MovieChat Forums > The Umbrella Academy (2019) Discussion > Disappointed by Season 2 (Spoilers)

Disappointed by Season 2 (Spoilers)

posted 5 years ago by FootOfDavros (8702)
11 replies | jump to latest

Just finished. Really enjoyed the first season and was looking forward to this but found it largely to be a waste of time.

A huge chunk of the run time was taken up by the lesbian farm, civil rights and Klaus cult sub-plots, all of which, very obviously, were going to have nothing to do with the actual storyline and left me tuning out for the large part.

The fixed deadlines were terrible - Five had the briefcase and could have jumped back anytime before the Kennedy assassination but goes for five days (or whatever it was) so they have just five days to stop the apocalypse!

Then he gets another briefcase after doing his assassination job but they then only have thirty minutes to jump forward because the handler gives them thirty minutes just because...

Were Vanya and Diego even the same characters from season 1? It was like they just forgot their previous storylines altogether!

Then there's the false obvious emotion pull of the Ben sacrifice, followed by Five's "well I can just go back in time and undo anything now anyway". Basically it all seemed very poorly put together.

Was this actually based on any comic content? I remember reading the first season was adapted but wasn't the comic continuation still to be written at the time the first season came out?

[–] Jinx (3877) 5 years ago

The ‘lesbian farm’, civil rights and the cult had to do with the characters storyline is a major point of the storyline. It added human drama to what would have been a cold, cut and dry super hero movie. The humor and angst that came from these extraordinary people stranded in the past was Important to the depth of the story. What did you ‘want’ to happen?

The first suitcase was destroyed by gunfire. As far as five having the briefcase The handler gave him, he needed ALL of them to alter the timeline, he couldn’t do it by himself. Of course over thinking any plot line will leave you with holes. Obviously you didn’t enjoy it so . . .it makes the flaws more obvious and bothersome.

Why was Ben’s sacrifice false emotion?

Yes this was based loosely on comic content as much as the firsts season was.

[–] FootOfDavros (8702) 4 years ago

Just saw this again with the show "bumped" into the trending list.

For fans who did find the Season 2 storylines a little vacuous, it's quite interesting to look up the differences between the show and comics for an insight into how it happened, e.g:-
https://www.cbr.com/umbrella-academy-season-2-differs-from-the-comics/

So the lesbian farm and civil rights stuff didn't happen because Allyson was more worried being separated from her daughter (a huge part of Season 1 involved her estrangement from her and her husband, having abused her powers). I found that omission from the show incredibly odd - she was basically settled down with a new husband simply to facilitate the civil rights story which they didn't really go anywhere with anyway!

Vanya does have her amnesia but is with Allison recuperating thus no lesbian farm and also does not repeat her season 1 overload at the end of the comic.

Klaus' comic book Dallas story of going to Vietnam (where he seems to have had a kid!) was used up in Season 1 of the TV show which probably explains the requirement for the cult time filler. Actually there's more to Klaus' involvement in the Dallas comic book storyline but it involves a bigger foray into the changed JFK plotline which you can read elsewhere (including the link above).

Will be interesting to see how the writing pans out next season. For me, it looks like they only really had enough comic book material for one decent TV season. Going forward into season 3, I don't think they're going to have any source material to work with (as they've seemingly skipped the 3rd comic book with the 4th volume still being written). Looks like they may be moving fully into GoT territory which is worrying given the patchy outcome for Season 2...

[–] OratiaGlake (1259) 4 years ago

Yes, and the fact that Allison only mentions her daughter and going to see her right at the end of series 2 when they get back to the Hargreeves’ House…..but is easily pulled back by Luther…..was ridiculous!

[–] Kowalski (79043) 4 years ago

SHOULD HAVE HAD MORE UMBRELLAS.

[–] FootOfDavros (8702) 4 years ago

Maybe the salesman didn't twirl his suitably.

https://youtu.be/wJAdrsC4Sw4

[–] TheReccher (344) 4 years ago

False emotion? What is that?

[–] FootOfDavros (8702) 4 years ago

I just mean it was all a bit too obviously contrived.

Again, another plus for the show writers would be the Klaus / ghost Ben relationship which, from what I've read, doesn't feature in the comics. However there's no build up to Vanya & Ben - they just reveal him to her, reveal he can save her by sacrificing himself and then do it all in the one scene! So you've got the rehashed overcooked Vanya stuff going on again and this thrown in last minute just to evoke some "feels" for the audience.

[–] [deleted] 4 years ago

Well, the Kennedy assassination stuff came from the comic limited series "The Umbrella Academy: Dallas."

[–] FootOfDavros (8702) 4 years ago

Yes, that's true. Significantly altered in the show, although, to be fair, I think this was one area they did pretty well in adapting - i.e. in involving Reginald and the mysterious Majestic 12.

Although, like I said above, I'd rather they hadn't reused the overloaded Vanya plot device again...

[–] [deleted] 4 years ago

Indeed.

[–] Esterhowse (468) 4 years ago

Season 2 was season 1 all over again. It was fun.