The Umbrella Academy 4 Review, the art of knowing how to repeat yourself

The term evolution often connotes the changeunderstood as an advancement towards something different, often due to various modifiers that have a hand in it. The Umbrella Academy could be the clear example of evolution, where the characters advance and face what comes their way one step at a time. Yet, with evolution we also mean the changeone thing that The Umbrella Academy, we can now say with certainty, he can’t do it very well. This fourth season is an example of this, which despite bringing some interesting changes and proposing some very fun solutions to watch, can’t get out of the loop which leads it to be very often self-referential.

An infinite time loop

The Umbrella Academy season 4 picks up our dysfunctional family of very distinctive characters a few years after the season 3 finale. Without powersthe boys have returned to more or less normal lives, each in his own comfort zone (or in what life has in store for him). This interesting little excursus leads us to see some very nice things, from a Klaus terrified of death to a Luther trying to make ends meet.

As we have seen from the trailer, however, this period does not last long in terms of TV time, since our heroes they will have to save the world again. For the last time. Yet things change, evolve, and for this reason there are so many interesting novelties, starting from the timeline and the concept of multiverse (a novelty), up to a diversification of powers that was probably done so much per kilo.

A toast to the good old days gone by

Moral of the story, as already happened in the series, writing decides to be partialbringing about changes that we could perhaps rationally explain, but which ultimately do not find much space. There is also a obvious disparity between the characters: we’ve been used to having our Hargreeves family solo runs, and the fact that there are only 6 episodes has helped to cut out any dead time, but at this point it’s clear that some characters are more beloved by the writers than others.

Despite this, it is interesting to see how the evolution and growth of the characters is inversely proportional to the time dedicated: if in fact Diego And Luther are among the most satisfying to watch, especially if we consider their awareness of certain topics that we will not spoil for you, otherwise Claus And Lila they can’t seem to find a solution, and worse Allison That change every season that passes, without any sense.

Relegated to nothingness again Wellwho we almost preferred in the first season as a ghost, and Fivewhich this time does not get all the time given in the previous series, but which all in all ends up like Lila. Applause for the exception made by Victorwho is not only the protagonist with the most interesting personal growth, but manages to be consistent with the written character from beginning to end.

It seems as if some choices were made because they had to be made, with little sense in their motivations: we are talking about soft choices as initial moments or separations from the group (which fortunately having only 6 episodes are not as present and heavy as in the previous seasons), but we even get to the ending, which tries to leave something to the viewer, but only creating questions, a Big Bad really insipid, an illogical paradox even for Back to the Future and a mediocre closing scene.

In order from left to right, Cinque, Viktor and Diego

Short and intense

As we have already explained, The Umbrella Academy is composed of only 6 episodes: this is not a bad thing in all respects, but rather it becomes one of the few things that works in the season. Having 4 episodes less than the other seasons, many of the long turns that occurred in the previous iterations have been reduced to the bone. There are characters who, once met in the first episode, they don’t separate until the sixthsomething unheard of for this series, which with the amazement of the first seasons and the redundancy of the last ones, often aimed to separate the Hargreeves.

Yet it is impossible not to notice how things have been handled in a hurry: some character motivations are simplistic, some consequences feel forced, and there’s a whole tray of MacGuffin which are exploited without fear at least a couple of times per episode.

The icing on the cake is the ending, a set of actions and choices that seem to be made to force, rather than a closure to tell something. Even the two villains, played by two fantastic Nick Offerman And Megan Mullallywho however cannot help but remind you of Hazel and Cha Cha, are faded and reduced to caricatures, to the point that you won’t be able to focus on them until the end.

The Umbrella Academy 4 Cast

For the rest, obviously, the actors manage as always to bring interesting moments to the screen (we are still talking about high-caliber interpreters) and the series can certainly entertain, especially if you loved the other 3. The closure, on the other hand, is quite clear. and therefore puts the package The Umbrella Academy in a closed box and ready to be remembered in ten years, a bit like what has already happened with other series. The CGI remains a bit fake, especially regarding Ben, but it still does not drop in quality compared to the past episodes.

Did walking away help?

An honorable mention must be made for the final choice which, as we can now say, took the series very far from the comic. In a historical moment where bringing TV series slavishly transposed as The Last of Us works very well, or where varying the theme pushes to have interesting alternative points of view as in The Boys (despite the risks), the choice of The Umbrella Academy was, in my opinion, wrong.

Perhaps the fear of bringing in things that were not very understandable, a terror that perhaps scared the screenwriters in 2019 but which has now greatly subsided, pushed them to change some things. A clear example is Clausa character who in the series is reduced to a simple immortal thanks to the power he possesses (which is always nice to see with the face of Robert Sheehan), in the comic he is simply immortal because God doesn’t like it very much.

Or Diegowhich in the series has a power similar to that of the film Wanted, in the comic can hold his breath foreverbut then he trained to become a vigilante as Batmanwhich is why he gets away with knives. In short, choices that with careful analysis suggest a simplification, attributable only to the fear that perhaps Netflix he had to bring up thorny or uninteresting topics, but which I’m sure would have caused a stir today.

The cast of the comic

Said this, there’s no point in reducing everything to “comics are better”one of the most toxic phrases since comic book adaptations were born: it is however impossible not to think about what we could have had with a little more courage, which does not have to be made of bloody scenes and swear words, but of well-made writing and successful characterization, two things that we cannot say that The Umbrella Academy 4 do very well (but fortunately not too badly either).