Season Review: The Umbrella Academy Season 2
The anticipation building up to quite a popular season was predictably drowned out by coronavirus, but for some, like me, it served as a nice, timely distraction and a much-needed dose of cheesiness into my days. You have to manage your expectations with these kinds of series’, the memo was never going to prioritise a unique villain and a convoluted problem. In its foundations, I started to liken this series to Stranger Things, especially in this season with the time era the heroes found themselves in from the get-go. The multiple protagonists with wacky costumes and focus on extreme special effects come to mind immediately as similarities.
Into the judgement of this specific season, I found myself more immersed in the story straight away compared to Season One, still not the most gripping storyline, but the head was tilted, and the ears were perked. I have to say though, my main joy with this season was with general execution of certain scenes, more so fight scenes than any other but many others with it. Whoever picked the background music for the casual fight scenes did such an amazing job, not just end of the episode showdown fights, but most fights from the beginning middle or the end were just so well-choreographed, so cinematic and almost overwhelmingly entertaining. I’m a huge fan of when shows go for the funky music that almost goes against the tone considering stakes, but just adds tempo and makes it far more gripping.
There are far too many characters to go through them, but for some reason this season made me notice Aidan Gallagher as Number Five far more now that I’m a critical viewer. This guy is 16 years old, and he’s playing a 58-year-old man in a 13 year old’s body, and it may go under the radar because he wasn’t required to cry on camera or deliver a soliloquy, but Aidan just produced one of the best acting performances I have seen. His mannerisms actually felt like that of a 58-year-old, as well as his speaking and confusing authority around fellow heroes. I could sit here listing these, but the bottom line is that he sells his character better than I bet the director could have asked.
I wasn’t absolutely sold on the main story all the way through, I cant say why, but perhaps the urgency wasn’t totally there for me, the dominant theme was filled more by the side stories than the main problem, this didn’t hinder it greatly because I enjoyed everything else so much, but I have to provide a reason for it not literally earning the absolute highest marks.
My final admiration for the season comes in the form of new characters, the iconic antagonist trio that is introduced were a very nice balance of creepy, dangerous and cool. It felt very new, but also classic in recipe. Their final chapter was also perfectly executed along with the scene they were a part of, which in my opinion salvaged the storyline very well.
This is a series of absolute art in the categories of cinematography, directing, costumes and choreography, not the best series you’ll ever watch, but for most, I expect it will be in contender for the best this year.
Rating: 9/10
