The Umbrella Academy Season 2 Reviews are surprisingly good (97% - 8.67avg)

[Weltall Zero]

Really? I felt Ellen Page was the show's one saving grace (aside from how nonsense the climatic scene was)

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What the hell. Ellen Page is a good actress but she was really miscast and misdirected; her character's writing was beyond insufferable. The biggest blunder of the first season is trying to turn her into a sympathetic, justified and tortured character, instead of the sociopath jumping at the chance to become a straight out badass supervillainess of the comics. It just didn't work in any way, and made her character impossible to stomach in her petty display of every negative trait starting with "self": selfish, self-pitying, self-centered, self-serving, the full checklist. The only ink stain in an otherwise fantastic first season.

 

[SchrodingerC]

Really hope UA has cut down on the amount of meandering, but since this is a Netflix show that seems unlikely.

 

[Weltall Zero]

It was so painfully obvious where the whole situation around her was going from the very beginning :/

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My issue is not so much how obvious it was but how forced it was to end up there. There's surely a better path from sidelined non-powered sister to villain, than a string of unlikely coincidences, enough idiot balls to fill an olympic pool, self-centeredness in volumes usually only found in orange small-handed politicians.

 

[Deleted member 4353]

Surprising to who, you? Season 1 was great so I'm not surprised S2 is great too.

 

[Illusion]

Damn I am so hyped now.

 

[gutshot]

Why is it "surprising" to see the second season get good reviews? I know S1 had a lukewarm reception here on Era, but it received decent reviews from critics. It's sitting at 75% on RT. It was already critically considered a good show.

Either way, I'm glad S2 seems to have elevated the show from good to great. My wife and I just finished up a S1 rewatch and, while its flaws are even more apparent on a second viewing, the positives are still just as strong. We can't wait to start season two on Friday.

 

[Wes D. Mess]

I dropped this show after the first episode of season 1. I was thinking about maybe watching more to see if it gets better but apparantly the first episode is one of the better episodes?

Just couldn't see myself spending time on a show where I have no interest in any of the characters and causes me to doze off.

 

[Ocarina_117]

Netflix has been phenomenal with their original content the last few months.

 

[Kernel]

S1 was good. I agree with a lot of criticisms here but I felt they didn't detract much from the experience.

The characters were great, Klaus and Five stole every scene they were in.

The others were passable at least, only Luther is really annoying. I hope Ellen Page will have better material to work with now.

 

[KG]

I really enjoyed the first season. Especially anything with Klaus and the time traveler kid(can't remember his name). Good to hear there are official recaps of the first season available. I am excited to watch the second season. I don't think there have been any big show releases this summer on Netflix?

 

[piratepwnsninja]

I dropped this show after the first episode of season 1. I was thinking about maybe watching more to see if it gets better but apparantly the first episode is one of the better episodes?

Just couldn't see myself spending time on a show where I have no interest in any of the characters and causes me to doze off.

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I mean, yes, the characters get more development over the course of the season than they do in a single episode. It's possible that you may warm to some over the course of the season.

I liked season one, but my biggest issue was that it did meander quite a bit. I don't mind character building through the family drama, or even them questioning their task, but they really stretched those out a bit much. Season two looks like it will still have the family drama, but they seem much more united towards a goal.

 

[KoopaTheCasual]

What the hell. Ellen Page is a good actress but she was really miscast and misdirected; her character's writing was beyond insufferable. The biggest blunder of the first season is trying to turn her into a sympathetic, justified and tortured character, instead of the sociopath jumping at the chance to become a straight out badass supervillainess of the comics. It just didn't work in any way, and made her character impossible to stomach in her petty display of every negative trait starting with "self": selfish, self-pitying, self-centered, self-serving, the full checklist. The only ink stain in an otherwise fantastic first season.

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Wow, that last sentence, I think we're gonna have to agree to disagree on this one, lol.

From the terrible tonal shifts (even mentioned in reviews), to the wooden performances from Allison and Luther's characters (whose weird not-incest relationship took up waaaay too much of the run-time), to Number 5 and the narrative in general refusing to fill key characters in on key details, for reasons (obviously because the characters needed to stay in the dark long enough for the plot to actually happen), I thought it was a sloppy show with a strong core theme and a lot of heart.

