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The Umbrella Academy returned for its second season this Friday (31st July), and manages to complete something very few series’ have managed in the past. Its second season reinvigorates the show and is better than the first as it manages to take everything you loved about the first season and evolve it.
Season 2 picks up where exactly where Season 1 finished, Number Five attempts to travel back in time with The Umbrella Academy in order to stop the apocalypse Vanya causes, only to cause each member of The Academy to be dispersed in time over a time-period of three years in Dallas.
Because of this, each family member is left to their own devices to survive in a very different world, that results in each character taking new paths, like the path of an activist, or a bodyguard…… or even a ‘prophet’.
Umbrella Academy season 2 is very successful in innovating the show and evolving it so it isn’t just a carbon copy of the season that preceded it. This season is so different from the first with its story, yet still the same in so many ways because it doesn’t lose the magic that made you love the first season.
And, even though it manages to replicate the magic of the first it does so by correcting the mistakes of the first, as the season has a bigger appeal. A criticism of the first season was that it was too niche for audiences, seeing many of my friends not enjoy the show just because of how wacky it was and, season 2 finds that balance to be enjoyable for everyone.
Furthermore, very rarely does a show allow characters that were important to the show finish their arc in the first season, but the side characters we were familiar with in the first season don’t have a big arc in the season, as their stories have been completed, and brilliantly, that allows new characters to shine, and the family to thrive.
The additions to the second season are incredible, with the new characters slotting effortlessly into the season, this is aided by the nature of the storytelling the season undertakes. Bar one specific story line, the season builds upon everything from the first. And, the series’ action scenes are massively improved, with Five getting some of the best scenes, and the opening sequence is memorising.
We get more character development for each family member as they have been living their own lives. But, the best thing this season does is developing character dynamics between the family that were never there, we get to see somewhat of a relationship between Vanya and Diego, whereas in the first season, I don’t think they ever spoke.
Also, the continuation of the characters is everything I had hoped when the first season finished, as Five thrives in the season. Plus, we finally get to see Ben have something past slide comments in Klaus’ mind, and here is a tip for the creators in the third season – we can never have enough Klaus!!
But, this season isn’t perfect, story-wise, the entire arc with the three Swedes, is unnecessary and massively off-putting from the very first moment they enter on-screen. Although season 2 is better, the one thing season 1 does manage to ‘get one over’ season 2 is its soundtrack.
Umbrella Academy season 2 is incredible, and better than the first in every way (bar the music of course) and, here I am, finding myself in a deja-vu, as I was so excited at the end of the first season on where the show could go, and at the end of the second season, there is still so much to explore!
Not only, in the sense of where the story can go from the end of the season, but also how much character growth there is still to be had and how many showdowns between character I am looking forward to seeing.
Thanks for reading.
AZ
AthemovieZ 