f13.net

Trailer (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0DAmWHxeoKw)

Viciously weird Darkhorse Comics story about a neurotic team of failed wunderkind semi-superheroes reuniting to save the world. Fun cast, good production values, I'm tentatively optimistic.

That looks the Watchmaniest.

Umbrella Academy seems like a pretty weird choice of things to adapt, but I like the source material and that trailer seems acceptable, so I'll mark myself cautiously optimistic for now.

I actually felt pretty ambivalent towards the source material. It has some good ideas--it's really asking more seriously what it would be like to be a "superhero family" than mainstream comics do. (You know how in the X-Men they constantly say, 'but we're like family!' and that's always meant to be heart-warming and sentimental, when being 'like family' in a lot of contexts would just be weird and alienating and emotionally uncomfortable.)  The powers are a lot weirder (it's kind of odd this is coming out at  the same time as a pretty good version of The Doom Patrol, because the mood is similar). One review says it's like The Royal Tennebaums with super-powers and that's really close to it.

But the original source material also often felt half-finished to me--distractable, jumpy, affected, sometimes too happy with its own cleverness. It's really hard to identify much with the characters, and there's no really good central story or character that sort of holds it all up. The world-building was also weak.

So this might be good? At least a watch? But I suspect it's going to be rather long and rather slow. Which is pretty much the way Netflix does super-heroes generally--they go cheap on the action, streeeetch out the character bits and narrative, and assume 'mood' covers a multitude of sins.

I do agree that it felt like Gerard Way reaaaally wanted to be Grant Morrison with this, but didn't have the writing muscles to pull it off. It's actually been long enough since I read either that I thought the chimpanzee in this was Dmitri-9, before I remembered that character was actually from Morrison's The Filth. I'm probably overly forgiving of the source material because I have a soft spot for odd and off-kilter stuff.

Also, uggggh, don't tell me Doom Patrol is actually good. I really, really don't want to support DCs grab to have their own streaming service especially because I care about absolutely nothing else they're likely to put on it.

So I watched this. I enjoyed it particularly Klaus. The arc was fairly predictable and I really only have one thing to say about their father's parenting style:

I also liked this, reminded me of Dirk Gently for some reason (and I also liked that one, especially the first season).

It was OK through episode 3. Klaus is definitely the best part. Both in writing and in acting.

Watch Maniac and Russian Doll first

Russian Doll is shit.  Avoid.

It's better than the comic, I think. Toned down some of the weirdness, which I did miss. But it filled in all the stuff that Way left in the gutter between the panels and which made the comic feel borderline incoherent at times.

Seeing Robert Sheehan again and another show being about super powers? Sure, I'll watch that.

Yup! I might have freaked out a little bit when I realized who he was. Then me and the wife had an argument about it until she checked imdb and saw I was right. Apparently he is way sexier now that he is all grown up and that threw her off.

I'm up to the point where Klaus comes back. I hope he learned something and is a better person for having met Dave. We'll see. I know nothing of the source material, and I'm really liking this.

The American accent is a bit disconcerting as well.

I enjoyed this quite a bit, but fuck them for that ending.

It hasn't even been officially renewed yet, we are not getting more for a long ass time if we do.

So me and the wife are 4 episodes in. We came in never having heard of the show/comic. So far there are a ton of unanswered questions that I am guessing that they expect viewers to want to know the answers to but neither of us really care. The show does a shit job of giving viewers any reason to care about any of the characters. And as for the coming apocalypse... meh.

I want to like it and it definitely seems like the type of show that we would like but so far its been rather boring.

Wife and I liked it. Finally finished S1 last night. Ended about as expected.

I'm simultaneously intrigued and annoyed at all the new mysteries hinted at near the end of this season.  Probably going to have to find the comics now.

They already renewed it.

Me an my wife begrudgingly likes it. On one hand its some old cheesy bullshit but on the other hand it shows some creative heart and determination. Like it really shouldn't be a show we look forwarding to watching 2-3 episodes at a time. But it is. And I have to say this is how you take creative liberties with the source material. Than we watch some bullshit like Doom Patrol and realize this show could have been much worse.

Great description. I finished it yesterday and had a good time. I liked the soundtrack and the fun they had with the more wacky scenes. The kid actor playing Number 5 was so convincing of being an old man in a child's body. Refreshing to have a good superhero story that doesn't come with big-brand baggage.

Finally watched it here. The soundtrack was really good. The story kind of fluctuated around, but I got the impression they actually made the show more "realistic" than the comics (or at least less weird).

5 and Klaus pretty much carried the show, although probably the best (and most memorable) scene was the dancing scene -- which was really well done.

The whole show really felt like that. Solid throughout, with flashes of "really, really good" and then the occasional flash of "What? Why?".

Good enough I'm looking forward to a Season 2, and I liked the whole really fucked up family dynamics, the absolute mess you'd really make of people trying to turn kids into superheros.

Season 2 has been announced.

Luther Hargreeves = Dickon Tarly omg

He's Billy Bones from Black Sails :P

Netflix says available July 31. Trailer. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Me0eoCwLj-A)

I'm very excited to find out why a goldfish is wearing a suit.

So that's what happens when you swallow a goldfish live. Man.

This is back and as great as before.

Three episodes in.  So far so good!

The first season took a little while to get its feet under it IMO as we had to meet all the characters and establish the premise.  This one gets to just hit the ground running and I like it.

I've finished up season 2 and I think it's a bit better than season 1, but still not really a great show. It's just a bit too paint by numbers, lacks real coherency, and isn't consistently fun enough to distract you from that.

