The Umbrella Academy Netflix Original Season 2 Review
Major Spoilers are included in this season review. Please read with caution.
On July 31, 2020, I binge-watched The Umbrella Academy’s second season. I originally was going to pace myself over the August 1st weekend, but then somewhere along the way I decided to consume season two—all ten episodes—in one sitting. I had an amazing experience watching season two than I did season one, despite both seasons having the same basic premise: stopping the Apocalypse within a set number of days.
At the end of the first season, Five (Aidan Gallagher) transported himself and his siblings—Luther (Tom Hopper), Diego (David Castaneda), Allison (Emmy Raver-Lampman), Klaus (Robert Sheehan), Ben (Justin H. Min), and Vanya (Ellen Page)—back in time to give stopping the Apocalypse another try. However of course, the time travel goes wrong when Five accidentally scatters his siblings across Dallas, Texas throughout the 1960’s. As a result, Five must waste time searching for them and convincing them to reunite as a family in order to stop a different Apocalypse that will end the world—during the 1960’s—in ten days.
The Hargreeves siblings also have to save the world without ruining the timeline while also battling assassins sent by The Commission—Five’s former timeline protecting employers. On top of that, they have to investigate another mystery surrounding their father Sir Reginald Hargreeves, who is somehow involved in the assassination of John F. Kennedy. While these storylines were similar—if not the same—from the season one storylines right down to the Apocalypse, season two didn’t exactly feel like a repetition.
In my season 1 review, I mentioned how the writers seemed more focused on plot than characters, which was something they corrected in this season, giving us more on the character journeys rather than laying out clues about what causes the second Apocalypse. Clues were planted similar to first season, but the season—or rather the characters—wasn’t focused on them.
The Hargreeves siblings just assumed they were the cause somehow due to them not belonging in the 1960’s and wreaking havoc on the timeline. To be fair, they were the cause of the first Apocalypse in 2019, so their theory wasn’t so far out there. Diego found a convoluted way to connect it to JFK’s assassination, but that was because he really wanted to stop it.
I’m not saying The Umbrella Academy—or Team Zero is what Diego started calling themselves—didn’t investigate how the world ended because they did look into it, but this season was focused more heavily on the dysfunctional aspects of the Hargreeves’ family dynamics, giving each sibling a chance to shine throughout season two’s first half.
Luther ended up becoming a bodyguard and a fighter to numb the pain, Diego was trying to stop JFK’s assassination and got locked up in a mental asylum for it, Allison was a civil rights activist and a married woman, Klaus became a sober cult leader, Ben was still a dead ghost following Klaus around, and Vanya lived on a farm with severe amnesia. Five—like in season one—was still trying to save the world while working to get his siblings together and on board with his plans.
Diego was given much needed character development in this season, making me realize how underutilized he actually was in the first season. His siblings and the other characters treated him as a Batman wannabe with a hero complex and big daddy issues, which was deconstructed during this season through his interactions with Five, new love interest Lila (Ritu Arya), and his father Sir Reginald Hargreeves (Colm Feore).
Regarding the other siblings’ character journeys, Allison had to deal with the harsh reality of living in Jim Crow-era Texas, where she and other Black people were dehumanized and discriminated against. Struggles her non-Black siblings couldn’t possibly understand. The “Whites Only” sign that hung in a diner, police brutality at said diner and Allison’s own home where they just barged in, and Allison’s sit-in protest turned riot were reminders that while great progress was made with the Civil Rights Movement; there was still a lot more to do in today’s times with the Black Lives Matter Movement 2020 still raging on.
Vanya’s amnesia and living on a farm could’ve easily felt clichéd, but the reset on her mind allowed her to connect more with her siblings without the emotional baggage weighing her down. This also gave the siblings time to reconnect with Vanya while they sought ways to heal and forgive each other for the events of season 1 that lead to the first Apocalypse. Luther and Vanya’s early season 2 scenes were filled with great emotional turmoil that reminded us how Sir Reginald Hargreeves wasn’t the only one to blame for Vanya’s childhood struggles.
Klaus had a ridiculous cult leader storyline with great emotional payoff, as it picked up plot threads from the trauma he received while time-displaced in the Vietnam War.
The season 2 villains weren’t nearly as strong as Hazel and Cha-Cha from season 1, but the writers didn’t want to pull the attention away from the Hargreeves siblings and their dysfunctional family dynamics. The action fight scenes were still amazing and well-choreographed though with a killer soundtrack. Aside from the weak villain link though, season 2 surpassed season 1 in every perceivable way.
Overall, I would highly recommend The Umbrella Academy’s first two seasons. The funny banter among siblings, the action sequences, the plot, and the dysfunctional family bonds were vastly improved upon. The groundwork for a season 3 was also established in the last few minutes, so there is still a lot more to come!
Thanks for reading this season review, everyone! I hope you have—or had if you already had—a good time with this superhero series like I did. I’ll see you all next time!