What We Liked, Didn’t Like Review

After three seasons, it’s become crystal clear that setting in motion—and then frantically trying to prevent—the end of the world is what The Umbrella Academy is all about. It’s a way to keep the stakes sky-high, put a ticking clock on the action, and ensure that the relationships between its more high-strung characters remain as fraught as possible. But after three seasons, it’s also brought a repetitive feeling to the story; the characters themselves even outright address the fact that they’re growing weary of apocalypses. And how high are those stakes really, if we already know the Hargreeves siblings will inevitably triumph? If The Umbrella Academy gets a fourth season—as yet unannounced, but it seems a good bet—it’ll need to figure out a fresh approach (beyond “how do we get our powers back, and WTF reality are we even in now,” as the season finale left it). Otherwise, it’ll be at risk of telling the same exact story all over again.

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