The Umbrella Academy: Review
By Sioph W. Leal
The Umbrella Academy is back for its final season after they reset their timeline and are forced to live normal, mundane lives without their powers and try to make lives for themselves. While we cannot go into specifics, some of the family members adjust better than others. Unlike their original timeline, the patriarchal leader of the family, Sir Reginald Hargreeves (Colm Feore), is alive and well and overseeing an empire. Opposite him are Gene (Nick Offerman) and Jean (Megan Mullally), the head of a wide-spread association known as The Keepers, who believe a cleanse is coming. All forces conspire against the Umbrella Academy as the world’s peace is threatened with a mysterious incident from Ben's (Justin H. Min) past that they must uncover to save (or destroy) the world again.
While a slow start to the season, the first episode is dull, but that is easily forgiven since it is a clear choice to reflect how the family is lost and changed without their powers. It does suck out any enjoyment that the family's new, sometimes funny, occupations cannot save. This does seem deliberate, as when the family regains their powers, there is an energy to the series and easily makes it the best episode of the season, and it is filled with all the quintessential elements fans love The Umbrella Academy for. There are powers, violence, a mystery, a conspiracy, and a hilarious moment with Baby Shark as violence explodes all over the scene that is the best moment of the entire season. It is an example of what the series has done well over its time, and we get the exciting rush of the family rediscovering their powers. Aside from this one episode, there are some other good moments in the final season, but they are few and painfully far between.
Viktor (Elliot Page) finally gets the opportunity to confront this version of Reginald about how he was treated in the original timeline. Ben has a good arc, even though it sometimes gets lost in favour of other character side plots, but this season proves that the only characters with anything interesting are Ben and Viktor. The inclusion of conspiracy theorists Jean and Gene creates a fun organised absurdity that moves the season forward and is a truly refreshing part of the final season, but there has been no build-up to this organisation in the past seasons. When the series opens, it’s almost like the viewers are expected to know a lot about The Keepers from the first episode without much explanation.
The mystery of the season could have easily been interesting had the season not wasted too much time on side plots that were dull and a waste of time. Despite an entertaining fight scene with Luther (Tom Hopper) and Diego (David Castañeda), the characters don’t do much. There is some attempt at combining each character’s activities as the Hargreeves split up to, supposedly, complete their mission, but the season gets too lost in the messiness to make anything coherent. It’s almost as if the season has no idea what to do or how to end it and tries to force things together after driving them apart, making more work for them and tearing away from anything good in the show.
Alison (Emmy Raver-Lampman) is almost non-existent in the later part of the season as she and Claire look for Klaus (Robert Sheehan), who is trying to pay off an old drug debt for reasons we don’t know, Luther and Diego play at being CIA agents while Lila (Ritu Arya) and Five (Aidan Gallagher) grow closer. Viktor and Reginald’s reluctant team-up gives for some good moments, but it comes too late to salvage the series. In previous seasons, Five has been the propelling force, but this season he is tiresome and a shadow of his former self, and Gallagher gives absolutely nothing new to add to this season with the same blank expression.
One of the most compelling parts of The Umbrella Academy is the sibling relationship. For the past three seasons, we have seen them come together to stop the end of the world, working together towards a common goal despite their differences. Season four of The Umbrella Academy decides to change things up, pairing off the siblings in their own sub-plots that aren’t really relevant to the main storyline, only to randomly come together without any confrontation in the last episode. While it is usually a welcomed change to mix things up, the final season of The Umbrella Academy seemingly didn’t know what to do with so many characters, and the main storyline suffers because of it, coming to a crashing halt with very little build-up.
At the halfway point of the season, there is a flashback to an incident that offers a glimpse at how the season would end. It's promising, but unfortunately, it's brief and rushed. It’s a shame since it could have offered a more detailed look at the characters and how this one incident shaped their world in the past and inevitable future but was quickly done away with. The brief glimpse we get into this time is a great moment and adds more weight to the plot, but it is too brief to enjoy. In the final episode, there is a glimpse of something epic as Muse’s ‘Map of the Problematique’ plays. It’s one scene that will almost have you excited for what comes next, but unfortunately, nothing really comes of it.
After watching the final scene, it is clear that there is a lot of time wasted in the final season and that the season would have been better as a two-hour special to end the show instead of dragging out the end. While there are some good moments, they do not make up for a lacklustre end that makes every other season a waste of time and reductive of everything fans enjoyed. Justin H. Min and Elliot Page manage to give great performances and add depth to their characters, but, unfortunately, too much time is wasted on other things.
The Umbrella Academy season four premieres on Netflix August 8th 2024.