TV Review: The Umbrella Academy Season One (2019)

The Umbrella Academy Season One (2019) created by Steve Blackman based on the comics by Gerard Way

A group of adopted children (who are now grown) gather to bury their recently-deceased father. These aren't just any orphans--they were all born on the same day (October 1, 1989) to women who weren't pregnant the day before. Sir Reginald Hargreeves (Colm Feore) saw their unique circumstance and realized there might be more going on. He adopted seven of the forty-three children. As he raised them, they developed superpowers. He formed them into a tweenager team of superheroes called The Umbrella Academy. That's all long over. All the children have gone their separate ways and are trying to live their own lives. The funeral naturally leads them to question the uncertain circumstances under which Sir Reginald died. Especially when one lost sibling, Number Five (Aidan Gallagher), suddenly comes back from the future (his superpower is jumping in space and/or time). Five warns them that an apocalypse is eminent. The family has mixed feelings about starting up again, especially Vanya (Ellen Page), who exhibits no powers whatsoever, which has left her an outsider. She wrote a tell-all book about growing up in The Umbrella Academy and was estranged from her adoptive father. 

The siblings have a hard time working through their issues with each other, making saving the world difficult. An additional problem is two time-traveling assassins (Mary J. Blige and Cameron Britton) who are trying to take down Five, though they often get additional orders from their mysterious employers. They think Five is the key to stopping the apocalypse, which they want to happen for their own reasons. Five is searching for the key to starting the apocalypse, narrowing it down to fewer and fewer individuals. Could it be someone one of the siblings knows? Is it okay to kill someone to save billions of other lives on the Earth? Can they cooperate long enough to accomplish anything?

The siblings come off like real people, with a mix of emotions and motivations that generate family drama. They try to be regular people with varying degrees of success. Stepping back into the hero game is a lot harder for them. The actors do a good job and I did care for most of the characters. The premise is fantastic and full of potential. 

On the other hand, the plot moves very slowly. The show uses a lot of songs to enhance the visuals by contrasting or complementing or being ironic. The show is good-looking visually but feels padded out by the pseudo-music videos and other side stories that don't really go anywhere interesting. Especially egregious is the one episode where at the end time travel erases everything that happened (the episode is even called "The Day That Wasn't"). Rubbish time travel is a pet peeve of mine and this show had a bit too much of it. I found myself rolling my eyes more than once. They very ending 

Slightly recommended--it isn't terrible but I found it disappointing.

Streaming on Netflix.