Funny, I didn't know there even was a comic, so I feel like your expectations of her arc probably soured you on her direction from the jump. I too thought they were gonna have her just be an antagonistic force in the finale (hence why my original comment calls the climax nonsense), but her portray and performance throughout the season made a lot of sense for an emotionally manipulated/abused orphan child, who was conditioned to feel worthless.

Edit: Klaus and Vanya hard carried that season.

 

[Wes D. Mess]

I mean, yes, the characters get more development over the course of the season than they do in a single episode. It's possible that you may warm to some over the course of the season.

I liked season one, but my biggest issue was that it did meander quite a bit. I don't mind character building through the family drama, or even them questioning their task, but they really stretched those out a bit much. Season two looks like it will still have the family drama, but they seem much more united towards a goal.

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Its not character development thats the issue for me, its the portrayal of the characters themselves. Every piece of media I've read or watched the intro is all I need to take some interest in the characters. I didn't get that with Umbrella Academy, numerous characters even outright annoyed me.

Ultimately, the point you made about the meandering is the main reason I don't have much interest in continuing the show. If I thought the world or characters were interesting I would.

 

[Deleted member 9399]

Season 1 was basically affectations: the show, with some truly bad plotting and performances from the main cast.

I'll probably give S2 a shot if it's that much better but it wouldn't take much

 

[Miles Iz Ded]

Did they ever explain if the big guy had any powers before he was turned into a space ape? Why was he chosen for the Academy as a kid?

 

[Lotus]

I hope Luther and Allison stop trying to become a thing this season

 

[rsfour]

I only managed to get through maybe 3 eps of s1. So I may give it another shot.

 

[Ramala]

I enjoyed Season One, warts and all. Looking forward to this.

 

[Weltall Zero]

Wow, that last sentence, I think we're gonna have to agree to disagree on this one, lol.

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I'm perfectly fine with that. :)

Funny, I didn't know there even was a comic, so I feel like your expectations of her arc probably soured you on her direction from the jump.

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Unlikely, considering I read the comic after watching the show. It was reading it that I went "oh, this is much better". Admittedly it works in the comic because it's a very comic-y comic, and probably would have been jarring in the show, but at least it would have been one moment of jarring instead of a whole season.

I too thought they were gonna have her just be an antagonistic force in the finale (hence why my original comment calls the climax nonsense), but her portray and performance throughout the season made a lot of sense for an emotionally manipulated/abused orphan child, who was conditioned to feel worthless.

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Except the only person who made her feel like that was her "father", who also manipulated and abused all of her siblings (worse, in fact, turning them into child soldiers), and yet they all were emotionally supportive of her. Every single of her actions is based on pure selfishness and extreme "woe is me" self-pity, while living a perfectly fine and normal life, especially considering the utter shit every one of her siblings has to go through.

The climax was ironically the only part where I found her bearable; I just wish her jump to supervillany had been a lot quicker, like in the comic, than the incredibly botched and artificial attempt at a "descent into villany" slope we got instead.

 

[WhySoDevious]

Did they ever explain if the big guy had any powers before he was turned into a space ape? Why was he chosen for the Academy as a kid?

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Super strength.

In the bank heist, he's the one that drops from the ceiling and throws one of the robbers out the window and into the street.

 

[HomerSimpson-Man]

That's some good reviews?

What did they do, punch Anya in the face in the first episode? Repeatedly? Please?

Please tell me someone does it to that garbage ass character.

I had never went from pity to outright resentment of character so damn hard by the end of a season before ended taking everything in context. Trying to paint her sympathetic fell apart when I thought of all the other characters in context, she was still a psychopath. Their father was always cold to them but if all the children she was the one that had the closest to a normal childhood while the others had to do witness horrible stuff and they even lost a sibling. Thinking of all the pain and suffering of my family trying to survive when I was little just made me hate her even more, so miss me with her "troubled childhood" garbage.

Though in retrospect, on that note if making a potential villain more hatable, they succeeded.

On that note I went the opposite on Kluass, found him annoying in the begining and straight so bad for him by the 2nd half of the first season.

 

[Sagroth]

Wifey and I enjoyed Season 1 quite a bit - although Doom Patrol completely eclipsed it in our esteem. Excited for this weekend, though!

