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So this came out. I finished it this morning. They changed things from the comic but i think its for the better. Certain characters have lost a power they had in the comics, or a thing they have they have for different reasons. But it manages to keep a LOT of the dumb comic booky things while keeping the over all brutal elements and adult themes of a lot of the relationships.

Also the music is just flat out great.

I'm 5 episodes in, so far so good. I've not read the comic so I'm looking at it entirely on the merits of the show, but thus far it's been entertaining. It's done a good job juggling the large cast, though I feel Vanya has been a little underused in this first half. The writing has been pleasantly snappy and the plot has managed to introduce a new twist each time it's started to get a little predictable.

I feel there might be a risk of leaning too far into the crazy side of things, Time Travel especially could go too far if they're not careful, but so far they've handled it well.

It does feel like a show made exactly for the current Netflix zeitgeist, there's a lot of elements that seem to come from other shows they've made or part-made previously. The heavy intrigue (and great soundtrack choices ) of Stranger Things, the sci-fi absurdism of Dirk Gently, the dingy feel of Daredevil or Titans... Even the score is composed by Jeff Russo, who's done a fair bit of work for their shows previously.

So if I have one criticism, it's that it doesn't feel particularly revalatory or groundbreaking, but at the same time, not every show can or should be. It's no Stranger Things or Daredevil, but it doesn't need to be. On its own, it's really quite good, and I look forward to watching the rest.

 Paradigm wrote:
I'm 5 episodes in, so far so good. I've not read the comic so I'm looking at it entirely on the merits of the show, but thus far it's been entertaining. It's done a good job juggling the large cast, though I feel Vanya has been a little underused in this first half. The writing has been pleasantly snappy and the plot has managed to introduce a new twist each time it's started to get a little predictable.

I feel there might be a risk of leaning too far into the crazy side of things, Time Travel especially could go too far if they're not careful, but so far they've handled it well.

It does feel like a show made exactly for the current Netflix zeitgeist, there's a lot of elements that seem to come from other shows they've made or part-made previously. The heavy intrigue (and great soundtrack choices ) of Stranger Things, the sci-fi absurdism of Dirk Gently, the dingy feel of Daredevil or Titans... Even the score is composed by Jeff Russo, who's done a fair bit of work for their shows previously.

So if I have one criticism, it's that it doesn't feel particularly revalatory or groundbreaking, but at the same time, not every show can or should be. It's no Stranger Things or Daredevil, but it doesn't need to be. On its own, it's really quite good, and I look forward to watching the rest.

The comic was created and written by Gerald Way, former front man/lead singer of My Chemical Romance who quit the band more or less to go write comic books. I think he had a heavy influence in the sound track choices and a couple of his make it into the show,

About half way through and enjoying it so far. I think I know who the big bad is gonna be already though. I feel like in some parts they're starting to drag it out a little bit though, but overall pretty solid so far.

Only a few episodes into it, but it feels a lot more grounded than the comics, which get plenty surreal. As an example, in the comic Luther didn't get an experimental serum, but instead...



Overall, it's a well-done adaptation though.

Finished it tonight, overall a very enjoyable series.

I do feel certain plot beats in the second half were perhaps a little too signposted and predictable, but any weakness in the storytelling was more than made up for by the way all the character beats landed. Some real gut punches in the second half and by the end I'm still not really sure which side I was rooting for.



Aside from that, Klaus was the standout character for me. A really compelling performance of a character archetype I usually don't really appreciate that much. Normally I find that stoner stereotype hard to sympathise with, but his performance really did sell it.

I look forward to the presumably-coming second series.

I liked it, though I felt the series really dragged a bit in the middle till episode nine. Maybe I'm out of line, but I find the "our dad sucks looked how screwed up we are" thing to be really overdone at this point. I don't know when the comic came out, but I've definitely seen it in this genre at good hundred times already and it wasn't that interesting the first time.

Five was great. Normally I hate time travel in stories. It's often just a dumb gimmick that doesn't make any coherent sense in how it's presented, but I think this one really managed to make it work and the actor they picked to play him really managed to sell the whole thing.

I'll also second Paradigm on Klaus. For a ten episode series it's amazing that most of the character end the same agitating brats they started as, but Klaus actually managed to have a character arc with an emotion other than angst behind it.

Also going to give a shout out to Hazel and Cha-Cha. Those two deserve some credit for how well they sold their character too.

Show was fantastic, and has a great set up for a second season. Fantastic music, great fighting, a surprising amount of dancing, and arcs for everyone that felt really fleshed out.

After I watched it I read a synopsis of the comic. Thank God they didn't make that.

Finished last night, there were some slow spots but I enjoyed it overall. I guess Netflix is looking for other comics to adapt now that Marvel is off the table. I liked Klaus the best, looks like everyone else did. I gave him a "just another stoner kid" eyeroll at first, glad they took him where they did. And with 5 I was like "Just another kid actor" at first, and he ended up one of my favorites too. I liked Hazel a lot too, but that might just be because I'm also a chubby fella who appreciates a good donut.

