#gabrial ba

[writemoment]

Klaus and Ben (specifically for s2) give off the exact same vibe as my last two brain cells

[brollybuddies]

Episode 01: We Only See Each Other At Weddings And Funerals - Transcription

https://brollybuddies.podbean.com/e/episode-01-we-only-see-each-other-at-weddings-and-funerals/

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[Intro Music]

Mia [0:09] Hello, and welcome to Brolly Buddies

Josh [0:11] a podcast about umbrellas and academies.

Mia [0:13] Yeah, specifically The Umbrella Academy, the Netflix adaptation, of er.

Josh [0:19] Yes,

Mia [0:20] the wonderful comics.

Josh [0:22] I’m Josh

Mia [0:23] I’m Mia

Josh [0:24] and we are in no way qualified to talk about this other than the fact that we enjoy the comics. We’ve enjoyed the comics thus far.

Mia [0:33] Enjoy a good comic, enjoy a good TV show.

Josh [0:35] We are not specialists in comics, or TV shows really.

Mia [0:40] Or trivia or anything really-

Josh [0:43] everything you will hear-

Mia [0:43] -podcasting…

Josh [0:45] probably could be googled, more efficiently.

Mia [0:48] Probably will be googled, whilst

Josh [0:50] Well, yeah

Mia [0:51] We are making the sounds

Josh [0:54] Making the sounds?

Mia [0:54] (laughter) I was gonna say whilst you hear it, but that’s not how time works, so…

Josh [1:01] Oh, yeah-

Mia [1:02] ‘Cause it’s not live

Josh [1:02] True. No, it’s not unless you’ve traveled back in time, Number Five… spoilies!

Mia [1:11] Oooh

Josh [1:13] So I would assume that if you’re listening to this, you know what Umbrella Academy is, unless you are a bumbershoot enthusiast.

Mia [1:20] Please explain what a bumbershoot is

Josh [1:21] A bumbershoot is an old word for an umbrella, which I think should have been the decided term. Like, like when, when, as a society we decided what to call an umbrella. And they went, do you wanna call it an umbrella, or do you wanna call it a bumbershoot? Bumbershoot please.

Mia [1:35] (laughter)

Josh [1:36] It sounds like steampunk weapon.

Mia [1:39] It does actually.

Josh [1:40] I’m gonna bumbershoot you!

Mia [1:43] So why- why is this something that you wanted to talk about and are excited about? And (laughter)

Josh [1:49] We said we wanted to do a podcast. We said we wanted to do a podcast, and sadly, we went through should we do a Riverdale podcast? Oh wait no it’s on Season Three now. Should we do a Star Trek podcast? Wait we don’t know enough about Star Trek and it’s on Season Two now. So, we are actually - so the rule is that we’re not allowed to watch the next episode of Umbrella Academy, despite already knowing the story, because we’ve read the comics, but to make sure that we get proper like, viewing experience. We’re not going to watch the next episode until we’ve done the podcast.

Mia [2:19] Yes, we’ll see how that goes…

Josh [2:20] Which has meant that it’s been two weeks, roughly, since we watched the first episode, well we’ve re-watched it. But since our first like watching of it, it’s been two weeks. And I’m desperate at this point to watch the next episodes.

Mia [2:33] Yeah, also everyone else has definitely seen it all. But that’s fine.

Josh [2:35] Yeah, so this is probably a useless podcast

Mia [2:37] You know, art for art’s sake. That’s all I’ve got to say. We had thought about doing an umbrella Academy one for a while because we were Thought Bubble in Leeds

Josh [2:48] We were, when, so this is in 2017 when Gerard Way was there for the kind of opening ish time period of Young Animal, which is the DC imprint he kind of heads up, which is great, by the way, it introduced me to Doom patrol, which is such a clear influence on Umbrella Academy. Like it really is. But regardless of that, and it was there that he was like, “oh, by the way” - I don’t know if that was where he first announced it but it was where we first heard that they were doing the Netflix version of Umbrella Academy so we were like, “Oh, we should do a podcast on this!” And so this is theoretically taken like two, two and a half years to actually, no a year and a half? Two years, something like that, for us to actually do it. And yet we’re still under prepared.