 

[FlashbladeERA]

What the hell. Ellen Page is a good actress but she was really miscast and misdirected; her character's writing was beyond insufferable. The biggest blunder of the first season is trying to turn her into a sympathetic, justified and tortured character, instead of the sociopath jumping at the chance to become a straight out badass supervillainess of the comics. It just didn't work in any way, and made her character impossible to stomach in her petty display of every negative trait starting with "self": selfish, self-pitying, self-centered, self-serving, the full checklist. The only ink stain in an otherwise fantastic first season.

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Having not read the comic, I thought Ellen Page was perfect.

The writing not so much, but I still enjoyed the hell out of the show by the end of it.

 

[KoopaTheCasual]

I'm perfectly fine with that. :)

Unlikely, considering I read the comic after watching the show. It was reading it that I went "oh, this is much better". Admittedly it works in the comic because it's a very comic-y comic, and probably would have been jarring in the show, but at least it would have been one moment of jarring instead of a whole season.

Except the only person who made her feel like that was her "father", who also manipulated and abused all of her siblings (worse, in fact, turning them into child soldiers), and yet they all were emotionally supportive of her. Every single of her actions is based on pure selfishness and extreme "woe is me" self-pity, while living a perfectly fine and normal life, especially considering the utter shit every one of her siblings has to go through.

The climax was ironically the only part where I found her bearable; I just wish her jump to supervillany had been a lot quicker, like in the comic, than the incredibly botched and artificial attempt at a "descent into villany" slope we got instead.

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Ah, didn't know you read it after. I guess that shoots down my original thought.

And yea... I think we just fundamentally view Vanya's character differently. I think its strange to say, "her other abused siblings are fine, she should be too." All people deal with abuse differently (and this ignores the fact that she was overtly psychologically conditioned to feel inferior to all her siblings, by her father AND those same siblings). So in my opinion she definitely had it the worst, and her demeanor of helpless and whiny makes total sense.

 

[Indy in the Fridge]

I never read the source material, but did Reginald put Vanya on those meds because he feared she'd be too powerful or what? I can't remember if the show mentions what influenced the decision to handicap her. I'm rewatching season 1 and just got to where you see Leonard hiding a dead body and Reginald's diary in his attic.

 

[admiraltaftbar]

I just started season 1 the other day and as a fan of the comic I'm still not sure how they're going to fill the 10 hours of showtime with content from a basically 100 page comic. Also interesting to see how they apparently don't have

Spoiler

5 shoot Anya in the head rendering her a vegetable

 

[Ramala]

I hope Luther and Allison stop trying to become a thing this season

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I hope they just become a thing and get it over with.

 

[HomerSimpson-Man]

I never read the source material, but did Reginald put Vanya on those meds because he feared she'd be too powerful or what? I can't remember if the show mentions what influenced the decision to handicap her. I'm rewatching season 1 and just got to where you see Leonard hiding a dead body and Reginald's diary in his attic.

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Spoiler

Anya as a child maimed, possibly if not outright killing multiple nannys without remorse with her powers. Hence the need to create "mom" because the first thing Anya did was attack her because she didn't want to listen resulting in twisting mom's neck around. She was a psychopath as a child and a danger to everyone.

 

[Metroidvania]

Except the only person who made her feel like that was her "father", who also manipulated and abused all of her siblings (worse, in fact, turning them into child soldiers), and yet they all were emotionally supportive of her. Every single of her actions is based on pure selfishness and extreme "woe is me" self-pity, while living a perfectly fine and normal life, especially considering the utter shit every one of her siblings has to go through.

The climax was ironically the only part where I found her bearable; I just wish her jump to supervillany had been a lot quicker, like in the comic, than the incredibly botched and artificial attempt at a "descent into villany" slope we got instead.

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It's been a while since I've read the comics, but IMO the 'shift' to making Vanya a 'woe-is-me' character was partially due to the change of making it into a TV show versus the comics (there's a lot more time to 'fill' in a TV show in order to have continuity/passage of time make sense), and partially due to wanting more to do with the character.

IIRC she doesn't really go 'full' supervillainess in the comics either - it's still more of a tantrum/suicide-by-powers acting out - she kills the conductor and most of his group before killing off Pogo and destroying the academy, IIRC.

Spoiler

Besides, doesn't Vanya get at least semi-redeemed after waking up from her coma, later on in the comics? Even if that's at least partially because of her amnesia from the gunshot?

