8/2020, 11:45 PM
@Rosraf - you may be correct. It seems he and his sister are the primary agitators in this story. 5 has the most depth in his character, shifting from wise old man stuck in young body to cold assassin to sibling who is continually cleaning up his family’s mess.
1 2
View Recorder