Thursday, March 14, 2019

The Umbrella Academy - Why the Hype?

Hello! 

I recently finished watching the first season of The Umbrella Academy and I can tell you right now that I was blown away! To all of you who told me to watch the series, I adored it and you were so right about it. 

For those of you who don't know, The Umbrella Academy is a new series made by Netflix based on a series of comic books. It revolves around a group of 7 children, all born on the same day, who have strange powers. A man adopts them and teaches them to use their powers for the greater good in an academy he calls... The Umbrella Academy. (Plot twist right?). The series starts when 6 of the 7 former students reunite, knowing that the world is to end in 8 days. 

Now you may have heard of this series from friends, posters in the streets or from its general acclaim. As per tradition of this new blog series I'm going to go through all of the points that may explain the hype of this piece of modern pop culture! 

1. The characters are fascinating
You have 6 main characters, most of which are presented with peculiar powers - one is strong, one can jump through space and time, one can talk to the dead, one can influence people with her words and one can hit any target. And all of them are broken, various sense of the word. Between anger issues, anxiety, drug addiction and general breakdowns, I found it really interesting to see how the creators of this story linked the powers these characters have to their flaws and weak points. I think that the catchphrase Super. Dysfunctional. Family. Is the best way to put this! 

2. The plot has amazing turns
The plot is relatively linear, but it still snakes around and is riddled with butterfly effects! It is worthy of some of the best movies and series and books! If it can keep this up next season I'm all in for it! There were 2 things I saw coming but generally mostly everything took me by pleasant surprise! 

3. The Soundtrack is out of this world 
Did you know that the songs from the first season of The Umbrella Academy has recently taken 7 of 10 places in the top 10 songs of the week this month? This series takes many songs from a wide variety of genres. It puts songs in situations in which the mood doesn't seem to quite fit, but all together makes for a wonderfully weird experience. I have (re-)discovered some amazing music thanks to this series

And now for some semi-spoiler random character notes! 
- Klaus is absolutely fabulous and is such a fascinating character. He's gone through some serious stuff. 
- Number Five's a pain in the butt 
- Alison is super cool and has such a complicated power! I can't imagine how tempting it must be to influence people for anything! 
- I'm still trying to figure out if I like Vanya or not - she's definitely scary in her own way. 
- Luther is such a mess but that makes sense - He was abandoned on the moon for 4 years! 
- Unpopular opinion, but I actually really like Diego's character - he has so much reason and logic!

I know this is not super detailed BUT it's so easy to fall into the spoiler territory with this series! In addition, there are only 10 episodes - perfect to catch up with! 

Stay bookish! 


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