Netflix was a beacon of light during the dark times we faced this summer. While the outside world was sealed off, many of us took the time to explore new worlds on the small screen.
Their best original, The Umbrella Academy, has now released its second season; so crowd around a flatmate’s laptop and enjoy the show.
Season one launched last year – it’s the one which looked like a blatant rip-off of X-Men. It’s not! But the trailers and posters suggest otherwise. Based on the popular comics, the story follows seven superhero siblings born to different women on the same day, who are adopted at birth by an eccentric billionaire. His funeral in the pilot episode brings them all together again, as adults, where they must put aside their differences to prevent the apocalypse. It’s set in the current day; a dystopian world where the present seems eerily similar to the 1980s.
Season two travels back in time to a few days before the assassination of JFK in Dallas, Texas. All seven family members have accidentally travelled to different parts of the early ’60s, taking three years to find each other. One sibling is a cage fighter for a mob boss, another is in an asylum, another one has joined the civil rights movement, one has lost their memory and is working as a nanny, and another sibling accidentally started a cult. It has a lighter tone than the first season; the chaotic family dynamic means that the siblings argue and bicker as before, but this time it’s more comedic. This season also reflects on important events from the presidential assassination to the civil rights march, hippie counterculture, and Jack Ruby. Although sadly, the iconic 80’s soundtrack of the previous season is substituted for several throwbacks to the 60’s – an obvious downgrade.
This season does have its flaws – the initial episodes are painstakingly slow, and in parts the show is overwhelmingly predictable. Worst of all is the continued romantic relationship between two of the siblings, which most fans seemed to turn a blind eye to in season one. I get that they’re not blood-related, but just like flatcest, it’s wrong! However, there are many reasons why this show remains distinctive amongst the excessive number of superhero TV shows at the moment. The main one is that almost all the siblings either are unable or unwilling to use their powers. Instead, we see them having to use their initiative, tact, and ultimately each other in order to succeed.
That’s why this season was so remarkable, rather than seeing The Avengers arrive and inevitably save the world, we watch a dysfunctional family try to do so. You’ll have to watch to see if they succeed!