REVIEW #190 The Umbrella Academy (Season 3)

One day in 1989 43 babies were born to mothers who showed no sign of pregnancy the day previous. Of those infants, 7 were adopted by billionaire Sir Reginald Hargreaves and shortly after creates ‘The Umbrella Academy’, a group of gifted children who are raised to be heroes but not all goes to plan. 

The Umbrella Academy returns with possibly the best season yet, the actors are full of charisma and the storyline filled with action, comedy and plenty of heartwarming moments that remind audiences that, after all is said and done, this group are still family. Pulled into yet another world ending dilemma the group find themselves having to work with not only the other members of The Umbrella academy but also with their Sparrow counterparts. A different group of children in a different timeline, raised by a different variation of Reginald Hargreaves. What I really enjoyed about this season was that it had an incredibly intimate setting, it was mainly set in two places; the hotel and the Sparrow headquarters. What this done was kept the focus on the characters, their relationships with each other and that gave the opportunity for the less popular characters such as Diego and Lila to absolutely thrive! Of course the usual suspects such as Five and Klaus were still brilliant, wonderfully portrayed by Robert Sheehan and Aidan Gallagher but it was still nice to have the spotlight pointed at other characters too. Now my personal belief is The Umbrella Academy is one of the most enjoyable TV shows out there at the moment I was a huge fan of Misfits with Robert Sheehan and this feels very similar. It’s humour and the chemistry between the characters create a unique charm that, let’s be honest, regardless of the plot we are happy to sit and watch, I could just sit and enjoy watching this dysfunctional family interact with each other! Now I want to talk about the cinematography which in my opinion is outstanding, it’s bold and almost feels like it’s pulled straight from a comic book at times, that being said I haven’t read the actual umbrella academy comics yet. The visuals don’t necessarily look super realistic but the effects by no means look cheap, it’s intentional to create these bold environments that separate itself from reality in a really appealing way. My only criticism with this season was the ending, it was very abrupt and I felt it didn’t explain it to the audience very well. The build up was excellent but the ending felt like it could have had at least one more episode just to educate the audience on what was happening. I know it’s likely that they will expand upon it in the next season, especially taking the final scene into consideration, but I would have liked a little more information. Of course I have to mention how well they handled Elliot Page’ characters transition into Victor Hargreaves, it was so heartwarming to see and my favourite reaction was Luther’s, seeing Victors smile after was really touching and then to top it off with being his best man! It wasn’t in your face at every moment and it never felt forced which is definitely what some other projects have been guilty of when handling a transgender character/actor before. So to summarise I think this could be my favourite season, I love this show and I hope we get a season 4 sooner rather than later that’s for sure. If you haven’t watched it yet I would definitely recommend it, it’s one of Netflix’s finest adaptations.

Overall (9/10)

Thanks for reading.

Callan