Today marks six days till the world ends. Nobody can avoid it. On October 1, 1989, 43 moms quickly gave delivery, cutting nine months of pregnancy into a few moments. World-famous millionaire Sir Reginald Hargreeves adopted seven of them youngsters. The billionaire said in numerous press conferences that the unorthodox adoption was to save the globe. We know the world will end. In six days.
Many thoughts buzz in my head after viewing ‘The Umbrella Academy’. Some are sour, but most are sweet. I’m amazed at how quickly we’re internalising a golden age for adult fantasies as normal. ‘Game of Thrones’, ‘Westworld’, ‘The Man in the High Castle’, ‘The Haunting of Hill House’, ‘Future Man’, or ‘The Umbrella Academy’ Not even halfway normal, but it’s becoming that way over time.
As explained below, ‘The Umbrella Academy’ is a fun superhero series that is surprisingly similar to ‘The Haunting of Hill House’ in its narrative framework. Not as good. It’s an 8-star series, not a 10-star one, because it lacks Michael Donovan’s grace as showrunner and director of all episodes, which ‘Hill House’ had. No ‘The Woman with the Broken Neck’ or ‘Two Storms’ episodes. However, there is a medium tone, charisma, and casting that holds your attention.
We had a catch-you-here-I-kill-you-here interview with David Castaneda during the launch. Castaneda was amusing in a 10-minute interview on how he didn’t get along with everyone on the set and what superpower he would preserve. You can watch below.
An immersion in ‘The Umbrella Academy’ superhero series follows. Family dramedy too. A mix of genres depending on the situation to keep the audience hooked. The series works beautifully. One with visible seams.
Hill House Twin
I think it’s a coincidence considering the comic has comparable features. ‘The Umbrella Academy’ seems to replicate ‘Hill House’ with masks if you think about it. Let’s begin.
The show opens with the death of a family member and the reunion of long-lost family members. Five siblings lived in Hill House. Here are seven.
One family member wrote a hugely successful book that caused rejection or distress. In ‘Hill House’ it was Steven Crain (Michiel Huisman), now Vanya Hargreeves.
A huge mansion represents that family’s lights and shadows.
A continual parallel montage shows us past events that affect us now.
So many structural pieces are alike, yet not similar. Both shows focus on character motives and intimacies. ‘Hill House’ was remarkable for its excellent staging and dense but never confusing narrative mosaic, but the Crane family was the highlight. After the episode, Steven, Luke, Theo, Shirley, and Nell stay together.
‘The Umbrella Academy’ replicates the method and succeeds in driving character empathy. It is strange because this era of television, with its 10-hour story arcs, gives characters depth that the mainstream epic, especially the fantastic, has long lacked.
Peter Jackson’s biggest contribution to his first Ring trilogy (which was fantastic) was giving these Tolkienian characters (except Gollum and a bit of Frodo) great three-dimensionality. In ‘The Fellowship of the Ring’, Aragorn says goodbye to Frodo by covering the One with his hand to silence Sauron and whispering: “I would have gone with you to the end. To the fires of Mordor”; or that Gollum with his back to Faramir who horrifies and fascinates the prince with his tortuous monologue about his “Dear”; “Smeagol… Why is Smeagol crying These enhancements made us swallow everything else because you must feel the characters to feel a story.
Like ‘Hill House’, ‘The Umbrella Academy’ exceeds this goal with two techniques and scenarios. You love Luther, Diego, Vanya, Ben, and Klaus, the charming, petulant junkie who sees the dead. Additionally, and rarer, with all supporting characters. The ape-like Alfred dubbed Pogo. Grace, the boys’ artificial mother, performed well by Jordan Claire Robbins. Even villains like Cha-Cha and Hazel have time to develop and convince us of their existence.
My favourite scene in the series is unrelated to the main and minor narratives. Hazel, a hired mercenary searching for the Hargreeves, flirts with an older but charming doughnut bar server for three or four episodes. The waitress is flattered by the flirting. He takes Hazel to lunch on a visit. She leads you out the back door to a patio with two shabby chairs and garbage cans a few feet away.
In this simple setting, a lovely, poignant, yet honest conversation about life’s fleeting desires takes place. The lovebird tells Hazel she’s saving to go to the country, garden, and even run a bakery. Hazel smiles and frowns. She smiles because the apocalypse is just days away and the dream is simple and clean. She advises, “Don’t wait to have saved. You have do what you want sometimes.”
You may not realise this, but times like this fuel my love (and need) for fiction. Moments of empathy. The best kind of humanity. In ‘The Umbrella Academy’ and ‘Hill House’, there are many.
Not as insane as the comic
The Eiffel Tower gets bored and moves one day. Naturally, Parisians scream when their most beloved emblem pushes them off its framework and throws them into the emptiness, turning them into human jam. The hallucinatory sequence comes in the first episode of ‘Apocalypse Suite’, the six-issue story arc that inspired ‘The Umbrella Academy’. It also borrows from others, such ‘Dallas’ characters Hazel and Cha-Cha.
