It’s been almost a month since The Umbrella Academy Season 2 dropped, and it certainly didn’t go unnoticed. The Umbrella Academy Season 2 has broken a record by holding its first position in the top 10 trending series on Netflix for over two weeks. Fans have been raving about the show. In my opinion, the raving from fans has to do with the hype Netflix created before the release of the second season. Talk about strong marketing. But either way, in this review, I will be sharing my opinion on the second series. But first, let’s recap the first season briefly.
What happened in season 1?
This bit contains spoilers for the first season of The Umbrella Academy, so if you haven’t watched that yet, go! Quick!
In the first season of The Umbrella Academy (adapted from the Dark Horse comic), we meet the Hargreeves family. On October 1st, 1989, 43 women around the world mysteriously got pregnant and gave birth the same day. Reginald Hargreeves adopted seven of these kids so he could build a team of crime-fighting super kids (because these kids all have superpowers).
Reginald never named the kids, instead giving them a number, but the kids named themselves afterward. To recap: Number 1 is Luther, who has super strength. Number 2 is Diego, who can manipulate objects and uses this to throw knives with great accuracy. Number 3 is Allison, who can make anyone do anything she wants by saying, “I heard a rumor that you …”. Then comes number 4, Klaus, who can communicate with the dead. Number 5 is Five (he never named himself), who can jump through space and time. Number 6 is Ben, who can grow tentacles from his stomach (Ben died when he was a teenager, however, but still hangs around and interacts with Klaus). And finally, Number 7 is Vanya, who is just ordinary, or so we thought. Towards the end of season 1, it turns out she is very powerful.
The first season revolves around stopping the apocalypse, which Five saw happening in the future. When they figure out Vanya is the cause of the apocalypse and that they are too late, Five teleports everyone back in time so they can escape it. That didn’t go as planned, and they all ended up scattered around the early ’60s. Not only that, but they also brought the apocalypse with them. Uh oh.
Now you’re up to date!
My thoughts on The Umbrella Academy season 2
I watched the second season of The Umbrella Academy in three days, and if I could have, I would have binged it in one go. First and foremost, I loved the ’60s setting in the second season. It was interesting to see what everyone was doing in this time period and how they were adjusting. It was also interesting to see how all of them, once again, built a life separate from each other, just like they did at the beginning of the first season.
In the first season, everyone is very distant from each other and doesn’t want to have anything to do with each other. In this season, that was different as the Hargreeves siblings seemed to be a lot closer. They look after each other and learn to respect their differences. At first, I thought the idea of another apocalypse was a bit cheap, but that feeling changed when I neared the end of the second season. Because they handled this apocalypse very differently, the siblings are now closer, and they are handling it right this time.
Character development
I think the character development for every single character was great, even for Luther, who I’m not really a fan of personally. I think especially Vanya and Diego show a lot of character development in this season. Vanya is obviously dealing with the fact that she has powers that she never knew about. Diego, on the other hand, is dealing with his hero complex. The latter gets addressed a lot, for reasons I won’t spoil.
In the second season, I feel like there was much more depth to each character than in the first season, even though the setting was completely different. And we also finally got to see more of Ben, which I was very happy about! In this season, the family felt whole for the first time. They put their differences aside (though sibling quarrels are unavoidable, of course), and everyone seemed to be regaining some confidence that they lost in the first season.
New revelations
Apart from the storytelling around the main gang, some things were revealed about Reginald’s past, which took me by surprise. There is this moment, I won’t say what it was, but it made me go, “WHAT?!” If you know, you know. It’s interesting to see who Reginald was before he adopted the siblings. I must admit that I’m not familiar with the comics (yet), so maybe his past didn’t come as a surprise to the comic fans. But it was certainly interesting to see.
And then there are some new characters, one of which is Lila. In the trailer, we see Lila being in a mental hospital with Diego. Lila is a bit eccentric. She likes to have fun, she’s not easily scared off, but she can also be vulnerable at times. I went from liking Lila, to disliking her, to liking her again in the span of 10 episodes. She’s an interesting character who gives the viewer some food for thought towards the end of the season. I won’t say anything about what is revealed about her, but she also has a complicated past. There’s a lot more to discover about her, which I hope we’ll see in the next season.
On an unrelated note: I liked the tracklist this season, which was just as amazing as it was in the first season. You know you’re watching The Umbrella Academy if there’s a fight scene with a Backstreet Boys song in the background.
And lastly, a big revelation comes wrapped in a cliffhanger at the season finale. Readers of the comic probably saw it coming (because I figured out this happened in the comics too), but I certainly did not. It’s a hell of a cliffhanger, and it left me both confused and excited, as well as frustrated that I’ll have to wait until a next season to find out how what and why.
Final thoughts
While I’m sitting here writing this, I’m trying to think of something I disliked, but I really can’t seem to come up with anything. I think the second season of The Umbrella Academy was solid. I think it’s just as good as the first season, maybe even better. But then again, that’s my personal opinion (but also it has broken a record for a reason, right?). In this second season, I felt like I got a better look into the minds of the siblings and got to know them better. Where in Season 1, I only really liked two characters, I now have grown to love all but one (sorry Luther … I do dislike you less than in Season 1, though).
Season 2 of The Umbrella Academy has lots of funny moments, sad moments, and moments filled with action. It’s very enjoyable to watch, and the episodes certainly don’t feel like they’re 45 minutes long. It’s like they say, time flies when you’re having fun!
The Umbrella Academy Season 2 can be streamed on Netflix.
The Umbrella Academy S2
