Watching: The Umbrella Academy S4

2024, Netflix

We find this show charming enough that we continue to watch even though it usually ends up disappointing us entirely. I stated it in the Season 3 post, and I will state it now -- they always end up losing steam, fucking their own continuity and appearing to get bored with writing their own show. 

Never wrote about season 1 or 2.... wonder why.

What 100. They've returned from another apocalypse to another, different, timeline, but without powers. Dad (Colm Feore, Face/Off) runs a megacorp, but no matter, they all go their own, usual, dysfunctional directions. Allison (Emmy Raver-Lampman, The Beekeeper) is (barely) an actor, sober Klaus (Robert Sheehan, Mortal Engines) lives in her basement, Five (Aidan Gallagher, Nicky, Ricky, Dick & Dawn) is in the CIA, Diego (David Castañeda, The Tax Collector) delivers packages, Lila (Ritu Arya, Barbie) is a housewife, Viktor (Elliot Page, Close to You) runs a bar in Nova Scotia and Luther (Tom Hopper, Black Sails) is a stripper. But then, five years later, another Impending Doom draws them together for more weirdo hijinx, more and more dysfunctional sibling disputes, the deaths of countless henchfolk and eventually the end of the world... again. But for good this time?

1 Great. For me, the best things about the show have always been the whackadoodle characters and situations. This season we get Jean and Gene Thibodeau, played by IRL couple Nick Offerman and Megan Mullaly. I am not entirely convinced they are a couple but maybe the same person from alternate timelines. All the hijinx of the previous seasons is jamming in alternate timelines into this one. In fact, they run an organization/conspiracy/cult that researches and finds examples of it, such as books, movies and music that are two entirely different copies of the same thing. Think of finding a copy of Bladerunner where William Hurt played Deckard instead of Harrison Ford. These two characters are out there, a little extreme, but ... onto something.

2 Good. The characters. The mains are what always have me forget how dissatisfied I was with each season and still come back for more. They are so utterly broken and dysfunctional, you would think the cringe factor would turn me off, but there is a caring between them even when they hate each other. And all the actors pull it off so very very well. My fav is still Five, the non-named perpetual youth. Actor Aidan Gallagher is 21 and probably, finally, playing something akin to Five's body age. In actual lived aged, the character is in his... 70s? And the acceptance of Elliot Page as Elliot Page, and therefore Victor, is wonderful -- they had their chats about it last season, and have moved on, while not discounting that Victor was Vanya in season one. Probably a rare example of tight continuity in this showed being acknowledged.

3 Bad. Said general lack of continuity. This show has me constantly yelling at the screen, as each season (except the first; I remember that being tighter) just loses steam before they reach the final few episodes, losing focus, cutting plot elements to the wind and generally just being bad writing. Now that Kent has revealed, to me, how much of a shitshow the writing room was on this show, and how it basically torpedoed the season cutting it down to almost nothing, it explains things but doesn't get my forgiveness. No more than in any other season does this one's last few episodes shit the bed, story telling wise. Five and Lilah go on a time journey through the multiverse TTC with intent to find their original timeline where their Ben was killed. After one upset that thread is ignored entirely and while its a beautiful standalone plotline, where the two spend years and years together lost on the TTC (note, that is actually a recurring thread in my own dreams; maybe I will bump into them someday), its forgetting the point of it being introduced in the first place. And Daddy Hargreaves. He did not create an Umbrella Academy in this timeline, there not even seemingly any example of these kids here at all, and yet he interacts with them as if he is aware of it all. And BTW isn't he supposed to be an alien or something? I could go on and on about my frustration but I will just some it up with a loud, "aaaaaargh !!"

Ken't spake.