The Umbrella Academy

Netflix

Season 1 Episode 1

We Only See Each Other at Weddings and Funerals

A genius adventurer adopts seven children born at the same time on the same day all over the world to mothers who were not pregnant the morning they gave birth. He raises these extraordinary children in a place called The Umbrella Academy. He raises them to use their unique powers to better humanity and save lives. Now he’s dead.

One of the children dies under mysterious circumstances, another goes missing and the rest have grown up and moved on, but the death of their “father” brings them back together. The now adult siblings have issues in their lives, careers and with each other. Many of those issues include secrets that they are keeping from each other and Luther thinks that one of his siblings might be responsible for the old man’s death.

At the memorial service, a tear in space/time allows the missing sibling Number Five to return, but he is bringing back with him some secrets of his own. Secrets that could affect the entire world.

The first episode of The Umbrella Academy is very atmospheric. There are some beautiful shots that perfectly match the dark tone of this episode. Many of the scenes look great overall, but the action scenes were hit and miss. Many of the those scenes start great, but fall apart in the middle and took me out of the episode.

The performances were all brilliant. All of the actors are doing amazing work both in character moments and through their interplay. You definitely get the sense that these characters have complicated histories and the performances reflect that. The dialogue is great and all of the actors deliver them with honesty in their portrayals. Ellen Page stands out in this episode with her performance, which is ironic considering her character’s arc of being the only non-exceptional sibling.

The episode ends on an amazing cliffhanger both with the return of Number 5 and the revelation of the central plot point of this season. A very entertaining first episode that touches enough on the mysteries both big and small to bring the viewer back for the next episode.

The Umbrella Academy S01XE01 0.00 9.2 Overall 9.2/10

















