There are moments, and they are not uncommon either, when viewing The Umbrella Academy becomes quite frustrating for me.
It happened in the first season, it happened in the second and it inevitably also happens in the third, which arrived on Netflix last June 22nd. The basic structure of each season is in fact always the same: there is a mystery to be solved, and above all an apocalyptic crisis to be foiled, but for the details on the exact nature of the problem and the comparison with this threat you have to wait for the last. episode, because first there is a long detour to carry on the subplots of all the members of this bizarre family of super-heroes.
And some of those subplots are also very beautiful, even touching – we’ll get to that in a moment – but I can’t help but see in filigree the always the same pattern that repeats itself. And yes, it is frustrating. But luckily there is also everything else. If I’m still on board, and will also be watching season 4 if-and-when-it comes, that’s all that rest. For the fact that, essentially, The Umbrella Academy always manages to follow its very own path to the live action adventures of supertypes. Season 3 spoilers follow .
UMBRELLA VS SPARROW
The introduction at the end of season 2 of the Sparrow, a team mirroring Umbrella, is the starting point of a season that mixes even more of the previous action (with often fake fights, just for), feelings, gags-laughs and mystery. Unless the Sparrow have written “expendable” foreheads from the first moment we see them on the scene, this alternate dimension that the dysfunctional Hargreeves family found themselves in, this New Mutants vs Satyrs situation from the X-Men comics, gives a nice jolt to the status quo.
A shock after which the lives of the individual members of Umbrella try to rearrange themselves. Luthor puts his nose away and finds love, Diego discovers the concept of family, Vanya becomes Viktor, in a transition that follows that of her interpreter, Elliot Page. And again: Allison becomes the Dark Phoenix version of the character, Cinque continues to mutter theories hunched over in his jacket and Klaus the blown continues to be the best character on the show, as well as one of the most successful in general, among those baked on TV in the last three years. A Jack Sparrow level scoundrel, but with a huge heart.
Ah, and since the alien millionaire Reginald is, being a different timeline, another Reginald, will he be trusted this time around? (Do not even mention it).
THE SUPER-HERO BOLLYWOOD
The stories, as mentioned, proceed in parallel, and some people get attached more, others much less. The personal and family events of Allison and Viktor should give life to the most emotionally profound moments of the series, but they do not fully succeed in their intent, you want for how they are told (Allison, if you become a bitch to me, what empathy can you ever ask me?), either because the time available is always very little. The Umbrella Academyit always and constantly gives you the impression of having too much meat on the fire. Here more than ever, among biker monkeys and robots who turn to religious fanaticism. That said, in his final episodes this season he finally manages to focus his attention on the main plot, and to go all the way, explaining what the heck this Hotel Obsidian is and what Reginald’s plan is (at the end of the fair, a Gendo Ikari of us).
Then, of course, part of the success of The Umbrella Academy is due to the originality of the packaging. In his way, we said very personal, of presenting dudes in costumes on TV. The dance battle scene, regardless of why it happens, is a perfect example of this. As well as that of karaoke, in which a family is reconciled by singing Total Eclipse of the Heart in an alcoholic party at the end of the world. And even if people continue to die badly, we never take ourselves too seriously. We laugh, we sadden, we fight, dance, sing and blood flows, as only in Bollywood or at Amici di Maria De Filippi.
WHAT TIME IS THE (NEXT) END OF THE WORLD?
And once you understand the nature of the hotel and what is on the other side, the ending leaves you there, obviously leaving you with the curiosity to understand what will happen next. On the next ride of the carousel, hoping that the apocalyptic fuel doesn’t run out halfway. Because by now it is clear that the itinerary is always the same, a new end of the world that the guys of The Umbrella Academy will try desperately to avert, ringing up messes and paradoxes. A fourth season of the show has not yet been announced, but last month its showrunner, Steve Blackman , said that, just in case, it will be the last. In fact, there is a need to re-link all the re-linkable and bring to conclusion all the subplots, perhaps inventing, here, a basic plot that is not yet another apocalypse.
Several times, in season 3, and especially in its finale, Luther and the others said they were tired of this continually banging their heads against an apocalypse. And if they are tired, imagine us. Let’s give these guys a nice ending, Netflix. And then a spin-off all about Klaus, yes? There is his comic miniseries ( You look like death – Tales of Umbrella Academy , by Gerard Way and Shaun Simon, published in Italy by Bao) ready and ready. On.