When the first episode of “The Umbrella Academy” aired on Netflix in 2019, it became one of Netflix’s most successful shows. Either through its memorable cast or a love for the original comics, the ten-episode story became a massive hit, and barely two months after its release, a second season was announced. From then on, “The Umbrella Academy” seemed to be on the rise. Throughout its five years of running, it was praised for its storytelling and soundtrack, as well as the visual effects and character writing. Finding someone who disliked the show was quite the challenge.
Then, on Aug. 8, Netflix released the show’s fourth and final season, and suddenly everything changed. “Umbrella Academy’s” reputation plummeted. Just days after its release, social media was flooded with people across the world sharing their grievances. Some went as far to discourage fans from continuing the series if they weren’t caught up with the story. Even some of the cast members expressed disappointment with the show’s direction!
For once, the internet seemed to be in agreement: “The Umbrella Academy’s” finale was a complete failure.
Until recently, I hadn’t had the opportunity to watch the show for myself. I didn’t have the means to do so, having just moved out of my parents’ house and learning cable is expensive. But after getting Netflix on my laptop and sorting out problems with my internet company (those things suck by the way), I finally put aside an afternoon and watched season four of “The Umbrella Academy.”
I cruised through the show in about three days, and oh boy, I was not prepared for what I got. It was one bad decision after another, all rolled together into a really bad snowball. Established character traits being scrubbed away, a fair amount of plot contrivances, and an overall uninteresting story left a bad taste in my mouth. Here are some of my spoiler free criticisms:
• The shorter runtime. All previous seasons had a 10 episode structure with the final episode being slightly longer than the rest. Season 4’s runtime only has six episodes total. Even with its finale being over an hour long, this season is missing a massive amount of content compared to the others—nearly three hours worth.
• The character writing. For whatever reason, most of “Umbrella Academy’s” characters were factory reset, appearing as different characters entirely. I personally thought that Number Five, Lilia, and Luther suffered from this the most.
• Character motivations. This ties into my previous criticism. Very peculiar things serve as character motivation this season, most notably for Klaus and Viktor. Both are very fond of telling the viewer one thing and showing another. Their motivations for being in the subplots they’re a part of vary from a little out there to downright nonsensical.
• Lilia’s storyline. I don’t want to go into spoilers, but if you’ve watched the season, you know what I’m talking about. This might have been the first time I was physically uncomfortable with a show’s pairing of characters—because the more I thought about it, the worse the situation became. I don’t know what the writers were thinking, but the direction they took Lilia’s character was bad on so many levels. It is one of, if not the main reason season four is so disliked.
• The ending. The story is only as good as its conclusion, and I found “The Umbrella Academy’s” to be lackluster. While the ending was supposed to explain and put to rest all the plot holes within the series, it inadvertently created more. Simpler solutions to both past and existing problems were always present. Logic is constantly ignored in favor of the big, climactic ending. That’s what the show was going for anyway, but it made me shrug.
After closing my laptop and taking some time to digest everything I’d just seen, I understood why “Umbrella Academy’s” reputation had tanked so quickly. About a week had passed since season four’s release, and I was curious to see just how far the reputation had fallen. The answer wasn’t as bad as I thought, but the overall show was not.
Today, “The Umbrella Academy” has what most would consider ‘good’ rankings. Rotten Tomatoes gave the show a 3.5-star rating and IMDb gave it a 7.8/10. Both are lower than they were previously, but are still highly desired numbers.
Most online reviews for the show are something like, “I loved it, but that final season was garbage.” And this is the hill where anyone who’s watched the show is now sitting, me included.
I don’t think the final season ruined “The Umbrella Academy.” If you asked me if “Umbrella Academy” was a good show, I would say yes. While it had a subpar third season and a bad finale, the show had an amazing beginning, and I think the good outweighs the bad. I’ve always enjoyed the soundtrack, and for more than half of its runtime, I was entertained by what was happening on screen.
Overall, “The Umbrella Academy” hits more often than it misses. The story will keep your attention, and it isn’t hard to see a piece of yourself in every character. I would recommend it to those who haven’t seen it because, at least for a little while, it will get a laugh out of you. Just maybe don’t watch the fourth season, you’ll get upset.