It also drags stuff out too long (because it doesn't have enough interesting stuff to show you instead?), and hints and jumps with mysteries and twists that often aren't engaging in suggestion and/or resolution.

They even lampshaded that with the eyeball thing this season. Overall I liked it better than the first season and I thought that one was pretty great.

I thoroughly enjoyed it. Got through the entire season in only a few days, which is practically binging in relation to my viewing habits. 

Yeah, season 2 good.  Really hope that (a) this goes for at least another season and (b) next season goes in a totally different direction from time travel doomsday shenanigans.

I really enjoyed S2. But it didn't leave me wanting more to the degree that the first one did.

Rewatching s1. I really love Klaus. Poor fucker.

Wife and I love the kid who plays Number 5. Something about his mannerisms and tone/cadence.

His motivation in every scene is always "I'm too old for this shit".   :awesome_for_real:

They all do a great job with their individual baggage.

I am interested to see how well they handle that with the father guy next year. The scenes with him were a highlight this year.

I was so amazed that he still looked exactly the same in season 2 that I had to check he was actually a kid, not some babyfaced adult. He does an incredible job of seeming to be a real, jaded fiftysomething inhabiting a kid's body.

Knocks it out the god damn park. Even the weakest storyline is leagues better than most shows entire season.

Just finished season 2 episode 8.  Do they ever explain the how the fish got to be in charge?

No and I hope they never do.

He was a board member, of course.

I felt like Season 2 wandered a bit, and didn't feel like it really worked.  As for hoping that Time Travel will not pay a part in Season 3... good luck.  That is the only way to fix the problem introduced at the end of Season 2.  

I'm curious to see what they changed exactly - It sounded like the dad was opposed to killing Kennedy the whole time and Kennedy died in the 'real' timeline so that doesn't seem to have been it, unless it was just him being pre-warned about all this crazy business.

I didn't enjoy this season as much as the first but it was good, fun and well acted. Luther stuck between old/young and young/old 5 was really great and I quite enjoyed the poor Swedes.

His relationship with "mom" was ruined. I imagine she had a very profound effect on his concept of humanity. Enough, that even if they didn't have a real lasting relationship, he created the android version of her to be there for the children.

Less love, more bitterness and alienation (hyuk hyuk). Should be a fun group. 

Not to mention the fact that he viewed all his "children" as failures and clearly needed to adjust their upbringing to be much harsher.

Decided to take a break from watching anime (finished The Dragon Prince S3, now to wait for more!) and started watching this last night.  Only one episode so far but that was a pretty damn good one for someone who's not read the comics.  Feels like a nice, dysfunctional family, all come together for a funeral, and it feels real with how the siblings all get along.

That dance scene was perfect though!

I finally watched both seasons of this and I loved it. There were some uneven parts but overall, I really dug it. Then I read the comics and...

Wow. The TV show is like someone was told a plot synopsis of the comic, took those really broad strokes and fleshed it out. I actually prefer it, though there is something charming about the way over the top pulpiness of the comic. But really, they are just two entirely separate stories that share some commonalities.

Season 3 confirmed (not a surprise, they signed to pay for two more after the first).

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/umbrella-academy-renewed-for-season-3-at-netflix (https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/umbrella-academy-renewed-for-season-3-at-netflix)

--Dave

Took me longer than planned but I finished S2 this past weekend and now I have to wait for S3 to see how they fix the timeline.  I really did enjoy S2 quite a bit, it felt like a slice of life show that brought everything together at the end and yet...  Do we know if Pogo is still around in the new timeline?

So, this is back.

Still great.

Hopefully it will get a season 4, as I quite liked the setup for it.

Agreed, this was a pretty strong season.  I find the decision-making of a few of the characters to be absolutely infuriating, but in a way that makes the story more interesting.

The only times I found myself getting really annoyed at the show were when Five had interesting information and declined to use it to move the plot forward.  Well that and to a lesser extent every scene in which Allison is seething with rage and Viktor is mopey, which was way more scenes than that whole thing needed.

Normally I intensely dislike plot driven by failure to communicate, but they just skirt inside the line.

If I were to criticise the season at all, I'd say the ending doesn't quite live up to the way they imply there is some some super clever mystery to reveal.

Just on Alison and Viktor, sure maybe you could cut it down a little, but I'm not sure I can think of superhero or other fantasy IP that handled anger and guilt as well as they did.

Watching this has made me want to go rewatch the prior seasons and figure out if the character stuff was really that good previously.

I thought it was fantastic.  Allison's anger was really well done, IMO, especially building off what had happened to her in S2.  They did the Vanya -> Viktor transition very well and it just became a non-thing to deal with.  I was a bit disappointed that the Sparrows went out as quickly as some of them did, and the Luther/Sloane relationship was on fast forward x infinity. But it still worked so there's that.  Kind of wonder why we ended up with asshole Ben at the end instead of their Ben, but with that credits scene, I'm wondering if the reasons the timelines have all gone wrong is because their Ben died.

Anyways, can't wait to see if there's an S4.

I think the Ben resolution is a s4 thing.

We now know uBen died in the Jennifer incident, and sBen is obsessed with her  per the pictures in his room.

I would guess uBen died saving Jennifer and sBen is an asshole because he didn't.

But in the new reality it seems likely Jennifer is alive again. Setting up some level of sBen redemption.

Renewed for a final season.

I was starting to get a little nervous given the way Netflix have been lately.

In a way I am glad this coming season is the finale since this is getting stretched a bit thin, but the cliffhanger on season 3 left too many things to be answered.

I'm glad this is getting a final season and that it has been labeled so well in advance so they can end it properly instead of going for some cliffhanger.