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Umbrella Academy (the spoilers post)
And here is the spoilery discussion post for Umbrella Academy, for those of you who have seen it or don't mind spoilers!
I'm flying out of LA today and don't really have that much time to write up my reactions, so I'm going to throw out a few random spoiler things under the cut; feel free to talk at me in the comments.
• WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT ENDING. XD I guess it should not surprise me that a show this totally bonkers ended in one of the most utterly bonkers cliffhangers I've ever seen. I mean, you really can't outdo a cliffhanger that involves blowing up the moon and killing everyone on Earth in a fiery shower of asteroids.
• And yet it wasn't actually a depressing ending despite the planet blowing up. (This is a show that makes you say things like that on a regular basis. "So did Reginald Hargreeves graft his son's head onto a gorilla body?" was the kind of thing Rachel and I found ourselves asking each other as we watched it. "Did Ben die in some kind of interdimensional tentacle accident or what?"*) Time travel is in play, we know the main set of kids made it out and that they're all together and getting along with each other and plan to try to fix Vanya, and Hazel and Agnes also made it out and can have their happy ending running a donut shop off in 1955 or whenever.
*We nominated "Tentacle Accidents" for H/C Exchange because of this show. I have no regrets.
• I am still very annoyed about Eudora's death, which I assumed was going to be fixed via timey-wimey shenanigans and turned out to be a classic fridging instead - killing off a cool female character to motivate her love interest's angst. DO NOT WANT. Also I totally ship Eudora/Diego. I'm really hoping it'll be fixed in season 2.
• The characters are so great, though! I love how they all have their own particular set of damage. Especially Klaus, poor Klaus, and Vanya, poor poor Vanya. Everyone needed WAY more hugs than they got. Especially those two.
• I went back and rewatched the "I Think We're Alone Now" music video from the first episode when we were about halfway through the show, and I cannot get over how differently it plays out when you first watch it vs. after you get to know and care about the characters. The first time around, it was really funny, part of the show's whole bonkers, "what the hell am I even watching?" vibe. The second time around, though, it's a total punch in the heart. The juxtaposition of music and lyrics and the characters all dancing alone and being able to let go only when none of the others are around is so heartbreaking. Diego closing the doors to the library so no one can see him dancing got to me especially when I went back and rewatched that scene; I think that's one of the things that cemented him as one of my favorite characters, a complete 180 turnaround from how I felt about him when I first started watching. And that pulling-back scene at the end of the music sequence is so brilliant.
• The show in general is gorgeous - brilliantly designed and shot, brilliant use of music. Its weird retro vibe is really fascinating to me, because it's not taking place in any specific retro decade (e.g. it's not an 80s pastiche), but there are no cell phones, no screens, no TVs more advanced than old-style cathode-ray types. And it's supposed to be set in the present day, but clearly not our present day, although the clothing and hairstyles are mostly modern (in a timeless, no-specific-trend kind of way). The fascinating vague-retro feeling is part of what makes it feel so much like a comic book world; it's sort of like a pastiche of Kirby/Claremont-era superhero comics, where it could be anytime from the 1970s to the 1990s.
• As far as favorite characters go, I'd say for me it's probably Diego, Klaus, Allison, Hazel, and Eudora (who had better come back in S2, istg), but I really love all of them, including the non-Hargreeves supporting characters - aside from Leonard, whose death in a cloud of whirling cutlery was very satisfying, and good old Reginald, the Worst Father Ever.
I'm flying out of LA today and don't really have that much time to write up my reactions, so I'm going to throw out a few random spoiler things under the cut; feel free to talk at me in the comments.
• WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT ENDING. XD I guess it should not surprise me that a show this totally bonkers ended in one of the most utterly bonkers cliffhangers I've ever seen. I mean, you really can't outdo a cliffhanger that involves blowing up the moon and killing everyone on Earth in a fiery shower of asteroids.
• And yet it wasn't actually a depressing ending despite the planet blowing up. (This is a show that makes you say things like that on a regular basis. "So did Reginald Hargreeves graft his son's head onto a gorilla body?" was the kind of thing Rachel and I found ourselves asking each other as we watched it. "Did Ben die in some kind of interdimensional tentacle accident or what?"*) Time travel is in play, we know the main set of kids made it out and that they're all together and getting along with each other and plan to try to fix Vanya, and Hazel and Agnes also made it out and can have their happy ending running a donut shop off in 1955 or whenever.
*We nominated "Tentacle Accidents" for H/C Exchange because of this show. I have no regrets.
• I am still very annoyed about Eudora's death, which I assumed was going to be fixed via timey-wimey shenanigans and turned out to be a classic fridging instead - killing off a cool female character to motivate her love interest's angst. DO NOT WANT. Also I totally ship Eudora/Diego. I'm really hoping it'll be fixed in season 2.
• The characters are so great, though! I love how they all have their own particular set of damage. Especially Klaus, poor Klaus, and Vanya, poor poor Vanya. Everyone needed WAY more hugs than they got. Especially those two.
• I went back and rewatched the "I Think We're Alone Now" music video from the first episode when we were about halfway through the show, and I cannot get over how differently it plays out when you first watch it vs. after you get to know and care about the characters. The first time around, it was really funny, part of the show's whole bonkers, "what the hell am I even watching?" vibe. The second time around, though, it's a total punch in the heart. The juxtaposition of music and lyrics and the characters all dancing alone and being able to let go only when none of the others are around is so heartbreaking. Diego closing the doors to the library so no one can see him dancing got to me especially when I went back and rewatched that scene; I think that's one of the things that cemented him as one of my favorite characters, a complete 180 turnaround from how I felt about him when I first started watching. And that pulling-back scene at the end of the music sequence is so brilliant.
• The show in general is gorgeous - brilliantly designed and shot, brilliant use of music. Its weird retro vibe is really fascinating to me, because it's not taking place in any specific retro decade (e.g. it's not an 80s pastiche), but there are no cell phones, no screens, no TVs more advanced than old-style cathode-ray types. And it's supposed to be set in the present day, but clearly not our present day, although the clothing and hairstyles are mostly modern (in a timeless, no-specific-trend kind of way). The fascinating vague-retro feeling is part of what makes it feel so much like a comic book world; it's sort of like a pastiche of Kirby/Claremont-era superhero comics, where it could be anytime from the 1970s to the 1990s.
• As far as favorite characters go, I'd say for me it's probably Diego, Klaus, Allison, Hazel, and Eudora (who had better come back in S2, istg), but I really love all of them, including the non-Hargreeves supporting characters - aside from Leonard, whose death in a cloud of whirling cutlery was very satisfying, and good old Reginald, the Worst Father Ever.