When lead singer of “My Chemical Romance” Gerard Way announced he would be creating his own series of graphic novels, some people may have found that a little weird. When that same series was about seven children born under mysterious circumstances being taken care of by a monkey, a robot and an eccentric billionaire, the same people might have thought that was even more bizarre. When Netflix decided to create a 10-episode special based on said graphic novels, that is where things get the weirdest.

“The Umbrella Academy” is an urban fantasy story centering around 43 children born from women with no previous history of being pregnant, prompting billionaire Reginald Hargreeves (Colm Feore, “Marcus in Astronaut Moon”) to adopt and raise seven of them with the help of his chimpanzee butler Pogo (Adam Godley, “Breaking Bad”) and robot mother Grace. Under his guidance, he trains six of them to fight crime and live as one big family. 

The show starts 15 to 20 years after this time in their lives, once these heroes have grown up and found themselves trapped in their own vices. They have hung up their masks and now live singular adventurous lives only to be brought back together by the death of the man who raised them. As far as setups go, it is an effective way to get into the story. Granted, audiences will find some characters more interesting than others, and there are a lot of characters to get behind in this story.

For starters, with Luther Hargreaves (Tom Hooper, “Game of Thrones”), an astronaut with the upper body of a gorilla (not a joke), his personality boils down to being an overprotective big brother. It is a general flaw of the writing where the characters are all defined by what the audience can gather from their stereotype. Some of the more flamboyant characters like Diego (David Castañeda, “We Die Young”) and Klaus (Robert Sheehan, “Mortal Engines”) can be more entertaining to follow. The show seems to agree, as they take center stage whenever necessary and have some of the more engaging stories in the special.

Worst of all is Vanya Hargreaves (Ellen Page, “Flatliners”), who simply comes off as passive. She is never the master of her own destiny, which is fine, but whenever asked to carry a scene on her own, all she does is whimper and stare. It is almost as if the showrunners found out Page could cry on demand and chose to ring every penny out of that opportunity. 

Thankfully, the dialogue can balance out some of that awkwardness with well-timed humor and a good conflict. Granted, that conflict can feel diluted in some of the fight scenes, which feature popular songs that feel a bit inconsistent. The main pull of the show is watching it peel back the layers on how much weirder it will get, which is aided by the straight-edged tone. 

In the end, the show hits more beats than it misses, with some really funny scenes and memorable moments, even if the ending is essentially a waste of time. It is easy to find one’s self glued to that ever-infamous one-more-episode feeling that has become synonymous with Netflix specials. 

Image from Netflix via YouTube