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The Umbrella Academy

Started by kidsick5000, February 20, 2019, 07:44:58 PM

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kidsick5000

Not sure if this thread will last long.

Is anyone watching, has anyone watched/binged?

It was much better than I thought it would be. Despite owning the book for a while, I only properly read it after watching which helped. Especially since some reveals in the TV show come much later than in the books - I think for the better.
The comics are more loose and let ideas run rampant. The TV show has honed some aspects, and brought new ones in that Gerard Way must be kicking himself about not thinking of.

It's a bit Addams Family meets X-Men – but that is not a criticism.

Timothy

Watched two episodes. Not sure if I will continue. It wants to be to cool for it's own good, which makes it less cool. And while Robert Sheenan was great in Misfits everything he does here just feels really acted. Not sure if it's the script or the way he has been directed but it's not good. A poor version of the character he played in Misfits.

kidsick5000

Quote from: Timothy on February 20, 2019, 07:57:41 PM
Watched two episodes. Not sure if I will continue. It wants to be to cool for it's own good, which makes it less cool. And while Robert Sheenan was great in Misfits everything he does here just feels really acted. Not sure if it's the script or the way he has been directed but it's not good. A poor version of the character he played in Misfits.

Admittedly, he is playing the character as written in the comic. Along with the dad and No5, they're the closest to being facsimiles of the characters

Small Man Big Horse

I really liked the first episode but was bored by the second so I'm not sure if I'm going to continue, does it improve as it goes along? Have to say I'm not a fan of Way's, though that is only based on his run on Doom Patrol which I thought tried to hard to ape the Morrison era but missed what made it so good.

kidsick5000

Quote from: Small Man Big Horse on February 20, 2019, 08:20:49 PM
I really liked the first episode but was bored by the second so I'm not sure if I'm going to continue, does it improve as it goes along? Have to say I'm not a fan of Way's, though that is only based on his run on Doom Patrol which I thought tried to hard to ape the Morrison era but missed what made it so good.

It does improve as it settles into itself. Steve Blackman has brought in a lot of improving elements to Way's premise. You get a better picture of who everyone is, the characters are rounded out, in particular Ellen Page.

That said, I did decide to binge this. I don't know if pacing it makes it harder to watch. It doesn't have a huge amount of cliff hangers (but that's an issue with many Netflix series)

Mister Six

Tried the first episode of this last night as I thought it might be Doom Patrol methadone for me while I wait for episode five of that series, but it felt more like a stale, dog-eared cigarette. How do you take a concept this interesting and actors this good and turn it into such a tedious dirge? The whole thing could (and should) have been a half-hour long, as every shot goes on for twice as long as it should, and the director seems to mistake long, symmetrically framed shots with nothing going on in them as art.

The dancing bit was the one moment it came alive, but then it collapsed back up its own arsehole again. This should really have been (half of) the second episode, with the first being five little vignettes about what our characters are doing in the modern day, interspersed with their background at the school. You need to make people care about the characters before you show them moping about in the rain!

Er, anyway. Does this get a bit faster and more interesting, or is it another nine episodes of soporific emo bollocks interspersed with plodding action sequences?

Gulftastic

Enjoyed it enough to want a second series. I love Ellen Page a lot so that helped. And him out off of Misfits is good value, too.

I've only read the first TPB of the comic, and I liked the TV show more.


arpster

Quote from: Mister Six on March 10, 2019, 02:37:48 PM
Does this get a bit faster and more interesting,

No, it actually gets worse...wanted to kill the entire cast by mid-season....starting with Sheehan 

mjwilson

Quote from: Timothy on February 20, 2019, 07:57:41 PM
Watched two episodes. Not sure if I will continue. It wants to be to cool for it's own good, which makes it less cool. And while Robert Sheenan was great in Misfits

Shit I didn't recognise him.

kalowski

3 episodes in and I hate in. My wife, Kalowska, likes it though so I'm stuck with it.
Can't imagine it as a comic book,l must have been awful. I rarely want more exposition in a show, but this one's trying so hard to give us nothing. Problem is, I'm ready to turn off through boredom.

