"The Umbrella Academy Season 3" Like a Bag of Marbles
I'm going to admit I've been a fan of this series for quite some time. As someone who still follows what My Chemical Romance does I read the comics hoping to get some more content of Gerard Way, since I was too young to truly appreciate the band when it was still around. Therefore, as one might assume, I was incredibly hyped to see this comic book series be translated to television, and distinctly remember the announcement and telling my friend to go watch it.
Overall, I enjoyed this season for the smorgasbord it was, while some parts I felt were subpar and perhaps not for me, I enjoyed the mess of variety it was, and thought overall it did a good job of making sure it didn't stumble along to the finish line. For a show this ambitious, and on Netflix nonetheless(although personally it did get shafted in terms of promotion) I feel as if its only fair to rate each storyline on its own, as it really is a lot to take in, and some have claimed it suffers from Game of Thrones syndrome where too much is happening.
I'll start off with Viktor. who I feel the most conflicted about personally, as his storyline felt the most polarizing in my opinion. For the record, I absolutely did not care at all for the Sissy storyline of last season, and while Harlan being representation of neurodivergent children is cool and all, I found the storyline to be lacking and odd. I didn't really understand why Viktor seemed to have this obsession with getting back to her, or him transferring his powers to Harlan. Therefore, its understandable to see why I found the Harlan storyline of this season to mostly feel useless, mainly as a way to explain the whole "paradox" and to tie up the cliffhanger of Harlan having powers. Despite all of this, I really enjoyed the Viktor's transition was handled and the rest of his storyline. I thought they portrayed the awkwardness that comes at first well, and showed that after that first awkwardness passes, its just not that different. Moreover, I thought that they were finally making good progress on fleshing out Viktor as a character and him finally accepting the consequences that come with apocalypse inducing abilities. Personally, I felt by giving Viktor amnesia last season it really crippled his ability to grow as a character and thought that his sort of back and forth rocky relationship with Allison and their moral qualms was done quite well.
Speaking of Allison, I already predict her storyline will be the most polarizing to fans, and for good reason. While her abilities weren't really on display this season, she definitely felt the consequence of everyone's powers the most. Throughout this season she makes the most valid points, her daughter is lost to the wind, and she left behind a new life just for the hope of finding her. Its almost as if she's a lost soul who believes she's paid enough for her crimes that she deserves to go back to them. I mean there's a good reason she no longer had custody of Claire, and its clear she's still struggling with being the good one. I mean who could blame her, she basically has this super cool power that she can rarely use because of how unethical it is, and so it makes sense that after all she's been through she snaps. I mean after all everyone comes to Viktor's rescue whenever his powers go AWOL but when it comes to Allison everyone just expects her to be responsible and keep them all in check. I'm not sure of what to fully make of her relationship between her and Luthor as its still so very awkward, and her trying to hook up with him as a rebound is still so weird in so many ways. On another point, didn't she make Luthor forget that she was about to rape him? So how did he remember and get mad at her? I'm not too sure but it's a very minor plot point so its whatever.
Moving on, I have feelings about Luthor, not in a weird way but in a way that I wanted to see him happy, yet was still disappointed after I was served what I got. While in season 1 his story was sad I didn't care much for Luthor and found that the whole incest thing felt bizarre anyways, but he really grew on me in season 2. There's just something about big strong kind of dumb loveable oafs that always get me, perhaps because I view myself as one of them. I don't really know but this season I felt that he didn't really do much. Near the end he did try and clean up some of the daddy issues but personally I do feel like he's one of the characters whose storylines got kind of shafted mostly just because they were unsure of what to do with him. I didn't really think he needed a love story and one that happened so quickly because I just felt like it was kind of forced and didn't really feel any sort of chemistry between the two. While him being more understanding with the other siblings was cool the random part where the Sparrows attempt to get him to join them felt very random.
Speaking of the Sparrows I also didn't know what to make of Ben this season. I feel like they should have leaned harder way into the Sparrows because much of the time they just kind of died off really quickly. Like I'm still unsure what Christopher's powers are or Alphonso's because they just kind of died in the first half of the season so that we could make room for the real stars. I just felt like they could have had a better ending and got sort of shafted, and I feel similar sentiments for Ben. I thought he would have tapped more into that trying to figure out how he died thing, and who is Jennifer anyways. I just felt like his character barely grew from yeah this Ben is a cold asshole, to hey maybe you're just trying to fit him into a box he never fit in anyways. I'm not too sure I really enjoyed him and his relationship with Klaus in previous seasons and just felt like he should have played a much larger role in this new season, as the "Asshole Ben" novelty wore off quite quickly.