Looking forward to season 2 for sure

I finished this last night. I have been recommending this to everyone. I think every actor in it did a great job. There were some obvious standouts, but they were all great. Hazel, Five, and Klaus all killed it.

I thought I had the story figured out pretty early on but it definitely did not roll out the way I expected. I was right in a lot of ways but oh so wrong in others.

The music was always great and well done. I assumed they would probably have to have this on lockdown considering they have Gerard Way as a writer and Mary J. Blige as an actress. I doubt either of them would be alright with a crap product, musically speaking. Also, I did not realize Mary was such a good actress.

Every character was different at the end. Not a single one failed to change at all which was pretty big for me. I look forward to Season 2!

https://www.rocksound.tv/news/read/netflix-the-umbrella-academy-season-two-renewed-confirmed-gerard-way?fbclid=IwAR1RPsAec1prgQTR9a425e89j71LxHqcSOqRD89qo5oxVIAu9whN4cyg_QI

Renewed for a second season. *cough*bumptothetop*cough*

Well that's good.

I'm not sure I like the idea of Season 2 having them all be kids.

I imagine that'll be a temporary thing, or at least there'll be some kind of wibbly-wobbly timey-wimeyness that means they switch back and forth.

The best thing about the show is it's cast, so they're not going to throw that away for anything more than one episode or so, I reckon.

 Dreadwinter wrote:
I finished this last night. I have been recommending this to everyone. I think every actor in it did a great job. There were some obvious standouts, but they were all great. Hazel, Five, and Klaus all killed it.

I thought the actor for Number Five in particular was tremendous.

Overall, the show was really good, although a very grounded version of the comics. It's interesting how UA toned down some of the more surreal aspects, while Doom Patrol has fully embraced the weird. I think I expected it to be the other way around. Still, UA made a few references to the weirder stuff from the comics (like the Eiffel Tower incident), without elaborating what they were all about. And it seems like their choices were good for general audiences. My wife has been watching UA, but I'm not sure she'd be into it if was the unadulterated version.

What makes the UA so palitable isnt the inclusion or exclusion of the crazier elements. Its how character driven and well acted it is.

Any crazy gak could happen to and around these people but as long as the show is actually about them instead of those crazier elemnts people would be on board with seeing their stories.

I expect doom patrol will have a set up episode or 2 about the characters and then will become about the events and bad guys they fight. Which will get the more general audiences to disconnect from these wierd people they don't care about.

Klaus and Five were definitely the highlights of the show for me, it's one of the few instances where a child actor completely nailed their role in my opinion. Oftentimes, they come off as either too whiny/useless or saccharine depending on the genre.

Definitely interested in seeing where they're headed for Season 2, and if they'll reveal any other secrets regarding Sir Hargreeves, given that his background seems tied to the future. (Oddly enough, apparently he's an alien in the comics).

 Grimskul wrote:
Klaus and Five were definitely the highlights of the show for me, it's one of the few instances where a child actor completely nailed their role in my opinion. Oftentimes, they come off as either too whiny/useless or saccharine depending on the genre.

Definitely interested in seeing where they're headed for Season 2, and if they'll reveal any other secrets regarding Sir Hargreeves, given that his background seems tied to the future. (Oddly enough, apparently he's an alien in the comics).

Alien in this too. You see his flash back of the rockets taking off and leaving his home world. Like all the really wierd elements in the show hey just dont address it. Like his flying car from episode 1.

 Lance845 wrote:

 Grimskul wrote:
Klaus and Five were definitely the highlights of the show for me, it's one of the few instances where a child actor completely nailed their role in my opinion. Oftentimes, they come off as either too whiny/useless or saccharine depending on the genre.

Definitely interested in seeing where they're headed for Season 2, and if they'll reveal any other secrets regarding Sir Hargreeves, given that his background seems tied to the future. (Oddly enough, apparently he's an alien in the comics).

Alien in this too. You see his flash back of the rockets taking off and leaving his home world. Like all the really wierd elements in the show hey just dont address it. Like his flying car from episode 1.

I thought those were nukes flying off in the background, signalling an apocalypse he escaped. Whoops. Must have been distracted with my dog at the time. It would explain his detachment towards the children and seeing them as just tools if he wasn't their species to begin with.

I didn't pick up on anything too alieny.. I thought they were nukes too .. I took it as his end of the world was a nuclear war, and he went back in time to prevent it. He changed his future by adopting the kids, but ended up with a totally different end of the world that he still needed to prevent somehow.

Interesting. Maybe they are changing it into a time travel thing with him preventing one end of the world and creating another.

But if that was the case you would think Number 5's employers would have sent some people after Reginald Hargreaves.

