In simply six episodes, The Umbrella Academy season four has the unenviable activity of wrapping up a Netflix series full of complicated characters—and an much more complicated storyline involving superpowers, aliens, time journey, altered timelines, and a number of apocalypses. And that’s with out even moving into the present’s principal theme, which is household drama. A lot household drama.
As anticipated, there’s loads of that packed into all six episodes, with private angst and long-simmering resentments compounded by the truth that—due to the events of season three—the Hargreeves siblings (Robert Sheehan as Klaus, Emmy Raver-Lampman as Allison, Tom Hopper as Luther, Aidan Gallagher as 5, Elliot Web page as Viktor, and David Castañeda as Diego—plus non-Umbrella Academy members of the family Justin H. Min as Ben and Ritu Arya as Lila) have been stripped of their varied talents. Whereas we do get to spend time with the characters of their regular-human states, present on ranges that vary from “doing OK truly” to “whole sad-sack,” it doesn’t take lengthy earlier than their powers are restored.
Not everybody needs to be made “particular” once more; because the present likes to remind us, having superpowers could be a blessing however is much extra typically a curse. However that is The Umbrella Academy, which constructions each season across the characters’ rush to stop an impending doomsday. Season 4 isn’t any completely different, and superpowers do turn out to be useful when the top of the world is at stake.
This evaluation goes to fastidiously keep away from plot specifics or spoilers, however it’s not giving something away to notice that the Hargreeves, final seen scattering in several instructions on the finish of season three, reluctantly reunite when certainly one of them is in misery. Whereas the staff grapples with the awkwardness of regaining their powers, to not point out the awkwardness of getting to be in shut proximity to one another—particularly when it entails a puke-soaked street journey set to the diabolical sounds of “Child Shark”—The Umbrella Academy additionally pokes into the model of actuality they’re now inhabiting.
Seems the Resort Oblivion timeline reset did extra injury than simply eradicating the Hargreeves’ superpowers. The glue holding the universe collectively is so porous, artifacts from different timelines have began popping up—attracting the eye of a conspiracy-theorist group referred to as the Keepers. Sporting tattoos which can be inverted variations of The Umbrella Academy emblem, the Keepers are led by a folksy husband-wife staff named Gene and Jean (real-life husband-wife staff Nick Offerman and Megan Mullally). They fill a well-recognized Umbrella Academy slot: antagonists as quirky as they’re lethal.
Whereas Offerman and Mullally are, as at all times, pleasant performers, Gene and Jean aren’t the one season-four factor that feels well-worn. io9’s largely positive review of season three raised a grievance that comes again round right here, too: The Umbrella Academy is a present a couple of household that units apocalypses in movement, after which has to frantically work to stop them.
Although the circumstances are completely different every time—in season 4, the disaster has an intriguing tie to a darkish second in Umbrella Academy historical past—the overall thrust of the story once more feels repetitive. Possibly too repetitive, even with the understanding that the grand finale may need extra permanence than in earlier iterations; that is, in any case, the ultimate season, and the present does discover a bittersweet if abrupt option to tackle The Umbrella Academy‘s unavoidably cyclical narrative.
However alongside these strains, it doesn’t assist that throughout popular culture we’ve lately been inundated with tales about sacred timelines and alternate realities and variant characters. The Umbrella Academy‘s been taking part in round with that for the reason that present hit Netflix in 2019 (the source-material Darkish Horse Comics debuted in 2007), and actually it’s a long-familiar sandbox for sci-fi on the whole. However due to the inescapable presence of Deadpool and associates, the idea has by no means fairly felt a lot within the vein of “oh, this once more?”
Happily, nevertheless, that is nonetheless The Umbrella Firm, and the present’s much-loved model of silliness and a focus to offbeat element (although season 4 is ostensibly set in modern instances, rotary telephones abound, and no person ever checks Google) will get loads of time to shine even with a shorter season.
Among the many forged, Web page’s Viktor will get a very satisfying storyline that sees him mending fences with the household’s troublesome patriarch, Sir Reginald Hargreeves (Colm Feore)—even when it’s not the model of “Reggie” he grew up with. Arya’s Lila can also be a standout; although she’s not an authentic Hargreeves child, she’s saddled with loads of her personal baggage and will get a heartfelt journey to sift by means of all of it—ditto Min’s Ben, whose season-four arc careens from salty to candy to monstrous in ways in which really feel well-earned. (Alas, fan-favorite Klaus will get a bit short-changed this season.)
And as for that trademark Hargreeves goofiness, season 4 delivers on an Umbrella Academy trademark we’ll by no means name repetitive: the kick-ass, hilarious combat scene. The truth that the motion takes place at Christmas would really feel like an afterthought, if not for an outrageous sequence set round a vacation honest (should you’ve seen the trailer, a gun-toting Santa is concerned)—and because of a cleverly spectacular brawl involving Luther and Diego that falls later within the season, you’ll by no means take heed to “Secret Agent Man” the identical approach once more.
The Umbrella Academy season 4 is now streaming on Netflix.
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