Here’s my full take on The Umbrella Academy Season 2 review from Netflix. It starts streaming July 31 and stars Ellen Page, Tom Hopper, David Castañeda, Emmy Raver-Lampman, Robert Sheehan, Aidan Gallagher and Justin H. Min as the Hargreeves.

New season and bigger budget apparently as we get to see the Umbrella Academy aka The Hargreaves siblings making their way to the past to avoid getting burned to a crisp at the end of season 1. But we get complications in that they end up years apart from each other.

We get lots of great character moments for characters that weren’t given focus on last season like Allison aka The Rumour and Diego. Oh and surprise surprise Luther is also given a bigger catharsis here for season 2.

Among the seven siblings I felt we got weaker moments for Vanya and Klaus. But these two have powerful messages especially about the LGBTQ community. Klaus had a great arc last season and we get to see that expanded. For Vanya, it’s a whole new ballgame and a whole new life.

Number Five also takes the back seat in terms of importance. Sure he’s still the time and space jumping asshole but it gets diminished significantly. Also I was expecting some new developments for his character here but there’s little. Its nice though that they found a way to write more stuff about him and his conflict with the Commission. 

Music

I appreciate the song choices here for the season with songs from KISS to a cover of Bad Guy to a great cover of Crazy. We even have a Swedish version of “Hello” by Adele.

I’m the Bad Guy

Speaking of Swedish, we also get introduced to the new villains for the season, the Swedes. A trio of silent assassins sent by the Commission to take down the Academy with any means possible. Plus there’s another familiar face that returns and I won’t spoil who.

New Faces, New Heartbreaks

New characters here are equally engaging like the mysterious Lila to Elliot to Dallas natives Sissy and her son Harlan. Too bad though we had to get rid of another interesting character like Hazel who was an interesting addition from last season.

We also revisit characters that weren’t given much attention like Pogo and Grace aka Mom. Getting a significant backstory helps in making the world of the Hargreeves more color. There’s also a surprising character who makes an appearance here that makes the entire season very intriguing.

Relate Much?

The socio-political climate here is also worth mentioning here as the season was set in the 1960s, particularly the day John F. Kennedy was assassinated. We actually get to see some significant events in the history of mankind and the United States get revisted including the sit-in protests by the black community and even the mission to the moon aka the Moon Landing.

And because their world is growing for season 2, we should expect that there would be politics here and a character we dare not spoil (yet) is apparently in the thick of things which may be bad or good for the team of superfreaks.

Also touching on the black community’s plight in the 60s is also a great callback to what the US is currently experiencing with the protests and violence that have popped up all over the country. Whether it was something that Netflix planned to do or a weird coincidence beats me. All I know is that it happened and there’s a connect; but I leave that to the reader whether they accept the relevance and connection or not.

Development

Its in this place and from different years that we get to see how the Academy kids continued to evolve/ change and mature because as the first season had already established, they were pretty much immature brats who just grew up physically but never emotionally. 

Now its the growth that we are witnessing and the bonds that they are slowly developing with each other that makes it worth watching.

They also have a truly amazing opening scene.

The Action

Every episode is packed with good dose of drama and action. Some of those play off to great music too and you can really see the improvement from season 1 aka they have more money to spend on licenses this time. Steady camera and brilliant movements including that opening scene I posted above. That alone can get you hooked I know I did.

The Umbrella Academy Season 2 Review – Verdict

10/10

I really thought this was better than the first one. First one had a lot of baggage and was heavy at times and had a few more episodes than it should have but that was necessary for season 2. When we start watching the new episodes, we know who they are, how far they’ve come from since then and now we’re invested in what will happen to them.

Follow me on Twitter at @thefanboyseo for more Umbrella Academy goodness!