Mia [3:34] What you’re saying is this, this podcast is two years in the making, and you would never know.

Josh [3:39] No.

Mia [3:40] So let’s go back to what The Umbrella Academy is. It is a comic by Gerard Way and

Josh [3:46] Gabriel… Bá?

Mia [3:49] Yeah we’ve been having conversations about whether it’s Gabriel, Gabriel,

Josh [3:54] Gabriel Ba

Mia [3:56] “Bar”, “Bah”, don’t know, apologies

Josh [3:57] We might get this wrong - but Gabriel Bá is how we will say it for now.

Mia [4:03] Yeah. He’s the fantastic artist of the series. And Greard Way of course was

Josh [4:12] the writer

Mia [4:12] originally known to me as to probably most people as the frontman of My Chemical Romance

Josh [4:19] Though, you say that, since Umbrella Academy came out it was like “Gerard Way: who is the Umbrella Academy creator?” and I’m, I’m in like shock that pe- because obviously it must be, when was the last

Mia [4:33] because the past, because children were born in like the 2000s now

Josh [4:36] and basically there’s probably children watching it which were born after My Chemical Romance’s first albums

Mia [4:41] Tragic to me.

Josh [4:42] which also highlights our age. Let’s let’s move on to the Netflix side of things.

Mia [4:47] Yes.

Josh [4:48] So Netflix, have made this, so maybe it’s better but like, especially when you look back over older shows, Netflix synopses are bad. In fact, just today we saw an article or whatever that was in the Radio Times, which was a Netflix description of Doctor Who. This is an example. “Evil aliens. A wacky but brilliant tour guide. Flying through space in a tiny blue box is the trip of a lifetime.” Not really describing Doctor Who in theme, content necessarily, I’m not really sure - it feels a very, very bad synopsis. So in the spirit of that we’re going to look at the Netflix synopsis of the episode. And then like actually talk about it,

Mia [5:30] Also because it might be helpful just to sort of ground you know what actually happens in it.

Josh [5:36] I actually think this is a reasonable one.

Mia [5:37] I do too!

Josh [5:37] Shall I read it out?

Mia [5:38] Go on. Do it in a voice.

Josh [5:39] No. “Years after they rose to fame as young crime-fighting superheroes, the estranged Hargreeves siblings come together to mark their father’s death.”

Mia [5:48] Pretty accurate.

Josh [5:49] Very accurate. It doesn’t actually give away much, I quite like it. I think it’s a reasonable one. So Netflix synopsis: I give it I give it a solid 9 out of 10.

Mia [5:57] It’s quite exciting.

Josh [5:58] It doesn’t give you a hint of how weird it could potentially be.

Mia [6:01] No, it doesn’t. I think there’s a lot of-

Josh [6:05] Hold on, what is this episode called?

Mia [6:07] Ah, this episode is called “We only see each other at weddings and funerals”.

Josh [6:14] Is that from this episode?

Mia [6:16] They don’t say in this episode, b ut it’s kind of hinted at.

Josh [6:21] I don’t know how much I want to give the plot away during this because now we’re actually, even if people have watched it I feel like it’s a bit f a ruiner to kind of just- But, in fact let’s, let’s begin with impressions.

Mia [6:33] Yeah, um, I loved it. When we when we watched it, the first thing that caught my attention was the content warnings, because it was literally like this contains all of the things that you do not want to see.

Josh [6:46] Or you do want to see

Mia [6:48] Well, yeah, or you do want to see. That you don’t want your your child to see

Josh [6:51] yes. That’s why it’s an 18 I believe?

Mia [6:55] Is it an 18? I think it was a 15

Josh [6:57] I think it’s an 18.

Mia [6:59] Okay we’re gonna check.

Josh [7:01] It’s a 15! Does it have the content warnings on the, on the details? Strong violence, injury details, sex references, drug misuse and self harm. I suppose it’s bad. I’ve recently become a little bit interested in fonts. And I have to say the font is great. That Netflix original series font is like slightly Gothic. And I love how like over the top it almost is with that kind of aspect of the serif on it and everything is is it’s wonderful.

