Television The Umbrella Academy

BeforeKeanetherewasRobson said:
Don't get why the show would do this.

If an actor is asked to play a character who's trans, they can/will do.

If a trans actor is asked to (continue to) play a character that's not trans, surely they can do that too?

Liked first two seasons and was looking forward to this one, but taking ages to get next season out. If they rewrite characters too, could impact how received.
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As far as I'm aware Gerard Way is a supporter of trans rights so I'd imagine they've had a discussion and are using this opportunity to respectfully explore and explain transgenderism to a large audience. It'll be helpful to educate viewers who won't know a lot about the issue and hopefully support those who are having these feelings themselves. I don't think the length of time taken to produce this new season has anything to do with this change (although I could be wrong, admittedly), and I don't think the character will change (apart from the obvious) or be rewritten as they're still the same person.

Regarding the bolded, honestly if they're going to do it I'd rather they took the time to get it right. If anything I'd argue that if written well it'd likely make the character more well received and get the show even more mainstream attention as one of the few major shows to go into depth on topics like this.
 
Schmiznurf said:
They're character reveals, the official twitter released each number every few days.
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But we already knew who the characters are…? I don’t get it either

I’ve clearly forgotten what happened in series 2 :D
 
Coxy said:
But we already knew who the characters are…? I don’t get it either

I’ve clearly forgotten what happened in series 2 :D
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We didn't know any details of the characters for the Sparrow Academy, iirc they only appeared briefly at the end of season 2
 
On episode 4 now. I think they handled the Vanya/Victor transition storyline well in parallel to Eliot Page's real life. And making it work in the story. Sparow Academy team is interesting so far. I will say the Time travel, paradox, shenanigans kind of need to get cleaned up for me. I hope they don't keep doing time travel stuff over and over.
 
Watched the first episode and really enjoyed it. Looking to binge somehow over the weekend.

The dance off was great.
 
My wife is a fan so I watched some episodes with her last night, and I thought this show was awful to be honest.

The writing is all over the place, there appear to be way too many characters to follow with this new academy in the mix and I found it genuinely boring and convoluted.

I had heard quite a lot of people talking about it and am pretty baffled as to how it’s so highly rated by some.

Maybe it’s just not to my tastes, but it looked like genuinely bad TV to me.
 
Season 3 was fecking brilliant. Knocked it out the park.
 
Hamnat said:
On episode 4 now. I think they handled the Vanya/Victor transition storyline well in parallel to Eliot Page's real life. And making it work in the story. Sparow Academy team is interesting so far. I will say the Time travel, paradox, shenanigans kind of need to get cleaned up for me. I hope they don't keep doing time travel stuff over and over.
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Having not watched it yet, did it actually make that character interesting? The funny thing about that in relation to the show is the Vanya character being probably the weakest element despite having the highest profile actor.
 
Hamnat said:
On episode 4 now. I think they handled the Vanya/Victor transition storyline well in parallel to Eliot Page's real life. And making it work in the story. Sparow Academy team is interesting so far. I will say the Time travel, paradox, shenanigans kind of need to get cleaned up for me. I hope they don't keep doing time travel stuff over and over.
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Yeah they did a good job of it without making too much of a fuss about it (so far)

Also liking the addition of the sparrow academy
 
Worst of the three seasons for me. The Allison storyline was very annoying and dumb. The Vanya-Viktor initial act of transition was sorta jarring but as it became a through line throughout the season, it fit into the story well. And the finale itself was very very weak for me.

p.s. Jayme (poison spitter) looks so much like Anne Hathaway that I had to look it up. And that messed up face dude sounds exactly like Mark Ruffalo. Did anyone notice these?
 
Amarsdd said:
Worst of the three seasons for me. The Allison storyline was very annoying and dumb. The Vanya-Viktor initial act of transition was sorta jarring but as it became a through line throughout the season, it fit into the story well. And the finale itself was very very weak for me.

p.s. Jayme (poison spitter) looks so much like Anne Hathaway that I had to look it up. And that messed up face dude sounds exactly like Mark Ruffalo. Did anyone notice these?
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I don't think her angle was dumb, it was probably how you'd expect it to go given:

She lost her daughter in one timeline. Then she lost the only man she loved in the next timeline. She realized the only persons she felt close to within the group were 1) Vanya who lied to her and 2) Luther who was no longer attracted to her after Sloane. Consequently her end goal was finding a purpose in whatever life is left, and that meant she was ridiculously selfish throughout the season. Utter dick throughout, but it made perfect sense to be.
 