 Lance845 wrote:
Interesting. Maybe they are changing it into a time travel thing with him preventing one end of the world and creating another.

But if that was the case you would think Number 5's employers would have sent some people after Reginald Hargreaves.

This was my interpretation of the flashback. He was from a timeline where the world was ending but he went back to change it, only to cause it to end in other ways now. I think steering away from the comics is good in this case.

I got a friend from work interested in it and he loved the show. He was asking me about the comics and I told him the differences between comic #1 and show #1. His immediate reaction was "Oh yeah, they made the right choice for the show then."

I have herd a lot of people dis the Netflix Marvel movies for being a slow burn with too many episodes. This show has the exact same issues. The first half each episode felt twice as long as it should have been.

That said, I am fine enough with the show, but my family almost bailed on it after episode 3.

Bit of a slow burn perhaps, but I didn't think it dragged or felt padded like some of the Marvel series. Vanya's story wasn't rip-roaring excitement, but I felt like all of it was needed since she had the most important arc.

I mean, I'm a fan of the comic and all its frenetic insanity that's somewhat absent in the show, and I didn't have that reaction. *shrug*

 gorgon wrote:
Bit of a slow burn perhaps, but I didn't think it dragged or felt padded like some of the Marvel series. Vanya's story wasn't rip-roaring excitement, but I felt like all of it was needed since she had the most important arc.

I mean, I'm a fan of the comic and all its frenetic insanity that's somewhat absent in the show, and I didn't have that reaction. *shrug*

Yeah, I was fine with the pacing. For someone that wasn't familiar with the comics at all, it was a good enough start to get me invested. I feel like too many people are used to the instant gratification of youtube vids and other forms of entertainment like the recent trend of battle royales right now for video games. You miss out on a lot of gems that start off slow like Better Call Saul when you expect to be excited 24/7.

I've been watching episodes of The Six Million Dollar Man (reliving my childhood), and it's really interesting how different the pace of a 1970s show is. It was considered to be in the action genre, but there are plenty of scenes that involve people just standing around discussing the latest plot development. It's a little jarring.

I think UA nailed its pacing to be honest. Every time I felt it was getting slow or stale (usually about every 2 episodes or so) it'd drop in some new twist or character or development that refreshed it. By the end of the show, you could almost set your watch by when the next twist was coming (not that I minded that, as mentioned it's the character arcs and performances rather than the narrative that kept me watching).

Likewise, I feel it handled its reveals at a good pace, things were rarely just explained away instantly, but equally nothing was left hanging long enough for the viewer to stop caring or forget. Structurally, the show as a whole was really well put together as far as I'm concerned.

Just as I've also been watching it recently and comparisons have been made with the Marvel stuff, I think UA compares quite favourably in this regard to Punisher S1. Which isn't to say that Punisher isn't an excellent well-made show, but the first half of the series I watched after finishing UA felt, by comparison, very plodding. Not that all shows need to keep up a rapid pace to work, Punisher is definitely a slow burn, but it did make me appreciate how well UA kept things fresh every couple of episodes.

UA was so much better than I expected it to be. The music selection was truly inspired. Robert Sheehan is one of my favorite actors ever since I saw him in Misfits. Aidan Gallagher was 15 when this show was made? Holy feth that kid can act his arse off.

As for Sir Reginald Hargreeves, I first thought he might be just a time traveler but then he travelled back to the Titanic days and lived to modern time so... alien it is then. Still not sure what the connection to Earth is or why the Bureau didn't take him out given he wants to stop the sky from falling and they want to make sure it happens.

 Breotan wrote:
UA was so much better than I expected it to be. The music selection was truly inspired. Robert Sheehan is one of my favorite actors ever since I saw him in Misfits. Aidan Gallagher was 15 when this show was made? Holy feth that kid can act his arse off.

As for Sir Reginald Hargreeves, I first thought he might be just a time traveler but then he travelled back to the Titanic days and lived to modern time so... alien it is then. Still not sure what the connection to Earth is or why the Bureau didn't take him out given he wants to stop the sky from falling and they want to make sure it happens.

I am not sure what needs to be spoiled in what I am about to say so I am going to just do it all.

Felt very mediocre and derivative. Edit: To the point where I actually wish I hadn't bothered to watch it and will do my best to forget it.
I do generally dislike . Also, in Klaus's case the

Watched it. Quite enjoyed it. Haven’t read the comics. I’ll add my voice to the chorus that Klaus was probably the best of the siblings. Music was amazing. My two minor quibbles would be The Day That Wasn’t, as it was mostly just an episode of stuff that didn’t happen. At least they used the stuff that didn’t get rewritten to show alternate view points in the follow up episode. Was also a little disappointed by the ending, in part because we didn’t get to see them solve the problem, and in part because I’m worried they’ll rewrite a few of the characters’ ends like Hazel and Donut Girl. Basically a similar complaint to Wasn’t.