I promise I do actually enjoy some storylines this season though, and Klaus was one of the ones I did indeed really found delightful. While I did think he could have used his powers of communicating with the dead much more he finally had some character development. Long gone are his childhood trauma and pining over Dave, and now comes a Klaus who attempts to connect with "deceased" parents while finally getting an upgrade. While he hardly gets any action in terms of combat and I do miss his interactions with Ben, its hard to deny that Klaus remains one of the most entertaining characters in the show, continuing to cement his position as fan favourite.
Continuing on the train of positivity Diego was a character I very much enjoyed. I thought that he needed to move on from the broody sort of dude who just serves to be rude to Luther and I very much enjoyed his pivot to fatherhood. While I'm not too sure what to make of Stanley and his relationship with Diego him sort of learning to accept more responsibility and show that he has a deep care for family was something I enjoyed. I'm still trying to figure out how his relationship with Lila works because frankly him leaving for 12 years is an odd dynamic and she doesn't fit too well into the academy at the moment.
Speaking of odd dynamics, what is up with Five and his future self this season? Frankly, as much as I am a fan of nerdy concepts the future past thing absolutely messed with my brain and I just sort of accepted it for what it is. I'm not very sure why he had to get the tattoo on his chest especially since he was trying to avoid his future, but I suppose he knows more about time than I do. Frankly, I understand that Pogo is expensive CGI but I so desperately wanted to see him in more scenes, because there's just something endearing about a talking monkey. I think a larger focus on Five retiring and sort of re-integrating himself into the family would have been more interesting than him just constantly going on solo adventures.
Final Score: 70/100
In conclusion, this season is very much reflected in the format of this review, a messy exterior that feels too disconnected and ambitious to really make much sense of it. Only until the end do the fruits of labor really reveal themselves and while the quality near the end deteriorates a bit in terms of production value the ending makes up for it wholeheartedly, setting the show up for once again a new premise with the same loveable cast of misfits.
Overall, I enjoyed this season for the smorgasbord it was, while some parts I felt were subpar and perhaps not for me, I enjoyed the mess of variety it was, and thought overall it did a good job of making sure it didn't stumble along to the finish line. For a show this ambitious, and on Netflix nonetheless(although personally it did get shafted in terms of promotion) I feel as if its only fair to rate each storyline on its own, as it really is a lot to take in, and some have claimed it suffers from Game of Thrones syndrome where too much is happening.
I'll start off with Viktor. who I feel the most conflicted about personally, as his storyline felt the most polarizing in my opinion. For the record, I absolutely did not care at all for the Sissy storyline of last season, and while Harlan being representation of neurodivergent children is cool and all, I found the storyline to be lacking and odd. I didn't really understand why Viktor seemed to have this obsession with getting back to her, or him transferring his powers to Harlan. Therefore, its understandable to see why I found the Harlan storyline of this season to mostly feel useless, mainly as a way to explain the whole "paradox" and to tie up the cliffhanger of Harlan having powers. Despite all of this, I really enjoyed the Viktor's transition was handled and the rest of his storyline. I thought they portrayed the awkwardness that comes at first well, and showed that after that first awkwardness passes, its just not that different. Moreover, I thought that they were finally making good progress on fleshing out Viktor as a character and him finally accepting the consequences that come with apocalypse inducing abilities. Personally, I felt by giving Viktor amnesia last season it really crippled his ability to grow as a character and thought that his sort of back and forth rocky relationship with Allison and their moral qualms was done quite well.