I don't understand why Elliot Page couldn't continue acting as Vanya instead of having events in the show mirror events in events in his life. It's acting.

Instead of having 2 sisters in the group, the dynamic has changed and Allison is now the only woman in the family. The impression I got was she and Vanya/Viktor were close because of sisterhood bonds. Now that's gone.
 
Massive Spanner said:
Six episodes in. It’s been really shite. And I thought the first two seasons were great.
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Yeah, it has always kind of been a fun train-wreck type of show, enjoy the zaniness and don't think too much about it but some of the charm is gone.
 
NinjaZombie said:
I don't understand why Elliot Page couldn't continue acting as Vanya instead of having events in the show mirror events in events in his life. It's acting.

Instead of having 2 sisters in the group, the dynamic has changed and Allison is now the only woman in the family. The impression I got was she and Vanya/Viktor were close because of sisterhood bonds. Now that's gone.
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I don't really mind it. Thought it was handled well. They dealt with it in the plot and then didn't really make any fuss about it. The creator of the show is a big supporter of LGBTQ+ rights so I don't think it was only Elliot's decision, either.

I think the main problem with Yanya/Victor is they're just a crap, boring character and Elliot has always looked like he's phoning it in a bit.
 
Massive Spanner said:
I don't really mind it. Thought it was handled well. They dealt with it in the plot and then didn't really make any fuss about it. The creator of the show is a big supporter of LGBTQ+ rights so I don't think it was only Elliot's decision, either.

I think the main problem with Yanya/Victor is they're just a crap, boring character and Elliot has always looked like he's phoning it in a bit.
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Boring knock off version of The Scarlet Witch to start with, best characters are probably 5 and Klaus, with Luther being a likeable oaf at times.
 
Massive Spanner said:
I don't really mind it. Thought it was handled well. They dealt with it in the plot and then didn't really make any fuss about it. The creator of the show is a big supporter of LGBTQ+ rights so I don't think it was only Elliot's decision, either.

I think the main problem with Yanya/Victor is they're just a crap, boring character and Elliot has always looked like he's phoning it in a bit.
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Comic book Vanya was more interesting. She literally looked like a white violin and eviscerated The Conductor while playing a single note on her violin. :lol:
 
VP89 said:
I don't think her angle was dumb, it was probably how you'd expect it to go given:

She lost her daughter in one timeline. Then she lost the only man she loved in the next timeline. She realized the only persons she felt close to within the group were 1) Vanya who lied to her and 2) Luther who was no longer attracted to her after Sloane. Consequently her end goal was finding a purpose in whatever life is left, and that meant she was ridiculously selfish throughout the season. Utter dick throughout, but it made perfect sense to be.
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Problem was she was so selfish and such a dick that I didn’t give a shit about her kid, or Ray (and barely remembered them to begin with tbf) and mostly just wanted her to get some comeuppance, which she didn’t. So it was a bit of a busted flush tbh. There was also absolutely no reason for Vicktor to trust her, other than the plot. She was just very annoying, and then randomly right about everything in the end, despite having no reason whatsoever to believe she would be.. or for anyone else to.

Thought it was all pretty messy personally. The characters are still fun, but there felt like a lot less going on and a lot more wandering about chatting about stuff (not that that’s always bad, of course, but it felt like a lot of the same stuff.) and the plot just kind of resolved in a completely random way thanks to the least likeable character having a completely unexplained epiphany after fighting some also largely unexplained end of level sub-bosses for a bit.
 
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I overall enjoyed it due to the characters and their interactions. I do understand Allison upto a point but it did feel weird as mentioned above how her story ended (assume its not the end but end for the season).
It seems like shes the only one who got what she wanted (maybe Lila/Diego). And of course Hargreaves.

