The Umbrella Academy Season 3 Review – The Strength (and Folly) Of A Family

There’s a scene in this season of The Umbrella Academy that I feel perfectly encapsulates the overall arc of the show. Luther is with his soon-to-be wife and wonders aloud if there was anything connecting the Umbrellas together other than childhood trauma, and whether that was enough to make them a family. The answer is…most times, yes, it is. And as you’ll see in The Umbrella Academy Season 3 Review that I’m about to write, that’s what makes this show so special.

So, small recap. In Season 2, the Hargreeves landed in Dallas in separate timeslots and they had to come together to stop Vanya from destroying the world…again. They did so, and when they returned to the present, it was intact, as was their academy, their father in Reginald Hargreeve and his new children, the Sparrow Academy. Yep, that was a great cliffhanger, and they mostly paid it off.

Because unlike the Umbrellas, these 7 kids (well, 6 kids and one cube) were a fully-functioning team in complete control of their powers, knew how to work together, and were a fully-recognized superhero team with posters all over town, showing how great they were. Even Reginald admits that this “happened” because he met the Umbrellas and dubbed them all failures so he tried again with a different batch (he didn’t know about Ben if you recall). The first of many dick moves from Reginald in this season, I promise you.

The interactions between the Umbrellas and the Sparrows were a key part of this season from start to finish. Because there was friction, there was fights, there were backstories revealed (kind of) and there was love and compromise. All the while the world was ending…again…again…

Yeah, that was actually a fun part of the early episodes was finding out that even though they “saved the world” back in Dallas, they once again “screwed the pooch” and found out the hard way that their latest batch of interference left the world and universe as a whole being sucked into a pulsing black hole. Which is bad.

But unlike before, and this is something I really appreciated, the real focus of season 3 wasn’t necessarily about the end of the world (until the last two episodes or so), but it was about the various characters reacting to new dynamics they were thrown into.

The MVP of this season was 100% Allison, who went through the “five stages of grief” in the best and worst of ways (in terms of character choices, ironically, nothing she did rang as “hollow”, which is honestly odd for arcs like this). Because as she came to realize in the most painful of ways, she left her husband (Raymond) in Dallas to be with Claire again. But because of a Grandfather Paradox, she never existed (nor did any of the Umbrellas outside of Ben) and thus Claire was never born. Her descent into madness was beautifully handled by her actress, Emmy Raver-Lampman. We saw an Allison just trying to cope, trying to move on, getting angrier and angrier as the episodes went on, then going full psycho in certain ways by beating up people, killing a certain someone, basically selling everyone out to get what she wants. And yet, she was still trying to be there for her family at key points. That’s a lot for one character to showcase in a meaningful way, and yet, she did it.

Not that the others didn’t have time to shine. I liked Diego’s “dad arc”, and the twist that the kid Lila brought to him “from the future” actually wasn’t their son, but a “test” for the REAL child they’re having was perfect. These two are the embodiment of a chaotic relationship and I honestly think they’d make great parents when the time comes because they’ll keep each other honest and not try to repeat the mistakes of the past. It was hilarious though at the beginning for Diego to fail HORRIBLY at being a parent at first only to succeed by honestly being himself and doing all he could to protect the kid.

Five and Klaus also had great arcs. Klaus being the one to reach the “new version” of Reginald was fun, as well as the journey to master his powers fully and truly (even though it was odd given that he did have at least some mastery in season 2 via the Ben arc then). Plus, him trying to “unite the families” was fun overall, even when it backfired on him in the end. Five wanting to enjoy retirement and thus not have his life ruined by everything was also enjoyable…even when it backfired on him. Seriously, Aidan Gallagher can do no wrong as Five. I only wish he could be Damian Wayne in a Batman movie because that’s basically who this character is.

Luther I would argue had the weakest of the Umbrella arcs, mainly because like in season 2, they portrayed him more as the “loveable idiot” and not a former leader character. I also felt his love story was a bit…well, rushed and cheesy. He made up for it in other seasons, including ones with his father, but hopefully, if we get a season 4, he’ll get more of a cut of the character arc pie.

