Quite some time ago, one of my blogger friends suggested I watch “The Umbrella Academy” on Netflix. She shared that it was about a group young adults who all had superpowers who were adopted as babies by an eccentric millionaire and raised together. Christie said she and her husband really enjoyed it, and knowing me, thought it’d be right up my alley.
It took me a while, but I finally got around to checking it out. Of course, Rabbie had already binge-watched and was quite enthusiastic about watching it again, but with me.
Now, in my opinion, the term “binge-worthy” is tossed around far too much these days. But this show is the best example I have found to exemplify the term. I have never watched a series as quickly as I did this one.
It is mind-blowing, terrifically entertaining, quirky as hell, trippy, romantic and comedic at just the right times. If you haven’t caught it yet, do so now. It is the definition of escapism, I swear.
Allow me to attempt to describe this show. “The Umbrella Academy” follows six unique individuals who were all born on the same day: Luther, Vanya, Allison, Klaus, Five, and Diego. There is a seventh, Ben, but he’s actually a ghost who only one character can see and interact with. All born to different women who didn’t know they were pregnant until the day they gave birth. An eccentric rich guy, Reginald Hargraeves, adopts them. He is, mysteriously, aware that each of them possess super powers. He raises them together, creating the “Umbrella Academy” within which all but 1 (not giving you any spoilers) undergoes rigid training to hone their superpowers and beef up their physical and mental capabilities. They are groomed specifically to utilize their powers to fight crime.
The show starts with them as adults, all convening in the creepy mansion in which they grew up, mourning, or should I say, coping with the effects of Reginald’s unexpected demise. The six (or should I say five-that anecdote will make sense once you watch it) are in their late 20’s and have not kept in touch or seen in each other in many years. They have a lot of familial dysfunction to deal with along with solving the mystery of their father’s death as well as why he did what he did in terms of raising them.
One of the six pops in from the future as the rest of them are gathered in the mansion, trying to make sense of Reginald’s sudden death. He tells them that the apocalypse is coming in 5 days and they must work together to change the timeline to prevent it. We soon find that he’s got assassins sent from another dimension to kill him.
There are twists and turns galore throughout the two seasons of this show. The show was created by one of the guys from the emo rock band my kids loved in the 90’s, “My Chemical Romance”. As a result, the soundtrack is killer. There’s even scenes where the characters dance.
If all of the above is not enough to convince you to start watching this show asap, there’s also a talking monkey butler, a robot mother, and wonderfully comedic scenes, many of which feature the actor Kate Walsh (from Grey’s Anatomy and The Practice). She plays a wicked character who looks like she came off the set of “The Hunger Games” movie franchise. She must have an absolute ball playing this character!
I couldn’t find the actual clip online of two of the characters dancing together to end this nerdy #fangirl blog post, but boy, was it a delightful scene. The video with this song is pretty damn cool though.
As a musicophile, I would like to note that this song is a cover. The original was performed by King Harvest the year that I was 6 years old.
Check it out!
***Header image courtesy of https://filmdaily.co/news/the-umbrella-academy-s2/ ****
Pollyanna's Path 