Mia [7:31] It’s interesting, because it’s not, it’s well, I don’t know, you’re more versed in comics than I am. But I wouldn’t have thought I would have like

Josh [7:41] No it feels like very much a title.

Mia [7:42] Yeah

Josh [7:43] A title font. Like, I feel like horror, weird things, you need the serif. You need the kind of like, the, and the varying thickness from thin to thick. I think it adds to it. It needs to look Gothic. And that does, the font is very Gothic.

Mia [7:59] So it’s nice it introduces like that kind of side of things, like really quickly, like that’s a clear sort of signifier from it even though like, you know, the way we open, it’s like, oh, it’s Russia, it’s people swimming, cool. You’d just be like, this is normal, fine.

Josh [8:12] And then it gets very weird very quickly.

Mia [8:14] It does.

Josh [8:15] I think the key thing here is obviously like in that opening sequence. You have this bit where it introduces the idea, this key idea that a number of women around the world all got pregnant at the same time. And come back to this actually, slightly when we talk about the differences with the comics, there is a difference in how that is set up. Because the comics definitely have a weirder opening, I think where I think this very quickly establishes kind of the slightly surreal, weird nature of the world by having this woman become pregnant and give birth and everyone’s shocked. But then she gives birth and no one is like,

Mia [8:51] they’re all like, yay, baby!

Josh [8:52] Yeah, they’re not like panicking. If I was to see somebody go from zero to nine months in the space of jumping into a pool, and then a baby to emerge from that that seems to be alive and well

Mia [9:04] I think I’d’ve run away screaming

Josh [9:05] And then a man turns up and offers to, like a British aristocratic man turns up. The, I mean this is communist Russia, let’s not forget, he turns up and he buys your baby, and everyone’s like, “yeah cool”

Mia [9:14] Yeah I mean, it’s terrifying. So we learn and then it kind of goes

Josh [9:19] We learn there’s seven, right, he gets, he manages to get seven of these. There’s many babies, but he manages to get seven of them. And we see them - the other thing here is obviously we’ve got this very grim opening and then the music is 'Picture Book’ by The Kinks, which is a very upbeat song.

Mia [9:31] Yeah.

Josh [9:32] Which weirdly contrasts. It adds to that sense of like, Oh, this isn’t like it’s dark, but it’s kind of got this weird lightness to it.

Mia [9:38] Some might call it contrapuntal music. Ooh, fancy word.

Josh [9:43] But you see the seven prams all numbered, and it cuts to today, so it’s cut in from 1989 to like, today.

Mia [9:49] Yeah

Josh [9:49] We see someone pick up a violin and they play it. Again, adding to the kind of Gothic esque nature, they play the Phantom of the Opera medley. The key key point here, something you pointed out when we were watching it, person playing the violin?

Mia [10:03] Don’t know who she is!

Josh [10:04] Don’t know who she is, like

Mia [10:06] we can imagine

Josh [10:07] We see it’s Ellen Page, right?

Mia [10:08] Oh, yeah.

Josh [10:09] So we know, it’s like somebody who’s gonna be important from that kind of aspect. But she isn’t named whereas what it does is it goes through each of these seven, or rather it goes through

Mia [10:20] five

Josh [10:20] very important the fact that we don’t have Vanya named until, she’s named at the very end I believe.

Mia [10:27] It is the end, yeah

Josh [10:28] Another key thing I noticed on re watching it was that their names are in quotation marks but their numbers are not.

Mia [10:34] Yeah as we as we find out later, like, you know, he, they were not given names by Hargreeves. He had “Mom” do it. They’re - they’re literally just numbers. The other thing that I thought in this opening, especially when I was re-watching it, I was like, hang on a minute. Does Ellen Page play the violin? Is this her? So I had to do a little Google and apparently she did actually do some lessons. She had a couple of lessons in it. But actually, it was like a young violinist, a young Canadian musician, who’s great - Imogen Sloss. Even before it kind of starts introducing everyone we can, I guess we’re like, oh, so these must be the kids but like, we still don’t know anything about them. We don’t know like, what’s-

Josh [11:07] We get a sense of something from their situations.