I assume there will be a new season as we need to find out
what happens with the rest of the sparrows especially Sloane? At the same time, if they end it now, (hopefully they dont) pretty much you can say they just live on and carry on as normal people going forward.

Massive Spanner said:
I don't really mind it. Thought it was handled well. They dealt with it in the plot and then didn't really make any fuss about it. The creator of the show is a big supporter of LGBTQ+ rights so I don't think it was only Elliot's decision, either.

I think the main problem with Yanya/Victor is they're just a crap, boring character and Elliot has always looked like he's phoning it in a bit.
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I get what you mean. I dont know if that is the way he acts or its just for this show. Its like he cant be bothered (from memory juno and inception didnt seem that way)
 
He’s definitely not very interesting in Inception either, but it’s also a pretty boring character whose only there for the other characters to explain the concept to… He is pretty good and enthused in ‘Super’ from what I remember (James Gunn’s take on Kick Ass) but I haven’t seen it in a while.
 
Weakest season by far, just rather uninspired, flat storyline, the sparrows were all one note, killed the 2 most interesting ones off first . Reginald 5 and Klaus are by far the best elements of the show, and remain so but outside of a few moments from Diego and Luther the rest were super dull. Viktor the worst culprit, a boring character as Vanya, a boring character as Viktor, Elliot Page has sloth energy. Allison murdering Harlan and attempting to rape Luther and no comeback?

To be fair it probably doesn't help that it is out at the same time as The Boys which crushes it.
 
I keep seeing this advertised, but the name keeps putting me off. Is it actually a top level TV series that's worth the hype, or is it middle of the road, typical superhero shite?
 
Big Andy said:
I keep seeing this advertised, but the name keeps putting me off. Is it actually a top level TV series that's worth the hype, or is it middle of the road, typical superhero shite?
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It is fun nonsense in the main with a couple of engaging actors having a good time. Most definitely not top level TV.
 
Bobski said:
It is fun nonsense in the main with a couple of engaging actors having a good time. Most definitely not top level TV.
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I can get on board with fun nonsense if the story is compelling enough.
 
First two seasons I thought in both cases the first half was very good, then just tailed off gradually into weak endings.

Not encouraged by the comments but I'll give season 3 a watch just because the first two were fun
 
I really enjoyed season 1 and thought season 2 was okay. I’ve given up on this season after 6 episodes. I don’t think filming during covid helped this season and it shows, but there are many problems with it.
 
I love this show and I think the Vanya/Viktor works really well with his character arc, he started off an outsider, even in his own family, then realised he had something inside him that he didn't understand or know how to control, which he learnt over time.

Then the whole Sissy thing was a realisation about who he was, just like the apocalypses were about the powers.

Even Elliott's kind of mopey, awkward portrayal fits in with someone who doesn't know themselves and feel awkward in their own body. But unlike his siblings, he never knew the fame and stuff, so never had that confidence in himself to be quirky like the others.
 


Glad it's coming to a close. The whole save the planet thing is getting stale
 
Right amount and gives it a chance to close the story
 
Just seen it. Love 5 as a character. One of my favourite TV characters in fact

Klaus remains rather useless, however the powers he displayed at the end would be good to explore.

Not sure why they thought to make Luther dumber with each season. Completely different person to season 1's character.
Also the way he and Allison seemed to completely lose any connection in the first few episodes was a bit weird as there was always something there even though Alisson was married twice. Especially considering there was no time jump for the protagonists themselves between seasons 2 & 3
Finally with Luther, I just found love but the world is ending and I refuse to lift a finger because Daddy issues? Whole new level of silly

On Allison, I get her loss but her transformation was way too drastic. I know people can flip, but to go from one of the most sensible characters to a cold blooded murderer with no remorse? Especially considering she was part of the decision making process in every jump? Nah


Vanya->Viktor seemed sudden, just because there was no sign of this specific struggle in season 1 and a romance with Sissy specifically over a few short days in season 2 (even if it probably grew over the period before) doesn't seem significant enough for the decision. What do I know though? I can't necessarily relate, so may be entirely off base here.

Somehow though, I enjoyed it! :lol:
 
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