The Umbrella Academy

[Spence]

Netfix

[zslane]

BTW, as much as I like Five and his teleporting, I'm still not a fan of the time travel nonsense the show is built around.

 

Also, as much as I found the show entertaining overall, the whole moon exploding bit at the end made no sense. Not only is the moon not made of Swiss cheese, it is not made of some highly volatile explosive material powerful enough to shatter the entire thing from the inside and send gigantic pieces of it hurtling towards Earth at such speed that they reach planetfall in mere minutes.

[bubba smith]

2 hours ago, Pariah said:

n00b question here: Where do I find it? Netflix? Amazon Prime? Hulu?

netflix

[Armory]

On 2/21/2019 at 7:12 AM, Jagged said:

I spent ages trying to remember where I knew Number One from, without resorting to IMDB. Which resulted in me shouting "Merlin" in the middle of one episode for no apparent reason 

 

 

That same thing happened to me, but in my case I shouted "Black Sails!"

 

I enjoyed the series a lot more than I expected to.  I'd heard of the comic but never read it, I had no idea what it was about.  I kinda figured it was another angsty teen hero thing.  I'm pleased to say I was wrong.  It was angsty, sure, but the only teen in sight was 58 years old.  ?

[zslane]

The comic spends more time flitting back and forth between present day, when they are adults, and flashbacks when they are kids, than the show did.

[Scott Ruggels]

On 2/21/2019 at 4:43 AM, Starlord said:

He also plays a character with a very 'unfortunate' name in Game of Thrones.

 

Well yes, He became a meme.

[Scott Ruggels]

On 2/18/2019 at 5:02 PM, mattingly said:

Very nicely done. The Pogo effects amazed me.

Pogo would be the only chimp I would allow within 10 feet of  me.

[Scott Ruggels]

Okay... So how would you guys build them? (Bonuis points for building them in $th or earlier).

[BoloOfEarth]

On 2/18/2019 at 4:24 PM, Killer Shrike said:

The donut eating assassin and Five did a particularly good job; I kept watching for their scenes.

 

Elaborate.  (just kidding)

 

I finally got to watch this over the past few days.  Enjoyed it a lot.  After watching the first 4 episodes, I mentioned to my daughter that she might like it, especially Five.  That was Saturday.  By Sunday she had binge-watched all 10 episodes.  And I was right, Five was her favorite character, followed by Ben and Klaus.

 

She did say something to the effect that "it seems like the whole team only has five brain cells that they pass between them, and Five usually has like three of them."  She watched a few episodes with me, and there were occasions where she'd point out, "Oh, it's Diego's turn with some brain cells" or "Hey, Luther got to use a brain cell!"

[Starlord]

FYI, for those who enjoyed the performance of the 'donut eating assassin' aka Hazel.

 

His name is Cameron Britton and he is also in the Netflix series Mindhunter where he was nominated for an emmy due to the BRILLIANT job he does playing the 60s-70s serial killer Ed Kemper.

[Pariah]

I watched the first episode on the way to a conference this morning. Very interesting. I like Vanya.

[zslane]

I just wish the show had chosen to be as weird as the comic, especially in terms of the look of the characters. Luther and Vanya were especially disappointing.

 

But I agree that the Pogo character was incredibly well done.

[Pariah]

I'm about halfway through the series, and I have to say that I'm impressed. The writing is clever, the production is well-executed, and the characters are interesting. I have the profound feeling that things are about to go very badly wrong for several of these characters, especially Vanya. I just finished the episode where that guy she's hanging out with lost his eye, and where the rest of the family found out that the Commision is trying to protect him. That can't be good. 

[Pariah]

Luther, you idiot!

[Pariah]

On 3/5/2019 at 6:03 AM, BoloOfEarth said:

She did say something to the effect that "it seems like the whole team only has five brain cells that they pass between them, and Five usually has like three of them."  She watched a few episodes with me, and there were occasions where she'd point out, "Oh, it's Diego's turn with some brain cells" or "Hey, Luther got to use a brain cell!"

 

I have to agree with this sentiment wholeheartedly. Five is the only one of them that shows a lick of sense most of the time, followed rather distantly by Diego. I don't particularly recall any scenes where Luther has the brain cell, but I'm sure there's got to be at least a couple.

[Logan D. Hurricanes]

9 hours ago, Pariah said:

 

I have to agree with this sentiment wholeheartedly. Five is the only one of them that shows a lick of sense most of the time, followed rather distantly by Diego. I don't particularly recall any scenes where Luther has the brain cell, but I'm sure there's got to be at least a couple.

 

Hard to tell because it's a monkey brain cell.

[Pariah]

...and I just finished watching episode 10.

 

Wow.

 

Vanya = Carrie + Dark Phoenix?

[zslane]

3 hours ago, Logan.1179 said:

Hard to tell because it's a monkey brain cell.

 

A Martian Ape brain cell! No idea if that even matters...

[pinecone]

2 hours ago, zslane said:

 

A Martian Ape brain cell! No idea if that even matters...

Personally I was very disapointed when I heard Martian ape, and somebody did not have 4 arms!  Joke....

[Pariah]

It would've been difficult to portray Luther as he appears in the comics without a LOT of CGI. Probably wasn't in the budget. Not for him and Pogo both.

 

I thought the series did a great job with character development. There were characters I liked more than others, of course, but all of them were interesting. Even Hazel & Cha-Cha. That's not easy to do.

[zslane]

Hazel and Cha-cha were the least interesting/entertaining characters to me. A matter of taste, I guess.