Mia [11:10] They’re all also on their, like none of them are together.

Josh [11:12] None of them are together. We’ve got Luther, who’s Number One, like, massive dude, living on the moon. And then you notice he’s taking the rubbish out? It’s not been collected. Now, is that normal or not? I don’t know. But it’s important in the context, one of the themes that does come through the episode and it become, it emerges more, is a sense of loneliness, and being forgotten and things I think

Mia [11:33] The other thing as well is obviously like in the comics, I can’t really remember exactly actually how they do it, but like their names, before even really I think we know their, their sort of normal first names, they’re like “Spaceboy” But yeah, which we haven’t had any of yet, but I expect we will in the future. So we get Luther, we get Diego.

Josh [11:45] We get their superhero names Who is the only one who’s doing anything remotely actually superhero-y?

Mia [11:57] Yes, exactly. He’s kind of in this like family’s house saving them from some robbers or

Josh [12:02] Gangsters or something, it’s not made clear

Mia [12:04] Don’t really know

Josh [12:05] Number Three.

Mia [12:06] Allison

Josh [12:06] She’s like famous on the red carpet for some reason. We have like, we see an umbrella tattoo on her wrist. Then Number Four, Klaus, who is like in a rehab or what, we don’t really, yeah, he’s in a rehab I think it kind of becomes clear, we see him getting out of a top bunk. He’s very chipper. The music actually changes to something that seems a bit calmer, cheekier.

Mia [12:12] Number Four, Klaus, played by Robert Sheehan, who you may know from Misfits, immediately, basically, through this just made me think of the character of Cassidy in Preacher, just because you know, another Misfits actor who’s

Josh [12:39] In fact he took over from him!

Mia [12:41] Oh god yeah he did, didn’t he? Yeah, yeah. But yeah, it’s that that kind of like very reckless behavior and being very like, Oh, it’s all good, like, whatever.

Josh [12:50] So we’re introduced to these four and then it goes between them as they kind of see some sort of news, shocking news of some kind, so we see all these things, we see, you know, go through all of them and then we see what is you know the person playing the violin is Ellen Pages, it’s Vanya, who I think is then named?

Mia [13:07] Yes, she is. The lights go off on her. Yeah. And then it’s like

Josh [13:10] So we don’t find out her name until the other characters have all had, like their moment in the spotlight, so to speak.

Mia [13:15] The other thing is that the vigilant amongst us will notice that actually we’ve gone 1 2 3 4 7

Josh [13:20] Yes.

Mia [13:21] There’s no Number Five, there’s no Number Six.

Josh [13:23] Yeah. Which does actually become a thing because after this point, there’s kind of, the shots cut between like Vanya and the house. The reason I mention it (because I don’t want to go over like the plot too much) is that one of the things it cuts between is the painting? We see a painting of six children. One that’s missing is Vanya.

Mia [13:36] Yeah. Yeah.

Josh [13:40] There’s only one girl in the picture and it is clearly Allison. And then it transitions to show Five as we lose one near the corner. And then it transitions to them as teenagers where we only see four, which are the four that we receive names for.

Mia [13:53] In the first one that disappears, we then go from that to the portrait of Number Five on the wall. Yeah. And then afterwards, it’s when it gets. Well, actually, I think we see the statue of Ben who is Number Six, yeah, but we don’t know that yet. Also, though, really quickly, that was one thing that really made me laugh when I was re-watching it. When Diego’s like, doing his little crime-fighting bit in this family’s house, and then he like, kills all the bad guys or whatever. And he goes to the family, looks at them, like proper Daredevil, and is like “you’re safe now”. It just really made me laugh. And also, I then realized later, the Director of this episode, is Peter Hall, who is known for Doctor Who, Altered Carbon and in fact, Daredevil.

Josh [14:33] Oh!

Mia [14:35] So anyway

Josh [14:36] We meet Pogo who’s like a monkey who can talk? Again, it’s a sign of how weird it is, there’s just a monkey who can talk.

