“The Umbrella Academy,” Netflix’s latest addition to the comic book show landscape, has arrived with its ambitious and engaging pilot, “We Only See Each Other At Weddings and Funerals.” With a cool style, compelling cast and intriguing mystery to unravel, this show has incredible potential and seems primed for binging.
Following the death of eccentric billionaire Reginald Hargreeves, his adopted children, most possessing strange powers, reunite for his funeral, only to clash with each other, coinciding with a strange visitor.
He Got Seven of Them | Our story begins in 1989, when 43 women around the world become instantly pregnant and give birth seconds later. Eccentric billionaire Reginald Hargreeves adopts seven of them for unknown prices and raises them as the Umbrella Academy, training them as superheroes and tattooing umbrella logos on their arms.
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Fast forward to present day, and we catch up with five of the seven: Luther, a hulk of a guy living on the moon; Allison, a divorced movie star who can influence people’s thoughts; Klaus, a skittish junkie who can communicate with the dead; Diego, whose knife skills are lethal; and finally, Vanya, who has no powers, but is a great violinist. All of them see the news of their father’s passing on TV and head to their childhood home to pay their respects.
You Don’t Belong Here | The siblings almost immediately squabble and fight, especially after Luther accuses that someone might have murdered Hargreeves, because his monocle was missing. Also, Vanya wrote an autobiography exposing several family secrets, which also has a dust jacket quote from “Umbrella Academy” comic creator, Gerard Way for eagle eyed viewers. There’s also the family’s “mother” who is actually a robot, and Pogo, a walking, talking chimpanzee.
After a stunning sequence in which the siblings dance to Tiffany’s “I Think We’re Alone Now,” a time portal opens outside and out comes Number Five, a teleporting member of the Academy who’s been living in the future for 45 years, but is still in the body of a 13 year old. As the family assembles to bury Hargreeves’s ashes, Diego slams their father and picks a fight with Luther, ending with Luther accidentally destroying a statue honoring their late brother, Ben.
I Just Wanted Some Coffee | As the siblings depart, Five heads to a doughnut shop to get some decent coffee and is met by a group of armed men. In seconds, all of them end up dead and Five doesn’t even break a sweat killing them. Diego and Klaus head off on their own, as Klaus talks to the dead Ben, who only he can see. Even more troubling, Diego has Hargreeves’s missing monocle. Five arrives at Vanya’s apartment and tells her that when he went to the future, everything was destroyed and the apocalypse is only eight days away. Vanya’s response: “I’ll put on a pot of coffee.”
“The Umbrella Academy” is now streaming on Netflix.
