The Umbrella Academy Season 2 Review

August 1, 2020 at 4:07am
By Jason Stettner

This is a Netflix Original Series based on a comic that follows a family of super heroes. They came together as children under a structured father type figure and are now emotionally stunted adults. This might be due to them being numbered instead of named, or that they didn't get a whole lot of attention while young. Moving past that, the dysfunctional family has found themselves flung through time and are now having to deal with problems of the past.

It’s actually quite interesting, the concept for this season and the particular time period they find themselves within. This is a time of one intense assassination, civil unrest and of course other smaller problems too with the group factoring into how the timeline gets messed up. When it comes to the social issues this is sort of perfect for the current situations of today, and it does a fantastic job of placing itself within the setting.

On top of that, it makes the issues shown relatable to the times of today, which in itself is somewhat fascinating due to the timing of this season. Past that, they did a great job setting up some insane action pieces, and then going in a completely different direction afterwards. It was very interesting to see a sort of splinter within the group, and then the series of events that sort of lead them to running into one another as time progresses.

This certainly doesn’t mean that they just easily team up, just that some fun run-ins happen throughout the season. It’s a very odd sort of situation, and it’s also neat how they build up other aspects of the overall universe as well. You get a lot more context into the behind the scenes of the time line being altered, and some wild conclusive moments as well. They don’t hold back on the conflict, visceral scenes or even the action of unleashing the group’s various unique abilities throughout the season. Five most certainly gets intense at points.

The cast really hit their stride in this season, as each were dealing with wildly different problems throughout the episodes. It’s once again sort of tied together through the great performance from Number Five (Aiden Gallagher). I also liked the deeper focus on Ben (Justin H. Min) and on Ellen Page’s Vanya since she got a better showcase this time around as well.

I did of course enjoy the struggles of the others as they each truly found out who they were this season. You had Diego (David Castaneda) dealing with a mental institution placement since he wants to save the president from being assassinated. You also have Allison (Emmy Raver-Lampman) working on the civil rights movement within the United States and Luther (Tom Hopper) giving up on the others. Finally there’s Klaus (Robert Sheehan) reaching some new heights which was interesting and different for him.

There were other surprises, but I’m not supposed to disclose those at the current time, and that’s fine since they’re fun things to witness as the episodes progress. This was definitely a tighter selection of moments. That provided excellent pacing, well developed plot lines and so many surprises along the way. I was also certainly impressed by the boost in the visual quality as the CGI was mostly top notch there, providing some really awesome scenes throughout. The powers really come into play, and at a scale that the first season couldn’t come close to touching.

The Conclusion

The Umbrella Academy Season 2 is a fantastic continuation of the series, doing some fun things with the characters while having strong story elements that are impactful to the current climate of today. It’s really neat when those sort of things line-up so well, and I can’t wait to see where they take this if it does continue onwards.

They have a stellar cast, and the potential to tell one fascinating story since the aspect of playing with time offers almost unlimited potential. This is teased so hard, and danced upon throughout the season in many ways. This opens up with one incredible sequence, and really sets the stage for a great season.

I was blown away by the quality here, the direction of the episodes and the pacing here. They play around with things well. That in turn provides good laughs, tons of action and character development that matters for the roster. I think there will be some truly shocking moments, and turns that will certainly move the series in an exciting direction if it is to continue past this. I definitely enjoyed it, a great upgrade on the first series for sure.

The Umbrella Academy Season 2 Review at Home with Streamed Viewing
Screening was Provided by Netflix

Rating Overall: 9.1