Mia [14:41] Yeah they’re just like yeah it’s chill.

Josh [14:42] And they’re talking about Number Five and how he went missing. It’s been 16 years. Yeah, important one is obviously there’s a point where they talk about having a ceremony then it cuts to 17 years ago, where they first stop a bank robbery, I think it’s their first thing. And in that we see, in fact the only one we don’t see, we don’t see Vanya but we also don’t see Klaus.

Mia [15:02] Yeah no, he’s not doing anything there.

Josh [15:05] But we learn their skills. So Allison is able to alter reality so-to-speak, or make people do things by saying she heard a rumor. So in this she says “I heard a rumor that you shot your friend in the foot”. And then he shoots him in the foot. Luther comes through the roof and has super strength. Diego throws knives and they like bend in the air, like it goes at a right angle. Then we see Number Five

Mia [15:27] Aw Number Five is great.

Josh [15:28] Well we don’t know, I don’t think we’ve actually got his number yet, but we see somebody who can jump through space and looks like the first one to disappear from the painting, which when you’ve read the comics, you know is Number Five, but still

Mia [15:39] I love that bit, it’s so good, and it introduces like such a fun, like, I think in all, in this whole thing. Like it’s very much like, they’re kids! They’re like having fun with it. And it’s quite like, perverse?

Josh [15:43] Yeah. And that’s highlighted by then, Number six who is Ben, which we never get given the name, like it never comes up on the screen as a name but we know it’s Ben from the way they talk about things. He’s like I don’t, like he’s very reluctant to go in.

Mia [16:07] He’s like, do I have to have to do this

Josh [16:08] and basically he goes into this final room and they show these tentacles appear everywhere, like throwing people around, there’s screams,

Mia [16:15] blood on the window

Josh [16:16] and he comes back out just coated in blood and clearly traumatized.

Mia [16:20] What I was going to say though, as well with Number Five, you know, it’s so playful like he’s like, “Oh, yeah, just replace the gun with a stapler, hahaha, great,” you know, and then I think again, it’s also highlighted more like when it cuts away back to Vanya, who’s on the roof with Hargreeves and they’re kind of watching from afar. He’s observing them and it’s weird, and she’s like, “Can I play with the others?” And it’s like, they’re not playing

Josh [16:42] I think he says like, you’re not special or something doesn’t he as well? Or is that later on?

Mia [16:46] No that’s then.

Josh [16:47] Is it then?

Mia [16:48] Yeah.

Josh [16:49] Ah, yes. And then there’s a press conference where he says he’s adopted six gifted children. Yeah, he’s adopted Vanya and just put her to one side basically, he ignores her

Mia [16:56] Poor Vanya. She’s kind of almost, acts as like his assistant.

Josh [16:58] Yeah, then, so we go back and you know, Klaus who has the ability to connect with people in the afterlife is trying to connect to Hargreeves and things - doesn’t seem to be working but it goes to one of my favorite scenes which is that they’re all in the different rooms like clearly not getting on with each other. And Luther puts on “I Think We’re Alone Now”.

Mia [16:58] Yeah, it’s so great.

Josh [17:16] And they all dance separately and it zooms out and there’s this like cut through like, like someone’s taken a slice out of the house and you see them all in their respective rooms dancing on their own. Again, the theme of loneliness and things and being separate

Mia [17:28] I love it, it’s so great.

Josh [17:31] And that’s when the thunder rumbles, which is when we see Number Five come back, which is when we get his name and stuff on the screen, and he’s just-

Mia [17:38] You’ve missed out something really important which I think we really need to talk about, which is Vanya’s dancing. Ellen Page being, like I love the way that they really embody all their characters in this, it’s so brilliant like they’re all clearly like very different. I love the Kra- what’s his name? Diego. He does like all his like nerdy like old-school disco moves, Allison is sort of doing her like fun stereotypical girl dancing in the bedroom like she’s got like a feather boa and stuff but it’s just like all of this it’s such, it’s a nice way of like giving them that extra bit of personality whilst also showing their, you know, the separateness between them

