With another set of seven superheroes to contend with, you'd think that "The Umbrella Academy" on its third season will be a banging good time. But with the addition of The Sparrow Academy, the series takes a huge tumble as it struggled to balance out the pacing and the development of its characters and narrative with so much more material to work on. Even at ten episodes long, this third season just felt a little bit rushed and probably needed a couple more episodes to break-in its lore and alternate timeline our characters find themselves in. As-is, this was good but not as great and awesome as its predecessors.
The Umbrella Academy thought that they were able to finally save the world by going back to 1963. But as soon as they travel back to the present something is way off. Instead, they find their dead father alive and a whole set of superhero siblings as their replacement. Creating a new timeline was obviously not their intention but this is the least of their worries as they soon find out that they have created a paradox that not only means the end of the world but the end of the universe and existence itself.
Frustratingly, we just wanted to get our characters better - new and old alike. But "The Umbrella Academy Season 3" focuses on some but completely forgets everyone else. The handling of Allison's character as a matter if fact was just criminal. From being one of the most well-loved characters in the series, her character arc was bone-chillingly mad and completely unlikable this season. We do get why her characterization needed to have this kind of development (she did lose a lot that she loved) but the series failed to build up the context to this transition properly. One scene she's the old lovable Allison and the next one she's one of the biggest "villains" in the series to date. This happens time and time again not only with Allison but with characters such as Harlan, Pogo, and most of the members of The Sparrow Academy.
When the show focused on a particular character, it shines and shows what could have been. Vanya's transition to Viktor (against the real-life transition of Ellen Page to Elliot Page) was crafted so seamlessly, without little fuss, and one of the highest points this season. The discovery of Klaus' real powers was also something that added more color to his character while turning out to be integral in the end game. While Sir Reginald Hargreeves' redemption arc with his alternative self was fun and spicy to say the least. While it wouldn't be realistic to expect all characters to have equal screen time, we wished the third season focused more of its screen time on more characters. At the end of the day, we loved "The Umbrella Academy" because of the quirky characters and the unexpected yet relatable interactions they do to each other. This season, this was just lacking.
Rating: 3 and a half reels
Why you should watch it:
- same irreverent fun that the series is known for
- when it focuses to develop certain characters, the show really shined
Why you shouldn't watch it:
- the pacing and development of characters was really off
- there's just too many characters to really fit in a ten episode format
The Umbrella Academy Season 3 Review: Bigger Doesn't Mean Better
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