 

While it may be true that the budget precluded making Luther more comics-accurate, I don't think being comics-accurate was much of a priority overall, at least when it came to the characters as adults. It rarely is with live-action superhero shows.

 

Generally speaking, my feeling is that if their creative vision for a show is to avoid being comics-accurate, then fine, go for it and don't be comics-accurate. But if their vision is to be comics-accurate (or mostly comics-accurate) but they can't muster the budget for it, then I'd rather they not do it at all and not give us a compromise that disappoints.

[Pariah]

4 hours ago, zslane said:

Hazel and Cha-cha were the least interesting/entertaining characters to me. A matter of taste, I guess.

 

Agreed. The fact that even the least interesting and least well-developed characters held my interest is the point I was trying to make.

 

And for the record, I have no objection to Luther not being more comics-accurate. Nor Diego, Allison, nor Ben (all of whom got a race-lift), nor Grace (who got a body), either.

[Pariah]

Okay, here's my take on the first season. Spoilered for verbosity and, well, Spoilers for those who haven't watched it.

 

 

The Umbrella Academy: Who's Responsible For The Apocalypse?

 

Well, it's done. Despite the best efforts of the Hargreeves Clan, the Apocalypse has arrived right on schedule. Looking back, who's fault is it? I have five nominees.

5: Vanya
All right, let's get the obvious bit out of the way: You caused the Apocalypse. So why are you only fifth on the list? Because you weren't the instigator so much as you were the weapon. Your nickname (The White Violin) says it all: you've spent most of your life as an instrument for other people's goals and ambitions. But you're not completely without culpability. You nearly killed Allison, and for the first time, you had to face the dark side of yourself. But at the critical moment, you made the decision to embrace that dark side, and you murdered Harold/Leonard (who had it coming) and then Pogo and Grace (arguably less so). And then you destroyed the world. So no, you're not off the hook. Not even close.

 

4: Klaus
So how did Harold/Leonard even know what to do to activate Vanya's powers and manipulate her abilities? Oh right, it's because when you were on your coked-up kleptomaniac spree through the mansion, looking for anything shiny that you could pawn to finance your next high, you took all of your father's notes and left them in a dumpster for him to find. Way to go, junkie.

3: Luther
I get it, Luther. You have that Older Brother mentality (even though you’re exactly the same age as the other six) and you want to protect the family and do the right thing. And yes, Vanya's abilities were a clear and present danger. But Vanya comes home looking for help, looking to make things right, and you respond by choking her unconscious and locking her up like an animal? Not cool, Big Brother. Everybody else in the family could see it--they tried desperately to persuade you to reconsider--but you were too stubborn and too convinced that you were right. Well, you weren't. Her captivity was the direct cause of her final descent into darkness. That's on you, bro.

 

2: Leonard Peabody/Harold Jenkins
Or, as I like to call you, Syndrome Part 2. Seriously, it's the same story arc: normal kid wants to be super, normal kid is spurned (perhaps unnecessarily harshly) by real supers, kid gets cranky and grows up to take violent revenge. Once you had that journal, you were obsessed with using it to control Vanya, and in turn using her to enact your vengeance. Maybe you should've paid more attention to what you were reading, yeah? But no, once she learned the truth and decided not to help you anymore, you turned on her, mocked her, and antagonized her. You practically begged her to kill you. So yeah, as previously mentioned, you had it coming. Frankly, she killed you too quickly. It's too bad she didn't stop with you.

 

And now, before moving on to #1, a couple of Honorable Mentions.

 

Allison
I commend your courage and compassion for going to Vanya to try to make things right. But the fact is, even if you claim not to remember or never to have understood, you used your powers to suppress her gift. And then, not two minutes after confessing that you had done so, you threatened to do it to her again. You're awfully lucky that your voice is the only thing you lost that night, and that’s not just a rumor.

Five
Things were finally starting to look up. Family members were starting to get along with each other, and Vanya had just discovered the journal in Leonard/Harold's possession. And then you went and spent that day with the Commission and undid all of it. No one can fault you for your actions, nor argue that you did the wrong thing based on what you knew. But the fact is, had you not done it, things may have turned out quite differently.

And now we reach #1. I expect you all know who I'm talking about, so let's say it together:
 

 

 

 

1: Sir Reginald Hargreeves

Ironic, isn't it? You went out and adopted seven exceptional children with the stated goal of saving the world, and it turns out that you are the single person most directly responsible for its destruction. To say that you were a terrible influence on those seven children would be a gross understatement. But worst of all is how you dealt with Vanya. You discovered that her powers were dangerous and difficult to control, and so your solution was to suppress her talents and isolate her from the rest of her family. Who the Hell did you learn parenting from, Queen Elsa's mom and dad? No, you're worse than them. They at least acknowledged their daughter's powers and encouraged her to try to learn to control them. You locked your daughter in a soundproof cell and drugged her for the majority of her life. It was literally the very worst thing you could have done to her.  Even the Old Yeller protocol would have been better. I mean, if you discover that your dog is rabid, it is your responsibility to put it down, is it not? You could've saved the world, and all it would've cost is the life of one young girl you didn't particularly care for anyway. Instead, you turned her into a ticking time bomb, who finally went off once you were safely and conveniently dead. So more than any other single person on this list, or even all of them together, you are responsible for the destruction of the world. Enjoy your legacy in the afterlife with your seven billion new friends.
 

 

[zslane]

Yes, basically, it takes a village...to bring about the apocalypse.

[Pariah]

Having now read the comic (well, the first series, Apocalypse Suite) and watched the TV series, I have to say I liked the TV series better.