the umbrella academy season 2 review

alright lets crack right on with this. 

first impressions of the season - a lot more fun than s1. i love a more light hearted watch and while this deals (still) with the apocalypse, it's not as droll and slow paced as s1. while s1 often left a lot of the established tension slack, choosing to dip its toes in other pools while trying to establish the severity of impending end of the world, s2 leisurely takes its time a little more because you don't know exactly what happens. 

i have to say, overall, s2 did a lot of stuff better - but mostly the comedy and the more fun aspects. while you can see steve blackman clearly try to recreate those dance scenes that were so well received in s1, i can't help but feel that they felt so much more hamfisted in this season especially because he knew that they were big talking points of the show. these ones i felt myself just glazing over. 

with the subplots - i enjoyed allison and her husband's civil rights movement a lot, and it was a great addition considering that they probably would have had no idea about the current state of the world now. it was a nice touch. i also really enjoyed  the husband's performance - I genuinely was so impressed with his acting. i loved her whole subplot as well, i just wish it kinda showed up and fed into the other stories a little more since it felt like it happened in a bit of a microcosm. like, she just gets married and like, its never talked about again? wish there was more. 

with klaus' cult, it definitely felt like more of a distraction than anything. luther's subplot also dragged on for just a touch too long, and that moment where his boss comes to drop him just made my eyes roll so hard because you knew that it was just amped up for the plot. diego's plot arguably makes him the second most important sibling (After five), and because they intertwine so much, it was a great move. at no point do they decide to explain why the handler goes after diego instead of any other sibling and sends lila, arguably the most likely to frick frack between the two of them, but whatever. as always, vanya, despite having the MOST important impact to the story (in s1, sort of takes a backseat again in s2?) i always feel like ellen page just plays vanya a little too demure. i like that she shakes off some of those shackles from s1 in this season, but the whole subplot on the farm literally made my brain turn off. she's still the same, and now she's frick fracking with an unhappily married woman in the middle of nowhere. i just feel like there could have been so many other ways they took that storyline, and they just ended up making the worst choice for her storyline (imo). 

with five, as it always seems to center the most around him, as always, great performance from him and a cute touch with the older five there. i liked seeing him in action again as he slaughters all of the board- though i have to say the whole subplot with AJ carmichaels seemed to be glossed over so much it was a bit disappointing. it feels like something was really going to happen there, and then, bam, nothing. 

also that whole tease about baby pogo and reginald hargreeves' involvement in the story was unfortunately short and didn't really get the time it deserved. i like the inclusion of grace there, and their sort of subplot and the sneak reveal at the alien thing, tho i feel almost baited by the trailer by including something that ultimately ended up being a dead end. 

i think the use of music this season was a little weird to be honest though - i feel like a lot of popular songs were replaced with cover songs? i appreciated the swedish adele take, but the rest of them felt kinda weird since they weren't actually the original. i get that it was probably a money issue, but it honestly felt a bit lazy. 

the other thing i wanted to note was that i think it's cool that steve blackman decided to do this thing where he introduced more inclusive aspects of the show but it still feels relatively tokenized - which falls into the same traps that legion made, although it's a definite improvement in terms of the women representation thing. making a failed queer relationship, obscuring it as an affair was definitely one that felt disappointing to me, and by putting allison and ray in a happy relationship but having her leave at the end was a little, i guess? ok sure? 

as always, great performances from the whole cast, except the acting from teenage klaus was... genuinely painful to watch in a show where everyone was really fantastic. 

overall - i enjoyed it. i definitely wouldn't watch it again, but it was a fun watch and the plot remains incredibly compelling. would love to see what happens next - keen to see that s3 announcement.