The Umbrella Academy: This Unfortunate Finale Was The Real Doomsday

Based on a popular comic book series, this Netflix show follows a dysfunctional and estranged group of adopted siblings with incredible abilities who reunite to solve the mystery of their father's death and prevent an impending apocalypse. Known as the Umbrella Academy, the Hargreeves siblings are played by a talented ensemble cast including David Castaneda and Robert Sheehan.

I praise this show for its impressive blend of dark humor and quirky characters; the writers kept me continuously engaged with the great storylines and development. That's how I feel overall about the show, however I do have minor qualms with the recent seasons. Season 3 saw Allison (Emmy Raver-Lampman) go through a villain arc which I felt was completely unnecessary and honestly kind of painful to watch. She is rightfully angry over some issues that need context to explain, but she very quickly turns on the siblings who've supported her and becomes antagonistic. Everyone had enough problems without the infighting, and it solved nothing.

Now, onto the most recent and final installment, season 4. I had a lot of issues with this one, sadly. We're introduced to some characters who seem pretty pivotal in the show, namely Jennifer (Victoria Sawal). I didn't love the fact that she was introduced super abruptly in the last season. We'd never heard of her in prior seasons at all. I think it would've been better if she was presented in earlier seasons to explain some of the development for the main cast. Also, there wasn't much of a background explanation on the family patriarch, Reginald (Colm Feore). There was a brief introduction in season 2, but I was hoping for more depth that I just never got.

Adding onto my Reginald issues: in season 3, the writers really accumulate his betrayal of the siblings intensely. Because of that, I assumed his power-hungry nature would be an important plot point for season 4 and yet, it was hardly mentioned. He was sorta pushed to the side pretty rapidly which was surprising to watch, considering he's had such an a developmental and emotional impact on the siblings. This issues feeds into another one I had, which was the disappointing screen time division. It seemed to me like the writers were stretched thin with all of the different storylines this season. I say this because the main cast seemingly were relegated to the side in my opinion; people like Luther (Tom Hopper) or even Viktor (Elliot Page), who's supposed to be the primary character of the show. And the plot lines that were created were simply horrible, namely Lila (Ritu Arya) and Five's (Aidan Gallagher) "romance". That was just bad. I had such hopes for this season that were just dashed.