Josh [18:23] But yeah, then we see this thunder thing, this like sort of temporal anomaly they call it and what basically happens is you see like an old man through it who then falls through this hole and it is Number Five as a young boy again, and you know, without going into it too much it transpires that he’s basically like travelled through time, he’s lived this long period of time etc. and onwards

Mia [18:43] Yeah, he’s just super super offhandedly being like “yeah, I’ve been in the future, it’s shit by the way”

Josh [18:47] Yeah, and by the end of episode we find out that the world’s ended and he, but he knows the day it ends on and it’s

Mia [18:53] Eight days from now

Josh [18:54] Eight days from now, whatever, so he’s managed to get back. Um, a couple of key points to bring up I think: one, when Diego and Luther have a fight, obviously there’s a rip in the sleeve and we see a hairy arm, which is interesting because they almost hide this aspect of the character

Mia [19:08] Yeah, whereas in the comic it’s a feature

Josh [19:09] In the comic it’s very early on, yeah it’s a feature thing. We get, we get the mom recharges again like they unveil that she’s a robot, but I think it’s very, well it is revealed but it’s very quickly revealed I feel in the comics, I think when they’re fighting they rip her dress or something and it reveals she hasn’t got any legs underneath, she’s basically on wheels or something. But the other bit - so I loved that bit - the last bit I want to mention, because of this loneliness theme in the episode, the bit where they show them training and getting their tattoos, where Vanya draws her own tattoo, which is kind of heartbreaking

Mia [19:39] So heartbreaking

Josh [19:40] But the voiceover emphasizes them working as a team rather than alone. Which is obviously this idea of them coming back together to potentially stop the end of the world. Very important I think. Then obviously the bit I think a lot of people have spoken about is the scene where Number Five kills like a bunch of people with guns basically to the song “Istanbul (Not Constantinople)”, which is

Mia [20:01] Oh it’s so great. They Might Be Giants.

Josh [20:03] Yeah it’s such a, such a good scene, like the way it’s done is brilliant. Again, that sense of like he’s very cheeky with how he like fights them. He’s also incre- like it is this really interesting contrast still that he’s very cheeky, almost childlike with it, but he is adult in that he’s like murdering them.

Mia [20:19] Yes

Josh [20:19] Very, very happily murdering them without any worries or thought. Also that he’s dressed in his old uniform, because the only clothes he has left are the ones from him, as a, as what like a seven year old or whatever

Mia [20:29] Yeah, he opens his wardrobe he’s like, ahhh, fucking shit. It’s also I really love that they haven’t seen him, all the rest of, all his siblings haven’t seen him for what was it? 16 years or whatever?

Josh [20:39] Yeah yeah

Mia [20:40] And um, and so they’re like, trying to adjust to it. You know, they’re seeing him now as he was then. But he’s actually like, 58 years old. He’s older than all of them in consciousness. And they’re like, my favorite bit, like they’re trying to sort of adjust to this, my favorite bit is when Luther and Diego are fighting and Klaus is kind of like trying to shield him being like, “Oh, that’s like, the kid can’t get hurt in the fight”. And he’s just like, what? Again though it’s just that weirdness, like, they accept it very quickly, but also he’s like, “Oh, I’m going to drive to this diner” and they’re like, “Can you drive? Can you-” So it’s, that’s going to be an interesting, fun dynamic, I think between them.

Josh [21:15] So I guess now’s a good time, like the differences between comic and - it’s kind of hard, it’s really hard for me to actually figure out the differences in some sense, in terms of what we’ve been revealed and haven’t been revealed. Partly because we, I read the comics as one book because I’m trying to remember what was in each bit, I think, some key differences that I noticed, at least. In fact one of the main differences, I think, is that we don’t have their superhero names, as you mentioned. So in the comics, it’s “Spaceboy” for Luther, “The Kraken” for Diego, “The Rumour” for Allison

Mia [21:48] “Seance” for Number Four, for Klaus

Josh [21:51] Yeah, Number Five is Number Five, I think.

Mia [21:51] Yeah and it’s the same in his caption in this, he doesn’t have a name either way. 'Cause like I- I guess also, does that mean that they were named after that point?

