Has anyone else on my flist been watching The Umbrella Academy?
I really enjoyed it! I loved the soundtrack <3 The cinematography was pretty great also, I liked how the world had a very retro feel to it, and you see characters using typewriters rather than laptops and mobile phones
For me Klaus was the sibling who totally stole the show, I’ve been a fan of that actor ever since he played Nathan in Misfits, and he was incredibly charismatic and engaging whenever he was on screen. I loved that final moment of him learning to control his powers alongside Ben. I was really expecting to get more of a backstory on Ben actually, it seemed strange to not even mention how he died, although I assume that will come up in the second season?
Five was another favourite of mine, that young actor was so good at playing a 58 year old man trapped in a child’s body, he really impressed me at how he managed to pull off scenes such as playing drunk (which he wouldn’t have any real life experience of obviously), or the scene with Dolores where he actually manages to make you feel sad at him saying goodbye to a mannequin
Hazel and Cha Cha were favourites of mine as well, I loved how the show had them with their somewhat mundane and typical work complaints about the bosses, only with the heightened reality of Hazel pointing out that wouldn’t it be nice to just do your own thing and kill the people that you want to kill XD I wasn’t sure what to make of Hazel’s romance with the old lady from the donut shop at first tbh, but I thought the show did a good job of selling it in the end and they were very sweet together
This will probably be unpopular, but I was surprised though to find myself struggling to relate to Vanya, even though she seems to be pitched as the main character/obvious audience touchstone? At first I understood her monotone line readings to be an acting choice related to the pills that she was taking dulling her emotions, but then she didn’t really seem all that different after she stopped taking them, she still had quite a sour and lifeless energy about her then, and so I could never quite connect with her
That unfortunately meant that I never really felt the heartbreaking origin of a villain that I assume that the show wanted the audience to feel, the flashbacks of Vanya as a little girl taking out all of her nannies just for trying to make her eat her oatmeal made her seem like a budding sociopath to me from the beginning, yikes at her watching dispassionately as she tosses them across the room and smashes their heads. And clearly she suffered from little remorse as she kept doing it over and over again until the android mother had to be created, so I wasn’t sure what to make of Klaus then claiming in the same episode that she was someone who as a child even cried over them stepping on ants? And then when she slit her sisters throat, okay she had lost control of her powers and was being manipulated at the time, but she still let herself get dragged away and left Allison there :( It was sheer good luck that the rest of the family tracked them down and were able to save Allison, but Vanya didn’t know that when she just left her sister on the floor to bleed out. And then the way she killed poor Pogo :(
Oh and one other thing is that I wasn’t really sure what to make of Luther and Allison’s romance, it seemed like we were supposed to root for them, but hmm weren’t they all raised to view one another as siblings? I thought it was a bit strange to just brush that aside and have the other characters seeming to be on board with their brother and sister as a couple. Although, to be fair, I suppose they were such a dysfunctional family that none of them felt all that close as far as siblings go...I remember being surprised early on at how quickly everyone blew past Five’s return, even after he was missing for as long as he was.
I enjoyed the very occasional sibling moments that we did get, I thought that Diego and Klaus had the best sibling chemistry in that respect, there were some sweet moments there when it seemed like Diego really did care about his brother. It was kind of sad before then how Klaus was right that none of the family would even notice that he was missing :(
For me Klaus was the sibling who totally stole the show, I’ve been a fan of that actor ever since he played Nathan in Misfits, and he was incredibly charismatic and engaging whenever he was on screen. I loved that final moment of him learning to control his powers alongside Ben. I was really expecting to get more of a backstory on Ben actually, it seemed strange to not even mention how he died, although I assume that will come up in the second season?
Five was another favourite of mine, that young actor was so good at playing a 58 year old man trapped in a child’s body, he really impressed me at how he managed to pull off scenes such as playing drunk (which he wouldn’t have any real life experience of obviously), or the scene with Dolores where he actually manages to make you feel sad at him saying goodbye to a mannequin
Hazel and Cha Cha were favourites of mine as well, I loved how the show had them with their somewhat mundane and typical work complaints about the bosses, only with the heightened reality of Hazel pointing out that wouldn’t it be nice to just do your own thing and kill the people that you want to kill XD I wasn’t sure what to make of Hazel’s romance with the old lady from the donut shop at first tbh, but I thought the show did a good job of selling it in the end and they were very sweet together
This will probably be unpopular, but I was surprised though to find myself struggling to relate to Vanya, even though she seems to be pitched as the main character/obvious audience touchstone? At first I understood her monotone line readings to be an acting choice related to the pills that she was taking dulling her emotions, but then she didn’t really seem all that different after she stopped taking them, she still had quite a sour and lifeless energy about her then, and so I could never quite connect with her
That unfortunately meant that I never really felt the heartbreaking origin of a villain that I assume that the show wanted the audience to feel, the flashbacks of Vanya as a little girl taking out all of her nannies just for trying to make her eat her oatmeal made her seem like a budding sociopath to me from the beginning, yikes at her watching dispassionately as she tosses them across the room and smashes their heads. And clearly she suffered from little remorse as she kept doing it over and over again until the android mother had to be created, so I wasn’t sure what to make of Klaus then claiming in the same episode that she was someone who as a child even cried over them stepping on ants? And then when she slit her sisters throat, okay she had lost control of her powers and was being manipulated at the time, but she still let herself get dragged away and left Allison there :( It was sheer good luck that the rest of the family tracked them down and were able to save Allison, but Vanya didn’t know that when she just left her sister on the floor to bleed out. And then the way she killed poor Pogo :(
Oh and one other thing is that I wasn’t really sure what to make of Luther and Allison’s romance, it seemed like we were supposed to root for them, but hmm weren’t they all raised to view one another as siblings? I thought it was a bit strange to just brush that aside and have the other characters seeming to be on board with their brother and sister as a couple. Although, to be fair, I suppose they were such a dysfunctional family that none of them felt all that close as far as siblings go...I remember being surprised early on at how quickly everyone blew past Five’s return, even after he was missing for as long as he was.
I enjoyed the very occasional sibling moments that we did get, I thought that Diego and Klaus had the best sibling chemistry in that respect, there were some sweet moments there when it seemed like Diego really did care about his brother. It was kind of sad before then how Klaus was right that none of the family would even notice that he was missing :(