 

[gutshot]

Question for the comic readers: is it explained in the comics why there seemingly is no internet or cell phones? for a while I was sure that S1 was set in the late 80s/early 90s but they mentioned it being 2019 multiple times in the latter half of the season.

 

[Indy in the Fridge]

Spoiler

Anya as a child maimed, possibly if not outright killing multiple nannys without remorse with her powers. Hence the need to create "mom" because the first thing Anya did was attack her because she didn't want to listen resulting in twisting mom's neck around. She was a psychopath as a child and a danger to everyone.

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Wow, that's a pretty drastic difference from the television interpretation. And honestly, I think it's for the better considering how most of the children are unlikable from the start (as adults). Aside from Luther, Vanya is the only other character that isn't immediately standoffish.

 

[HomerSimpson-Man]

Wow, that's a pretty drastic difference from the television interpretation. And honestly, I think it's for the better considering how most of the children are unlikable from the start (as adults). Aside from Luther, Vanya is the only other character that isn't immediately standoffish.

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Actually that's from the show!

 

[Indy in the Fridge]

Actually that's from the show!

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...

I need to pay more attention then!

 

[Lemony1984]

Hated the show at first but it grew on me even though it feels cheap and nothing anyone does makes any sense. Nice to hear season 2 is reviewing well.

 

[Keym]

Is the whole family together for only like 10 mins tops again like in season 1

 

[Dr Doom]

It's up.
I say the series continues with great music opener

 

[shaneo632]

The music is great all season :)

 

[FaceHugger]

Awesome, looking forward to watching it.

I don't care if the reviews were poor though, I'll watch anything with Robert Sheehan in it. Ellen Page is just a bonus.

 

[SkimpyMcChicken]

Rotten Tomatoes has a weird bias with ongoing television shows. Basically the only critics who continue to watch and review a show, are still into it.

Every single season of Arrow scored 90+ on Rotten Tomatoes, for exactly that reason

 

[Dr Doom]

Here's my guess,

the team doesn't come together until.... episode 6-7

episode 1 set up everybody's personal stories for the season

 

[antispin]

Here's my guess,

the team doesn't come together until.... episode 6-7

episode 1 set up everybody's personal stories for the season

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About 40mins into ep 1 and it looks like it so far. Interesting setup though.

 

[sven]

Those were some bad wigs on the baddies at the beginning.

 

[Dr Doom]

About 40mins into ep 1 and it looks like it so far. Interesting setup though.

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Episode 2. I say the writing is better than season one, and this is coming from someone who's annoyed by season one

 

[VeryHighlander]

Do they do a recap of S1?

 

[Wafflinson]

Just binged the whole thing. Was pretty good. Great season... not sure how I feel about it in relation to season 1 though.

Spoiler: General reaction below. Not going to include any actual info from the season.

After season 2 it is pretty obvious that there is no plan or bigger arc. Each season is going to be conceptualized on its own and they are going to crutch on some sort of big "reset" each time because plotting something bigger requires to plan in advance...

 

[antispin]

Episode 2. I say the writing is better than season one, and this is coming from someone who's annoyed by season one

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Agreed. Very funny at times as well. Like the new characters too.

Do they do a recap of S1?

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In bits and flash(backs).

 

[shaneo632]

Just binged the whole thing. Was pretty good. Great season... not sure how I feel about it in relation to season 1 though.

Spoiler: General reaction below. Not going to include any actual info from the season.

After season 2 it is pretty obvious that there is no plan or bigger arc. Each season is going to be conceptualized on its own and they are going to crutch on some sort of big "reset" each time because plotting something bigger requires to plan in advance...

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Yeah normally this would annoy me but I think it works well here.

 

[Wafflinson]

Yeah normally this would annoy me but I think it works well here.

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Yeah. It is still very enjoyable.

... I think it might get tedious going forward though. There is only so many times that you can do it before it becomes trite.

Edit: I like episodic stuff and I like stuff with bigger arcs. However, I do think you kinda have to choose one to be dominant if you want your show to be effective long term.

 

[Shroki]

Swedish Adele was worth the time investment alone.

 

[Nightwing123]

Nice I was going to watch anyway since I enjoyed Klaus, Diego, and 5 a lot.

Spoiler

Have not watched it yet but it's nice to see that they buffed Allison's powers to be more like her comic book powers