Josh [22:00] Potentially after that point, yes, maybe.

Mia [22:02] Like so they went 16 years of their lives just being numbers

Josh [22:05] No no, no they weren’t 16 years, he disappeared at the age he is there. They haven’t seen him in 16 years.

Mia [22:10] Oh, yeah. He’s 13 years old.

Josh [22:12] Ah he’s 13 years old. So he’s, up until the age of 13 they probably weren’t named.

Mia [22:15] Yeah. Which is so sad

Josh [22:17] Or, or he rejected his name

Mia [22:19] Possibly also that

Josh [22:19] Because he does seem to be the one that’s most comfortable with not being part of society. The other ones kind of like, they’re weird and they don’t fit in, obviously like Spaceboy lives on the moon, so to speak, all these different things, but it’s very clear that Number Five just, like he travelled in the future, he had no respect for time or normality

Mia [22:37] Yeah. Seems like Hargreeves as well, like from a line he says, Hargreeves you know told him not to travel in time, like space is one thing, time’s another, but he did it

Josh [22:47] But the other big difference is that The Seance, (which is what, in my head they’re still the chara-, their comic book names) talks to The Horror, Ben, in the backseat of the thing, of the car, which is definitely not a thing I remember at all from the comics.

Mia [23:00] No. And also that’s when Ben finally gets his caption as well, like he’s there in the car, we don’t- the viewer, you know, if you don’t know who he is or can’t guess, you don’t- it’s not clear, also he doesn’t speak at all. He doesn’t say anything. Klaus is just talking to him, he’s just sat there. He keeps saying we Yeah, it’s like “we, we, we” and we think there’s someone there but then you see Diego’s view there’s no one there and then we get Number, Number Six then. It’s so sad! What happened to him? We don’t know! Also I found interesting I don’t know if this- I can’t remember if this was in the comic or not, on his statue, so the, the little sort of engraving on it, it says “May the darkness within you find - rest-” Hang on a minute I wrote it down

Josh [23:41] It’s definitely clear that whatever his power is, it’s- it’s not pleasant.

Mia [23:46] Yeah. Oh, okay, so his- the engraving on the statue, on Ben’s statue, said “May the darkness within you find peace in the light”. Very very dark. Like I don’t know how much they’re going to kind of reveal in the TV show because, well up to where we’ve read in the comics I don’t think we learn what happens to him.

Josh [24:04] No. No, there is a few, I’m trying to remember, there’s a few bits in the back. We definitely get- we definitely get more of him outside of the plot, if that makes sense, there’s like a couple of like bonus feature type bits, but I don’t think we find out what happens to him.

Mia [24:18] No, you see him in all the kind of flashbacks

Josh [24:20] You see him with the tentacles and stuff early on. But he disappears, he’s, it’s less obvious that he’s disappeared in the comics, I feel

Mia [24:27] Yeah, I didn’t realize

Josh [24:28] Oh, that was the other key difference! In the comics, it opens, it’s what I alluded to earlier, it opens with, they’re all born, the moment of, oh what’s it called now. There’s a phrase… is it an intergalactic wrestling match? Which is how weird like the thing, like, how weird that comic is, it opens with an intergalactic wrestling match. It’s not clear whether humanity’s even aware that that is happening or not. It is described as, “in the mid 20th century at the instant of the finishing blow in a cosmic wrestling match forty-three infants are inexplicably born to random unconnected women who showed no signs of pregnancy”. And Hargreeves is called The Monocle.

Mia [25:10] Yes. Which - and of course it’s one of the big things - I say big things - but one of the things in it is the missing monocle. The monocle’s missing, Luther is all like

Josh [25:20] Yeah, someone’s done this. We see Diego with it, right?

Mia [25:22] Yeah, Diego had it. Diego had it all along. And also like, I think all of that reveals a lot more around their relationships, I think particularly between Luther and Diego. Luther was always the kind of, you know, he was Number One, but he was also always the leader.

Josh [25:35] He was al- he was the leader and he always seemed to have a closer relationship with Hargreeves than some of the others.

