The Umbrella Academy Season 2: Saving the World…Again!

In Season 1, our cast of heroes, in an attempt to save the world for the apocalypse, discover that not only does their “powerless” sister, Vanya, have powers, but she has powers great enough to destroy the world.  Which she does.  Right before the end of life as we know it, Number Five is able to whisk them away using his time travel abilities.

Season 2, We find each of the heroes have been deposited in different times between 1960 and November 25^th, 1963.  They all appeared in the same alley way in Dallas, TX, but scattered over those 3 years.  Klaus and “ghost” Ben landed in 1960.  Allison lands next in 1961 and realizes that, as a black woman in the south things will be quite different for her.  Luther lands next in 1962 and screams and screams for Allison.  Diego lands in 1962, sees President Kennedy on TV and becomes obsessed with saving him.  Vanya lands about a month later and stumbles into the road where she is hit by a car.  And of course, Five shows up just as the missiles are flying, about a month after Vanya lands.   November 25^th, 1963 the world ends again, this time by a Russian nuclear attack.  Hazel appears, saves Five, with the help of one of the time travel briefcases, jumps back 10 days with the goal of trying to save the world.  Then 3 mysterious blond guys get off a bus, kill Hazel and try to kill Five, but he escapes.

The siblings are all separated and have settled, or tried to, into new lives, having been stranded in the past.  Diego is in a mental hospital for his rantings about being a hero from the future and trying to save the President from assassination.   Vanya has a job as a nanny to a nonverbal (possibly autistic) boy for the couple that hit her with the car, and she doesn’t remember anything.  Klaus and Ben, left Dallas and we find them returning from San Francisco where Klaus had been a cult leader.  Allison is married to a civil rights activist and is doing her best to help knowing what she knows about the future.   Luther is a bodyguard / cage fighter for a shady looking man.

The first season had its moments of levity and humor mixed in with a good story and mystery, but by the end I was really longing for the family to come together as a “FAMILY” and be the team we want them to be.  I was hoping for season 2, we would have reached that point.   Unfortunately for me, the siblings are separated, and the tone is again somber and angry.  There are still moments of humor, and I am looking forward to seeing how the siblings deal with the social issues of 1960s Texas, but I was really hoping for a more cohesive team.  We do get a glimpse of what that may look like in the Battle scene right after Five lands.  The Russians are attacking, and our super powered siblings are kicking some ass.  I am just a bit tired of the in group fighting in every superhero show.  Luther, for example, is so jaded at this point that he doesn’t even care the world is ending again.

I enjoyed the first episode and look forward to what they are going to do.  I am a little disappointed that the plot seems to be the same as the first season…save the world in “x” number of days before the world is destroyed…again..  That being said,  I really enjoyed Diego’s scenes in the mental hospital and Vanya’s touching scene dealing with her new friends’ domestic problems (possible budding lesbian romance).  I am just hoping that we get to see a team that learns how to be a family.