the umbrella academy

ameraal

ameraal

la loi de murphy
Joined
Jun 24, 2004
Messages
45,061
how is no one watching this? it's the perfect (if a bit slow) blend of new superhero, old-school family drama and 90s nostalgia. there's just an inch off about it but i can't wait to get through the whole she-bang.
 
Finished it yesterday

i thought Ellen Page was great in those last two episodes. Mary was surprisingly good and I enjoyed her and Hazel.
 
I really like it. I really wanna LOVE IT, but why the hell does each episode feel like 90 minutes and sometimes a chore to get through not to mention the pacing is so slow it makes ROMA look like an instagram clip
 
finally got through it.
BEST superhero series in a long long time omg. Defenders could never.
 
i finished this last night. i'm in a bit of a tizz as it could have been so much better - the production was wonderful and the story is brilliant but it wasn't particularly well told. the pacing was a bit meh, some of it was really hamfisted, other parts really lazy or glazed over and some pretty poor acting (i thought poor dickon was really shoddy and though i love mary j blige she looked like she was just doing that gif of her reacting to aguilera).

the worst thing about it however was ellen page. i feel bad for never liking her. from wishing her death in hard candy to wishing her death in juno, i can't remember wishing death on someone's characters quite as much.

so yeah, this was pretty good but it could've been really great.
 
I thought she was marvelous and when she let it all rip in the end. I loved it.

Also they spent a whole lot of money on that last episode. It looked really good.
 
I still have an episode or two to go but what a mediocre show. still excited to see Ellen Page spazz out though
 
ameraal said:
the worst thing about it however was ellen page.
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I think the worst is the recurring sister love/hatred between Vanya and Allison that gets a full scene or two to itself every episode, cheesy lines included, to achieve the cheapest drama. what a lazy script

I thought you were my SISTER! I love you, you're my SISTER! YOU ARE NOT MY SISTER!
 
also WHO THE FUCK thought that Dancing in the Moonlight would be appropriate for any soundtrack ever?! YUCK
 
Loved this from beginning to end. The final episode was so much better than I was expecting. I always have expectations when watching new things and I was initially convinced that Leonard was a serial killer then I sussed what was actually going to cause the apocalypse. I've started watching it again straight away in case I missed anything first time around. I find Luther and Diego really annoying but I especially love Klaus, Cha-Cha and Hazel and the doughnut lady.
 
I did find the first season a bit of a SLOG to get through, the storyline was a bit wishy-washy even if the characters were charming. I tentatively look forward to S2.
 
Series 2 landed on Friday and I thought it'd be one episode released every Friday so I'd decided not to watch episode 1 until next Friday then I could watch 2 episodes at once. Then the Friday after I'd rewatch episode 2 then watch episode 3 and so on. It's how I watched The Good Place.

Anyway last night I was upstairs and I thought sod it I'm going to watch episode 1 now and all of the series was already there. Bonus!

Thoroughly enjoyed episodes 1 and 2.
 
This was great fun. Despite it being doomsday AGAIN (new plot next year please), s2 is a much warmer show. The colourful film style, the 60s setting, the VILLAIN FASHION, but also the way the siblings interacted.

The majority of the relationships felt genuinely hateful in s1 and they all seemed like c**ts. s2 does much better with invoking a sense of family, but without becoming a sickly Brothers & Sisters.

They're all individually more likeable. Ellen Page goes against all natural instinct and actually smiles at least twice. Allison is much more fun being buddied with Klaus rather than Luther. Robert Sheehan is one for the "people you shouldn't fancy" thread. And though he spends the first few episodes acting quite the tit, Diego is really VERY NICE.

Only niggles
- The Swedes are empty vessels, although such anonymous villains arguably allowed more room for the Handler to shine (and she SHINES). It does still feel like an opportunity missed not to further develop the Hazel/Mary J In The Spot Tonight/Doughnut Lady dynamic though.

- Luther / Allison - as much as icky sibling tedium was reduced in s2, and the writers slipped in some self-aware judgements via Klaus, the final episode seemed to u-turn on all of that. I fear we won't escape the tedium in s3, especially with Ray seemingly out of the equation. The idea that Luther / Allison are a rootable couple :square:

- Political Allison was much more likeable and fun than Angsty Mum Allison from s1. But barely mentioning her daughter / expressing much interest in getting home until the final episodes felt like a plot hole.

- Fart jokes
 
The Anti-Dubsden said:
This was great fun. Despite it being doomsday AGAIN (new plot next year please), s2 is a much warmer show. The colourful film style, the 60s setting, the VILLAIN FASHION, but also the way the siblings interacted.

The majority of the relationships felt genuinely hateful in s1 and they all seemed like c**ts. s2 does much better with invoking a sense of family, but without becoming a sickly Brothers & Sisters.

They're all individually more likeable. Ellen Page goes against all natural instinct and actually smiles at least twice. Allison is much more fun being buddied with Klaus rather than Luther. Robert Sheehan is one for the "people you shouldn't fancy" thread. And though he spends the first few episodes acting quite the tit, Diego is really VERY NICE.
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I've watched the first seven episodes and have to say I agree with you that it's a lot more fun and easier to follow the story this series. Lila's been a welcome addition and Klaus' cult are funny. I like that there's been more of an explanation about Reginald, mom and Pogo too. I don't like what they did to Hazel though and it would appear that they decided ChaCha would buy the farm in the previous apocalypse which is a shame. Hazel and ChaCha are in a different league to the stupid Swedes.
 