Possibly the biggest surprise was that of the newly crowned Viktor Hargreeves. Emulating his actor Elliot Page, who went through their own transition between Seasons 2 and 3. If I could praise anything about the show in this review, it’d be the scene where “Viktor” emerges, and the family accepts him. Seriously, Viktor tells them who he is now, and they’re for it, and they love Viktor. There’s shock, clearly, and they play it funny in a key Luther scene or two, but they make sure to show that Viktor is loved, and I really liked that. It makes you sad though that this family, warts and all, isn’t what others families were like when similar situations happened. Even with that, Viktor’s journey to not just get acceptance for who they really are, but to fix their own mistakes, was very wholesome.

Another surprise was actually Reginald Hargreeves, who had an arc I don’t think anyone saw coming when we got that stinger in season 2. Him going from doped-up dad to menacing chess master was another thing that the writers handled wonderfully. He was downright terrifying in the last two episodes, and I’m very curious what happens with him now.

Despite their different arcs, the aspect that really shined here was the family dynamic of it all, especially in contrast to the Sparrows (whom I’ll get to). These are six characters who honestly shouldn’t work together, and yet they are a family through thick and thin. They want to help each other, even if it’s in terrible ways (like when Diego helps Allison “rage”), but you know that 99% of the time, they are trying to help one another, and love one another, because they’re family. They’re all they’ve got, and it’s beautiful. 

But they also weren’t afraid to showcase just how dangerous they can be to one another when in the wrong mindset. Like in Allison’s arc, where she pretty much violates Luther in the worst of ways and nearly kills Viktor. In that latter scene, we got another great family moment where Sparrow Ben is praising their fighting and Diego goes, “No, we don’t fight like this…” showing just how scared he was despite how “happy” he was with Allison’s new attitude.

I also want to praise the pacing of this season. In seasons 1 and 2, there were times had issues with pacing and really tying things together in a way to keep us interested from episode to episode. I honestly didn’t think there was that issue here. To the point where I had no idea where the season would end, and I was happy with that! I loved the suspense and the questions of “what happens now?” Plus, there were a lot of great set pieces, action scenes (including Umbrellas versus Sparrows) and the team got REALLY creative with the title cards, it was great.

What were the pitfalls? Well, in the title for this review, I noted the “folly” of a family, that would be the Sparrows. They were very much the most-anticipated part of this season going into it and I feel we were a bit let down. Granted, they were very unique compared to the Umbrellas, and we did get glimpses into their history but it wasn’t enough. Case in point, if you asked me right now to name all the Sparrows, I couldn’t. I could name 5 because of the “focus” on them and how they were brought up constantly. Two were just there, and then they were gone. Marcus (their No.1) dies in the first episode thanks to the Kugelblitz and that sucks because as brief a time we got with Marcus, I wanted to know more.

Furthermore, other Sparrows like Sloane came off as very one-note. Seriously, despite her having a whole “love arc” with Luther (which even Allison noted was a knockoff version of her, and she wasn’t wrong), the only things I really knew about Sloane was that she was the kindest of the bunch, was smart, and had gravity/floating powers. Oh, and she wanted to travel, apparently. The others didn’t get much more depth than that. And we got no real explanations for certain characters like Christopher (who is the floating cube). Why was Christopher like that? We don’t know!

We got more depth with the elderly version of Harlan (the kid from season 2 that Vanya/Viktor connected with) than the Sparrows, and he was only in a few episodes before Allison killed him (which was very hardcore).

Ben came off the worst here because he had one setting and didn’t really deviate from that. Then, near the end when we got “new new Ben”, he reverted back to old evil Ben in one conversation. That message on his back was right in terms of his personality.

Finally, there were also some logic problems in key scenes. Such as why Grace reacted the way she did to the Kugelblitz (worshiping it as a god despite herself being an android), or the “Klaus Death Training” where he was getting hit by like a thousand cars, and yet no one reacted to it. Other small beats could be mentioned here but I’ll let it go because they were honestly small issues.

Make no mistake though, this review is ending on a positive note because it was JUST SO MUCH FUN!!!! The opening ten minutes perfectly show off the hilarity of this show and I wish I had been a part of the Footloose dance number, I would’ve had a blast. And as for the cliffhanger at the end? Yeah, that alone would’ve made me interested in season 4, but the whole of season 3 was so well done that I would be shocked if people weren’t begging for season 4 after this. It was that darn good.