‘The Umbrella Academy’ Season 2 is Even Better Than Season 1

I was a huge fan of the comics of ‘The Umbrella Academy’ back in college and was absolutely thrilled when it was turned into a Netflix series. Although Season 1 didn’t really live up to my über high expectations (totally my fault because I was comparing it to the comics too much), I still enjoyed it a lot. I was able to watch Season 2 before the rest of the world recently, though, and I must say: I enjoyed this one even more. It is AMAZING. Here are 10 reasons why I think so.

The music is on point.

One of my favorite parts about Season 1 was the music and how such great songs were chosen that fit scenes so perfectly. I was able to chat with Steve Blackman, showrunner of ‘The Umbrella Academy’, via a Zoom interview recently; and he shared that music is a big part of the show for him. “I always say that music is another character of the show,” he said. “We really love music and sometimes I pick a song that I think fits a scene and sometimes I choose songs that are a counterpoint to a scene.”

He points out the use of ‘My Way’ by Frank Sinatra in Season 2 and says that it was unexpected to use that song, but it somehow worked. “The fun of that is finding music that sometimes feels like it shouldn’t fit, but it does,” he says. He also shares that he encourages the writers to find songs for their scripts and that he spends a lot of time going through a lot of music for the show. “I really love the music in the show,” he adds. “I love thinking of great songs for people to listen to.”

The opening is bad-ass.

I think the main reason why I got so hooked to Season 2 early on was because the opening scene was just so bad-ass. I mean, the opening scene of Season 1 was bad-ass, too, and I loved the song choice there. As such, I was amazed that they were able to keep that momentum for this next season. Check out the opening scene here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5z-B6tRLSik

I love Diego’s Winter Soldier vibes.

The Umbrella Academy Season 2 Netflix Diego

Photo by Christos Kalohoridis for Netflix © 2020

While watching Season 2, I initially thought that Diego’s Winter Soldier vibes were intentional. After all, the more I watched, the more I noticed similarities to other comic book scenes, as well, like Number Five spouting out a Captain America line and Vanya showing up ala Jean Grey. It turns out all of this wasn’t intentional at all.

Steve points out that there are so many superhero shows and movies now, and that they actually strive to be as original as possible when it comes to ‘The Umbrella Academy’. “My goal is to sort of subvert the expectation to do something unexpected in the show,” he explains. He also admits that he’s always, whether consciously or not, inspired by other graphic novels or movies or characters; but the scenes I pointed out really weren’t intentional.

Aidan Gallagher is mind-blowing as always.

The best character for me in the entirety of ‘The Umbrella Academy’ so far has been Five. Aidan Gallagher is such a joy to watch, perfectly encapsulating his role as an old man stuck in a child’s body. And it seems that the showrunner agrees with me.

When I asked him who his favorite character is, he hesitated for a while, claiming that he loved them all the same way a parent would claim to love all of their kids equally (haha I’m kidding. Of course parents love all of their kids equally…… :p), but then he admits to really loving the character of Five. He says he loves the time travel aspect of his character, and the logic behind the science and the physics behind time travel. “I can relate to wanting that power,” he adds, “but I really do love all of the characters. I think they all have a little bit of dysfunction that I recognize and they’re all lovable in different ways.”

There is so much more of Ben in this.

The Umbrella Academy Season 2 Netflix Ben

Photo from Netflix © 2020

My second favorite character in the first season was Ben, but we sadly didn’t get as much screen time of him as I had wanted. I was therefore so happy to see more of Ben this time around. I don’t want to give too much away; but if you’re a fellow Ben lover, you will get your fill this season.

I felt an emotional connection this time.

While watching the first season, I felt at times that the acting was a little flat. I also felt like some scenes were too dragging and I never felt pulled into their emotions, even when Vanya was already struggling so much with trying to control her powers. In Season 2, however, I felt much more connected to the characters. Everyone was going through something painful and desperately wanting to do things that they couldn’t do because they didn’t want to change anything in the timeline. And the issues that they faced were so much more relatable this time around that I felt myself more emotionally connected as a whole.

They still dance.

Sounds mababaw, but the ‘Dancing in the Moonlight’ scene in Season 1 was one of my favorite scenes because it was fun and quirky and cute. It made me happy to see more random dancing in Season 2.

Tom Hopper eating makes me happy.

I don’t know if it’s just me, but seeing Tom Hopper feed his face when he’s feeling his feelings made me giggle a lot.

The action is superb.

As always, the action is SUPERB. I can’t even pick a favorite action scene because there are so many good ones. Some of my favorites that come to mind include the opening scene, the Diego and someone from his past scene, the Five versus someone from his future scene, and the Vanya scene near the end in the farm. So many noteworthy and memorable action scenes. Action scenes are my faveeeee.

It touches on important issues that are still relevant today.

The Umbrella Academy Season 2 Netflix Allison

Photo by Christos Kalohoridis for Netflix © 2020

Although it might feel that way at times, Season 2 of ‘The Umbrella Academy’ was actually shot before the Black Lives Matter movement reached an apex. Steve shares that they just wanted to show what it was like to be a person of color in Dallas in 1963 or being a person who was gay or queer.

“I wasn’t necessarily trying to give a message or do more than just show how hard it was to be someone like that,” he says. “There were so many struggles in 1963 in the South, and to be a personal color remains so difficult. We’ve made some progress, but there’s still a lot more progress to be made towards ending racism and violence. We just have to try to do better as people, so we don’t repeat history.”

Check out my room tour of ‘The Umbrella Academy’ here:

‘The Umbrella Academy’ Season 2′ is now available for streaming on Netflix. Make sure to hit me up after you watch it! Would love to hear your thoughts and geek out with you! 😀 You may contact me at When in Manila Angeline on Facebook or at @lilmisswonderwoman on Instagram.

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