Managed to go through this season in just 3 days unlike the first season that moved at a glacial pace and not to mention most of the acting was awful (especially Allison) but omg at this GLOW UP. Every singles episode is very good and not one of them feels like filler.

SCREAMING at Allison trying to convince her husband Ray that 2019 was much better and things kept improving so they were looking at a brighter future regarding racism so he should go with her :eyes: hm OK. Vanya trying it with her love interest too but she's right being lesbian is A-OK which leads me to this question

Was the Vanya character in the comics always bisexual or just a closeted lesbian? did she agree to have a heterosexual relationship last season because that guy was perhaps the first person in her life to give her a bit of attention?

The Backstreet's Back scene was :disco: levels of last season's Saturday Night in the bowling alley.
 
Lila's great. A much more quirky and challenging love interest for Diego to bounce off than the miserable cop from s1.

Hazel and Doughnut Lady being dispensed with in the first 5 minutes however was utterly displeasing. Lucky the two remaining arch-villains (I won't name them as spoilers, but I don't mean the Swedes) are so good.

The plot definitely moves quicker and more consistently this time - season 1 often felt like a Ryan Murphy show. It distracted itself with side tangents, and felt more like a compilation of flashy set pieces and comedy skits. Only Vanya received a solid and trackable story.

S2 doesn't have that same sense of ADHD. Most of the individual strands do genuinely flesh out the respective character rather than simply being "wouldn't this look cool". Only Luther's is a miss for me; the gangster nonsense feels under-cooked and I do wonder if there wasn't some material that met a grisly fate in the editing suite. However I also wouldn't have wanted time taken away from the Allison or Ben/Klaus stories; if anything I could have had a couple more episodes exploring those further.

I have no idea if Vanya is LGBTQ+ in the comics. There was definitely no acknowledgement of it in season 1 aside from Vanya dressing like Ellen Page, so I had assumed s2 was just a case of the character slowly becoming the actor. At least it does ultimately feed the main plot though, rather than being an unnecessary token move.
 
I'm half way through and definitely agree that this season is a lot warmer. I found the first one a bit of a drag to get through.

Poor Hazel :(
 
Season one was not great, largely for the reasons noted above: glacial pacing, poor characterisation/generally unpleasant characters and a scattershot approach.

Season 2 pretty much turns it all on its head and improves in every way. I really enjoyed Klaus this season, the musical choices were brilliant throughout and a certain SOMEONE was camping it up at every turn and I am all about that.
 
Have to admit that I was reasonably disappointed with the ending. I'll watch it again tonight just to make sure though.
 
Pipo said:
It's the cliffhanger to end all cliffhangers :disco:
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From the part with Ben and Vanya onwards it was just like all bets were off and we're making this up as we go along now. Then the end happened and I just said out loud "oh no, you're taking the sodding piss now". It could also be that I'd hyped up my expectations too much, happens a lot, so that's why I'll rewatch it and give it another chance.
 
Floppet said:
we're making this up as we go along now.
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from what I've read so far, this is literally what they did :D ! The comic book that inspired the 2nd season didn't come out that long ago and
there's obviously going to be a 3rd season but they haven't even began WRITING the comic book so there's hardly any info out there about what the Sparrow Academy is
 
This was fun, it benefitted from shorter episodes (those 5-7 minutes that take every Netflix show over 55 minutes really make a difference). But I still felt that they didn’t have enough story to fill 10 episodes. There’s only so many montages to pop songs that I can take.

I appreciate that they went lesbian with Ellen Page, some actors just don’t suite straightness similar to Jonathan Groff in Mindhunter (I watched her in Inception today and the way they tarted it her up was not right). I find Robert Sheehan annoying and he’s extremely limited with his abilities. The actor playing Ben was the best.
 
Pipo said:
from what I've read so far, this is literally what they did :D ! The comic book that inspired the 2nd season didn't come out that long ago and
there's obviously going to be a 3rd season but they haven't even began WRITING the comic book so there's hardly any info out there about what the Sparrow Academy is
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There are 3 published stories, Dallas the season 2 story was published in 2009 with the follow up called Hotel Oblivion only coming out last year. The Sparrow Academy is indeed still unwritten. I haven’t read the comics but from what I understand they don’t really stick to them, especially with characterizations.
 
Phoenix said:
This was fun, it benefitted from shorter episodes (those 5-7 minutes that take every Netflix show over 55 minutes really make a difference). But I still felt that they didn’t have enough story to fill 10 episodes. There’s only so many montages to pop songs that I can take.
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not even pop songs but whispery karaoke versions of pop songs! I hate that Netflix doesn't just get the proper songs. I'm sure they have the budget
 
Pipo said:
unpopular opinion but I'd rather Justin (Ben) or David (Diego) :disco:
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I'd go with Ben or Diego but I'd be thinking of Klaus.

The only ones I wouldn't are (in order of most definitely not to would rather not) Luther, young Five, old Five, Vanya, Allison.
 
KindaCool said:
Episode 3 lol. The episodes feel really long.
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It just might not be your cup of tea then.

I loved it straight off from episode 1. After watching the last episode of series 1 I went straight back to the beginning and rewatched it all again and loved it just as much. I then rewatched it the week before series 2 came out. Still loved it.
 
Floppet said:
It just might not be your cup of tea then.

I loved it straight off from episode 1. After watching the last episode of series 1 I went straight back to the beginning and rewatched it all again and loved it just as much. I then rewatched it the week before series 2 came out. Still loved it.
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Yeah I'm gonna watch up to the halfway mark and see.
 
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