Speaking of Allison, I already predict her storyline will be the most polarizing to fans, and for good reason. While her abilities weren't really on display this season, she definitely felt the consequence of everyone's powers the most. Throughout this season she makes the most valid points, her daughter is lost to the wind, and she left behind a new life just for the hope of finding her. Its almost as if she's a lost soul who believes she's paid enough for her crimes that she deserves to go back to them. I mean there's a good reason she no longer had custody of Claire, and its clear she's still struggling with being the good one. I mean who could blame her, she basically has this super cool power that she can rarely use because of how unethical it is, and so it makes sense that after all she's been through she snaps. I mean after all everyone comes to Viktor's rescue whenever his powers go AWOL but when it comes to Allison everyone just expects her to be responsible and keep them all in check. I'm not sure of what to fully make of her relationship between her and Luthor as its still so very awkward, and her trying to hook up with him as a rebound is still so weird in so many ways. On another point, didn't she make Luthor forget that she was about to rape him? So how did he remember and get mad at her? I'm not too sure but it's a very minor plot point so its whatever.
Moving on, I have feelings about Luthor, not in a weird way but in a way that I wanted to see him happy, yet was still disappointed after I was served what I got. While in season 1 his story was sad I didn't care much for Luthor and found that the whole incest thing felt bizarre anyways, but he really grew on me in season 2. There's just something about big strong kind of dumb loveable oafs that always get me, perhaps because I view myself as one of them. I don't really know but this season I felt that he didn't really do much. Near the end he did try and clean up some of the daddy issues but personally I do feel like he's one of the characters whose storylines got kind of shafted mostly just because they were unsure of what to do with him. I didn't really think he needed a love story and one that happened so quickly because I just felt like it was kind of forced and didn't really feel any sort of chemistry between the two. While him being more understanding with the other siblings was cool the random part where the Sparrows attempt to get him to join them felt very random.
Speaking of the Sparrows I also didn't know what to make of Ben this season. I feel like they should have leaned harder way into the Sparrows because much of the time they just kind of died off really quickly. Like I'm still unsure what Christopher's powers are or Alphonso's because they just kind of died in the first half of the season so that we could make room for the real stars. I just felt like they could have had a better ending and got sort of shafted, and I feel similar sentiments for Ben. I thought he would have tapped more into that trying to figure out how he died thing, and who is Jennifer anyways. I just felt like his character barely grew from yeah this Ben is a cold asshole, to hey maybe you're just trying to fit him into a box he never fit in anyways. I'm not too sure I really enjoyed him and his relationship with Klaus in previous seasons and just felt like he should have played a much larger role in this new season, as the "Asshole Ben" novelty wore off quite quickly.
I promise I do actually enjoy some storylines this season though, and Klaus was one of the ones I did indeed really found delightful. While I did think he could have used his powers of communicating with the dead much more he finally had some character development. Long gone are his childhood trauma and pining over Dave, and now comes a Klaus who attempts to connect with "deceased" parents while finally getting an upgrade. While he hardly gets any action in terms of combat and I do miss his interactions with Ben, its hard to deny that Klaus remains one of the most entertaining characters in the show, continuing to cement his position as fan favourite.
Continuing on the train of positivity Diego was a character I very much enjoyed. I thought that he needed to move on from the broody sort of dude who just serves to be rude to Luther and I very much enjoyed his pivot to fatherhood. While I'm not too sure what to make of Stanley and his relationship with Diego him sort of learning to accept more responsibility and show that he has a deep care for family was something I enjoyed. I'm still trying to figure out how his relationship with Lila works because frankly him leaving for 12 years is an odd dynamic and she doesn't fit too well into the academy at the moment.
Speaking of odd dynamics, what is up with Five and his future self this season? Frankly, as much as I am a fan of nerdy concepts the future past thing absolutely messed with my brain and I just sort of accepted it for what it is. I'm not very sure why he had to get the tattoo on his chest especially since he was trying to avoid his future, but I suppose he knows more about time than I do. Frankly, I understand that Pogo is expensive CGI but I so desperately wanted to see him in more scenes, because there's just something endearing about a talking monkey. I think a larger focus on Five retiring and sort of re-integrating himself into the family would have been more interesting than him just constantly going on solo adventures.
Final Score: 70/100
In conclusion, this season is very much reflected in the format of this review, a messy exterior that feels too disconnected and ambitious to really make much sense of it. Only until the end do the fruits of labor really reveal themselves and while the quality near the end deteriorates a bit in terms of production value the ending makes up for it wholeheartedly, setting the show up for once again a new premise with the same loveable cast of misfits.
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