When It Rains, Grab The Umbrella Academy

The Umbrella Academy was created and written by none other than My Chemical Romance lead vocalist Gerard Way. The first limited comic book series for The Umbrella Academy was released in 2007 by Dark Horse Comics. It won an award and two more series were released after that. February 15, 2019 Netflix released a television adaption of the comic book series. Gerard Way and his illustrator Gabriel Bá are co-executive producers of the show. So what's it about? 43 infants were born around the world to a bunch of women who were not previously pregnant. Each child posses unique abilities and a inventor named Sir Reginald Hargreeves, played by Colm Feore, adopts seven of them and trains them to fight crime under the name, The Umbrella Academy. The show starts off with all the kids as adults, separated, but finding themselves coming back home after the death of their father.

If you've never read the comics, you'll probably be a little confused with what is happening. That is where I felt myself lacking while watching the show, I would drift off because I had no idea what was happening and some scenes tended to drag on. The show is full of clichés but that is where some of the heart of it tends to be. The characters all have really interesting backstories along with powers that kept me interested to finding more about. Specifically one of the brother's named Klaus, who has the ability to contact the dead, but can only do it when he is sober, which the joke is he never seems to be. This character to me had an emotional story line and actor Robert Sheehan embodied him so well, I felt myself watching him the most in the scenes. Along with their other brother, Number Five, who has the ability to time travel seemed to lead the scenes he was in and he is the youngest member in the academy. I found the romantic relationship between two of the siblings, Luther and Allison, to be a bit odd, especially since they refer to each other as brothers and sisters. Ellen Page's character, Vanya, does not get an interesting story line till later on in the show which made it almost predicable about what was going to happen with her.

"I think we're alone now, there doesn't seem to be anyone around." Classic hits by Tiffany, Queen, and Heart are included on the soundtrack in the show. The music chosen hyped up the scene alone, starting off in episode 1 where all the kids are in their old rooms or by themselves in the house. Luther, played by Tom Hopper, puts on Tiffany's song and it can be heard throughout the house. Each of the siblings starts to slowly dance to the song and the camera pulls out to a wide shot where we can see into each room of the house and everyone dancing by themselves. This may be one of the best scenes in the show. And as most shows on Netflix are, the first and last episodes were easily the best, which was unfortunate in the sense that I was looking for a little more within the other episodes. Scenes tended to drag on to where you almost got bored before they would finally switch scenes or some action would happen. There are also a lot of time jumps you have to keep up with but their transitions are really smooth and the CGI done was fun to watch. There's explosions and a lot of magic in the scenes that overpowered the screen, which is what you're aiming for in an action series.

The comic series seems to have a big following so I cannot speak on how well the comic transferred to the television show. But what is refreshing to see is a group of superheroes that are not always perfect and have failed. Vanya, one out of two sisters, was not apart of the academy and was treated differently because she has no powers. She struggles with being the outcast and is always left out. So what happens when you're in that position? You'll have to watch to find out.

I give it 7/10 stars.

Why Does It Matter?

The show has a lot of heart when it comes to family and accepting each other for who you are. Loving yourself for what you may or may not have. And how to be a good sibling. All the characters face problems with love and family and trying to figure out how to be a better person for those situations. The family dynamic, even though they fight a lot, they all love each other and want to save their family before the apocalypse comes. Even though this is on a grand scale of things, you may be able to find yourself relating to one character or dealing with a similar situation like theirs. Or maybe you just need a superhero in your life you can look up to.

-Brittany Doyle

For more information on Gerard Way and how the series came about check out:

https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/tv/la-et-st-gerard-way-umbrella-academy-chemical-romance-20190312-story.html