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'The Umbrella Academy' Review

#BestOfNetflix

By Nancy DPublished 5 years ago 4 min read
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The Umbrella Academy takes the audience and puts them in a room of awkward strangers. Each of the strangers is perfectly unique. But... only a few episodes into the season and they will feel like they have become your family too.

The camera work is amazing, the special effects are noteworthy, and the character interaction feels real. It's as if they are actually siblings. Most importantly, The Umbrella Academy gives the audience a few really good laughs in the middle of what seems like familiar chaos.

A Little Summary of the Plot

If you haven't already started watching it, I can give you a bit of an idea. For starters, it's another Netflix Original success story. As for the intro: One day in 1989, there was a series of miraculous births. None of the young women were pregnant the morning they gave birth. A rich man travelled around the world to see these miraculous babies. He also offered all the mothers money in exchange for their miracle baby. He got seven out of 40 of them.

He raised the children under extremely strict rules in his mansion. He named his mansion "The Umbrella Academy." Hence the name. You could only imagine how interesting celebrating the same birthday every year would be... just as the old man thought, the children started to show that they had powers, including strength, an inner tentacle demon, extreme manipulation, and talking to ghosts.

Years later, all of the kids come back to the mansion just to realize how much they truly missed each other. Well, they aren't happy to see each other, at first.

The Hook: 10/10

The introduction to the show was absolutely brilliant. It almost set up too high of expectations for the rest of the show. I love the pool scene with the miraculous conception. I love how accurately they portrayed the past and showed obvious flags, so we knew what country we were in. I love how they added the teen boy who obviously cares for her. Most of all, I love that moment when an old man offers her money for her baby... and she looks at him with this overwhelmed look. I would be in shock after all that as well.

The Soundtrack: 10/10

The violin work by Lindsey Stirling was a brilliant idea. I keep listening to the work that she made just for this show. I love how they use classic songs like "Barracuda"throughout the show.

Videography: 10/10

What can I say? It was so good. I didn't even think about it at first. It's steady, professional, and has the perfect amount of creative shots.

Special Effects: 9/10

Overall, it's amazing. From the barely noticeable green screen to the possibly real explosions. However, Pogo takes the cake. That is by far the gem of this show.

With that said, there was one problem. Can we please talk about that black and white montage of Number Five? The one where he is shooing around in front of old historical footage. I can't help but feel that they could have just shown footage of younger Number Five talking about it. Maybe even just simple footage of older Number Five looking sad.

It just doesn't make any sense. The show has amazing special effects for almost everything else... then they put that in there? Why?

Casting: 8/10

I'm going to come right out and say it: Ellen Page was a poor decision to cast as this role. Did they feel the need to have one recognizable name? However, every other casting decision was a great choice. Especially Emmy Raver-Lamp man as Allison.

Costume: 7/10

They were simple costumes, so there wasn't a lot needed in terms of creativity. However, it was done well. I especially enjoyed looking at ChaCha's outfits—professional, but still trendy, in any time period.

Plot: 6/10

I don't want to put too many spoilers in this review, so all I'm going to say is... why was there a need to have the time travelers with briefcases? That entire part of the story could have been taken out. I just feel like they added more content to an already complicated storyline.

Character Development: 4/10

Klaus had almost no character development at all. I was really hoping for more of a dramatic change after going to war, falling in love, losing love... and oh yeah, his father died.

Overall: 8/10

While I know that not everyone shares this opinion, since some people think the show was too forced... most people loved it. Including me. I loved it. If you haven't seen it yet. Give it a try! Especially if you like superhero shows and movies.

About the Author

Yes, I realize I have the same name as an amateur sleuth. I've been told one or two times before. I am simply someone who is addicted to writing. Right now I'm a student who likes to blog while I procrastinate. Soon I hope to be a librarian who blogs after work. Never at work, obviously.

My personal interests include eating pizza, playing video games, and cuddling with my dog. I hope to write lots more Netflix Original articles in the future. So if you want, you are welcome to join the adventure by liking my Facebook page. All are welcome!

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About the Creator

Nancy D

Facebook @NancyDBlogging

Twitter @BlogsNancy

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