phantom_power

I enjoyed it but thought they fucked themselves by giving them too short a time until the apocalypse. If there is only 3 days left to live why are you having these petty fucking arguments and diversions? The last couple of episodes were a struggle as well as Paige's character is quite annoying and the others deal with her so badly, but the final cliffhanger made me want a second season

Dex Sawash

I'm closer to liking this than most comic book adaptations. Is the one with a stick up his arse got blankets stuffed up his overcoat? His head looks too small and in the wrong place.


Mister Six

Quote from: Dex Sawash on March 12, 2019, 12:08:04 PM
I'm closer to liking this than most comic book adaptations. Is the one with a stick up his arse got blankets stuffed up his overcoat? His head looks too small and in the wrong place.

There's a reason for that. And not just that the actor's costume is really, really shit.

Will everyone enjoying this please watch Doom Patrol? It's like this, but tons better.

SteveDave

I was appalled to see Ellen Page taking a job from a heterosexual actress.

Enrico Palazzo

I often give up on shows after an episode or two so I thought i'd stick with this even though I wasn't enjoying it. I continued to not enjoy it and by the end I decided I didn't like it.

Gulftastic

Quote from: SteveDave on March 12, 2019, 02:18:11 PM
I was appalled to see Ellen Page taking a job from a heterosexual actress.

Yes, and as much as I adore her, she in no way was convincingly straight.

Mister Six

Quote from: Gulftastic on March 12, 2019, 07:07:37 PM
Yes, and as much as I adore her, she in no way was convincingly straight.

Is her character supposed to be straight? Her clothing is as gay as a plaid window.

Dex Sawash


Bently Sheds

Kind of on the fence with this, it's not as clever as it thinks it is & the plot gets derailed with pointless guff like that stupid dance routine in the park.
Misfits guy plays Misfits guy.

Mister Six

Quote from: Dex Sawash on March 13, 2019, 06:21:27 PM
christ, wtf is that?

He has a gorilla's torso. At least, in the comic.

kalowski


Mr. Internet

#22
Klaus and No. 5 are the best things about this. At least they aren't half as mopey and lifeless as the others.

I'm getting distinct Preacher vibes from Hazel and Cha-Cha. Except this isn't quite as good, though it does improve.

The writers also seem to be making the same mistake as iZombie has been making, in that they believe squabbling and melodrama are what make the plot and characters interesting. I'm hardly getting the sense, if some of the reviews are to believed, that this is unlike any other show or that the characters are "dysfunctional" in a way that's never been seen on TV before.

Mr. Internet

#23
A show or book about superheroes, zombies, vampire slayers, monster hunters, or whatever, with an interesting concept around it is watchable in itself. It doesn't need soap opera bollocks. All it does betray the writers' pretensions because god forbid that we have too many genre elements. Romantic entanglements, domestic arguments, drug and alcohol abuse and all those other 'human' touches that writers think brings a literary weight and sensibility to 'silly' genre fiction do not improve things in and of themselves.

kalowski

Each episode feels like it's about 12 hours long. Like others have mentioned, the musical interludes are fucking dire, and seem to be chosen so the production team show off what they think is an eclectic taste.
It's not.
I'm expecting The Carpenters soon.

Mr. Internet

Quote from: kalowski on March 16, 2019, 07:00:13 PM
Each episode feels like it's about 12 hours long. Like others have mentioned, the musical interludes are fucking dire, and seem to be chosen so the production team show off what they think is an eclectic taste.
It's not.
I'm expecting The Carpenters soon.

If I wanted to show off, I wouldn't choose Toploader, that's for sure.

Butchers Blind

I liked the talking chimp. The rest not so much.

olliebean

See, when the narrator was revealed to be a talking chimp I just went, "Oh for fuck's sake." But that's the sort of shit you get in comic books all the time, I shouldn't wonder.