One of the reasons why the The Umbrella Academy Season 4 The long-awaited series is based on the response of a niche audience that over time has shown great affection for the series inspired by the novel of the same name Gerard Way e Gabriel Bawho has always been recognized above all for having taken care to maintain relevance to the atmosphere and tone of the printed page.
Do you think the show Netflix created by Steve Blackman he managed, on the occasion of his last outing, to compete for the record of “views” even with a colossus like Stranger Thingswhose hegemony has been challenged in the long term only a few times among serial products. But this happened two years ago.will anything have changed after the production delays due to COVID-19? How will they take the affected of the comics a season that will necessarily depart from the comics, having now exhausted the cycles to adapt? Perhaps the idea of limiting itself to six episodes could help.
Between these questions, the writers’ promises to have worked closely with Way and Bá, the enthusiastic reactions to the cast updates, and a crackling teaser trailer, the only thing that is certain is that what comes out nextAugust 8, 2024 on the Tu Dum platform will be the final act of the Hargreeves family story.
Still a family matter
A toast to the good old days.
Il cliffhanger at the end of last season of The Umbrella Academy left everyone speechless, crowning the policy of a third act that, “hiding” behind the idea of the Hotel Oblivion as a reducer of complexity (because it is the central point of the plot and action), instead devoted all its efforts to manipulating ideas and ideas of writing and staging to surprise the viewer.
But on the other hand, this is the mentality of the show as well as the comics: that of a messed up emo teenager who doesn’t even want to submit to the logic of why there’s cereal in milk, the black sheep, the younger and louder brother of the more serious, mature, but also constructed older brothers of Marvel and DC, less able to frame the sense of end that has now become an existential condition of an entire generation. Let’s say that last season only exaggerated a little.
Let’s start over from there and start over for the umpteenth time and in the umpteenth universe after the umpteenth apocalypse, with the original Hargreeves (plus the now affiliated Lila Pitts and the bad, but good Ben of the Sparrows) even more divided, but with the renewed hope of to finally be able to turn the page and leave behind the endless cycle of multidimensional death and rebirth, especially since they have all been disempowered. A obviously misplaced trustbecause as long as there is life there is hope and it is not even said that the powers cannot return, it is enough that one of the members finds a way, perhaps because they are dissatisfied with the new life.
Gene & Jane come David & Victoria.
It must also be said that this eventuality is not entirely to be condemned, since even this timeline is not at all free from the influence of past threats. This is evidenced by a group that would make anyone reevaluate the credibility of conspiracy thinking called the Keepers, led by a dynamic duo named Jean and Gene, who swear they have memories of their alternate lives. They consider themselves living proof of what they call (coincidentally) “the Umbrella effect” and the only ones capable of protecting the future of the so-called Catharsis. Creepy enough to pose a threat worthy of our favorite dysfunctional family?
A Reflection on the Apocalypse
The Umbrella Academyas a cultural product, was conceived to frame the frantic search for order in the inner chaos of the first Millennialsthe same one that from activating anguish has become over time acceptance and finally a sad awareness with the taste of an apology. A life companion to accept, cuddle and, if possible, even indulge.
“And you? Have you ever understood anything about this multiverse?”
A dimension that concerns the micro as well as the macro and has allowed Blackman and his associates to play with the family universe of the series reasoning on a collective and individual level of functioning, managing to actually always juggle rather well in carrying forward the two branches. Also an accomplice in this is a cast with an immediately important chemistry, which has been able to welcome the new additions very well (this time there are the gentlemen Nick Offerman e David Cross) and has been able to cushion some not too happy transformations, first that of the character played by Tom Hooperalways in search of an author. On the shields, however, once again there is Aidan Gallagherfollowed closely by David Castaneda e Ritu Arya, undertone this time Robert Sheehanwhile they do their (with all the limitations) Emmy Raver-Lampman, Elliot Page e Justin Hong-Kee Min.
Yet another relocation leaves some wounded, but in the end, to the detriment of the now canonical daring writing, everyone gets back on track and faces a world which, although looking more at our current events than at the past, has its heart in a fiction that is usually extremely derivative (Matrix, Twin Peaks, Terror from Deep Space, Akira and a bit of Cronenberg’s cinema), thus trying to find once again its own positioning halfway between irony homevideo and the B-Movie splatter, not helped by fake special effects (a malus of the series since its inception).
What is love?
The biggest challenge of season four The Umbrella Academy it is once again that of being able to find the thread of the skein at a family level, so as to be able to conclude a parable that wants to be a metaphor for the collective path described a couple of paragraphs above. The question that is added this time concerns the moral duty of a group of superheroes forced to save an unjust worldwhere diversity causes collapse and destruction, humanity is poorly tolerated and love is possible only with an act of extreme selfishness. A world like this perhaps does not deserve to be saved. Perhaps we do not deserve it either, we who are part of it and therefore supporters. The real problem, however, is that it does not seem to be a valid alternative, despite the infinite alternatives. Depressive thoughts, but then again, what do you want a rebellious emo who has a long face even in the morning when he’s having breakfast to reflect on?
Review by Jacopo Fioretti
In the review of the fourth and final season of The Umbrella Academy we talked about a coherent conclusion (for better or worse) to the Netflix series created by Steve Blackman and inspired by the comics by Gerard Way and Gabriel Bá. The flaws are the usual ones, both in terms of writing and staging, but the merits have evolved, because in addition to the usual game of the multiverse metaphor of the continuous family crisis of the protagonists, there is a reflection on the meaning of the apocalypse and how it has changed over time for an entire generation. The best thing about the series remains its faithfulness to the spirit of the original title.
- Despite everything, there is a clearer direction than in the past.
- There are characters that could support a dedicated series.
- Some derivative ideas are functional.
- Probably the best world of all the series.
- The symbolic value of the ending.
- The usual writing distortions.
- The effects continue to feel fake.
- Among the single bows, there are those who suffer the most.
- The final trigger is quite dramatic.
