‘Umbrella Academy’ Season 3 Quietly Rises To The Top Of Netflix
Mild Spoilers For The Umbrella Academy Season 3 Premiere
Season 3 of The Umbrella Academy quietly took to the scene this past June 22, 2022 amidst discussions of Stranger Things Season 4 also on Netflix, Obi-Wan Kenobi on Disney+, and The Boys Season 3 on Amazon Prime. Only a few days after its premiere, it has jumped to number 1 of the top 10 Netflix TV shows in the United States. Of course, Netflix’s model of releasing all the series’ episodes at the same time (unlike weekly release schedule of Disney+) means that many people (including this author) will be spending this weekend binging all ten episodes of Season 3.
In case you have forgotten (or perhaps skipped the Season 2 recap), Season 2 ended with the Umbrella Academy gang returning to the present after preventing the Kennedy assassination and saving the world. However, their home base is now occupied by a different group of seven gifted superheroes, and their brother Ben is seemingly alive and well. There are many questions left unanswered since the second season’s release over two years ago back in July of 2020.
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The season premiere wasted no time in answering the first and foremost questions. Who are these individuals of the Sparrow Academy? Apparently, their “Dad” Sir Reginald Hargreaves had been disgusted by the Umbrella Academy gang’s behavior in the events surrounding Kennedy’s assassination in 1963 that when October 1, 1989 rolled around, he decided to adopt a different set of seven babies (with the exception of Ben, apparently).
Of course, the Umbrella Academy and the Sparrow Academy had to defend their respective honor by challenging each other to a duel of a sort. Staying true to the lighthearted nature of the series (and perhaps borrowing from Guardians of the Galaxy’s Star-Lord), the two opposing families had a dance-off. In playing with the theme of “nothing is what it seems” woven throughout the series, it turned out the “Footloose” dance was just Diego’s hallucination as a result of Sparrow Academy’s Number 6 Jayme’s special power.
The real fight commenced with the Sparrow Academy having the upper hand, casually discussing dinner plans as they pummeled their Umbrella Academy counterparts. It was only when Viktor unleashed his destructive power that the Umbrella Academy siblings were able to escape. While it appeared the Umbrella Academy had a plan on countering the evident threat of the Sparrow Academy, there may be a different threat looming on the horizon. Did they really stop the apocalypse in Season 2? After all, they failed to stop the apocalypse in Season 1 (leading us to the events of Season 2). Perhaps Five was a tad premature when he proclaimed, “We saved the world. We stopped the apocalypse and made it home safe in time for dinner. So whatever Dad changed, whatever timeline we’re in now, we can handle it. We won.”
There was also the question of how the series would handle the character portrayed by Elliot Page (who had come out as transgender in December 2020). In this author’s opinion, the series handled the transition from Vanya to Viktor Hargreaves beautifully in the second episode. It illustrated how each of the Hargreaves siblings embraced Viktor (including the awkward Luther suggesting a party to show his acceptance). This was who Viktor had been all along. He was still the same person he was in seasons 1 and 2.
The original Netflix series based on the comic series by Gerard Way (lead singer of My Chemical Romance) brought us its own version of an alternate timeline in the current era of multiverses and time paradoxes. To borrow from Marvel, are they unknowingly causing more branches to form in the timeline as they eliminate one nexus event after another attempt to prevent the apocalypse?
While the story might not be completely original, the dynamic between the Umbrella Academy siblings (and now the Sparrow Academy siblings) and their “Dad” Reginald Hargreaves is one of the main forces pushing the series forward. This along with the mystery surrounding why these individuals with special powers were born on the same day on October 1, 1989 makes The Umbrella Academy Season 3 another series to binge on.
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