Mia [25:38] Exactly. You know, he talks about like, “Oh, you know, Dad’s favorite spot” and they’re like, “what d'you mean?” and he’s like, “you know, under the tree, we used to sit there, didn’t you guys do that?”

Josh [25:47] It’s also interesting, you see an element as well of a difference between Luther symbolizing almost like order, or like, if I was thinking in terms of D&D kind of alignments, he’s definitely more towards a lawful, lawful, potentially lawful good. I mean they’re all vigilantes, so none of them are technically lawful, lawful good. But definitely closer to that, whislt Diego is happy, you know, he’s like running around in a dark outfit. Even the music represented a difference. He was definitely an angrier character. He was less maybe- maybe in relation to each other, maybe not in relation to society, but in relation to each other, and Hargreeves, Luther is the lawful good kind of like, I do what, but I, you know I’m lawful, like a soldier, like very much a soldier who is doing what he’s told by his captain, whereas Diego is very much more like, I’m going to do I want, makes noises

Mia [26:43] (Laughter)

Josh [26:43] Like an angry chaos, whereas then obviously Klaus feels definitely more like a happy chaos. Like he’s a drugged up… whatever. Like, I did love that, I think they show, did they show him without his shoes on?

Mia [26:54] Possibly, I can’t remember

Josh [26:55] It was a key bit with him with his shoes because that is a key part of his thing that he can’t use powers with shoes on.

Mia [27:00] Yeah, he has to have- he can’t have his shoes on. Also, clearly his powers don’t work when he’s high as a kite.

Josh [27:05] Yeah.

Mia [27:06] Oh my god, I love the bit

Josh [27:07] Or they do but Hargreeves isn’t responding to it.

Mia [27:09] I love the bit where he knocks over the ashes. But yeah, it’s another key thing. And that, he’s also got his tattoo hands. His “hello, goodbye” hands, which is in the comics too.

Josh [27:23] Yeah. So that’s Umbrella Academy Episode One. A chaotic, sprawling exploration of it, at least.

Mia [27:31] Any thoughts about, before we finish, any last thoughts?

Josh [27:35] So the only thing I would note is, and I am terrified of getting this wrong. But the, there is a cast member who is listed in that first episode, yeah, Mary J. Blige, who we never see. And based only on the trailer so far, I’m pretty certain she’s playing a character from the second volume of the comics. Which is interesting, because, so one thing, because I read Umbrella Academy 1 a long time ago, and it was this year when I read Umbrella Academy Volume Two, I’d actually forgotten some of the plot lines a little bit. I’d forgotten how closely tied in they were to each other. They felt, I was- in my head, they felt like they were going to be two separate things that happened to share characters. But actually, I went back and re-read them both in different ways ready for this and I did notice that they do overlap, they interlink with each other more than I remembered. So it’s interesting, they’re bringing in Mary J. Blige because she’s a character from the second volume who they’re then gonna incorporate into this first one, which makes sense when you realize that they are meant to be linked. I guess it’s to bring that together more.

Mia [28:39] Yeah, it does. Last other notes, which I guess kind of relates but, so, there’s like this whole- this whole mystery which hopefully we’re going to find out about at some point soon, about Number Five being in the future but also like, who these people were who came to kill him, and like this tracking chip he had in his arm which he cut out, and then also when he goes to Vanya and again is like, “I’ve come to you because you’re the only one I can trust because you’re ordinary and you’ll listen” - there’s this whole thing all the way through of Vanya being like the caring one, like she’s, she, she always used to go and leave the lights on and make a snack for Number Five in case he came home, and she’s there to like, you know, she, she will happily then again like bandage up Number ive and listen to him, and she just wants to

Josh [28:56] She wants to be part of the team

Mia [29:09] She wants to be part of it. She fell out with them all then because she wrote a book about it, but there’s, there doesn’t seem to be very much sympathy from anyone, apart from maybe Allison, for her. But yeah, so it’s all, it’s very interesting. I love the, that whole presentation of her character and like even just the way she dresses she’s just, she’s very like, just gonna blend in the background, just going to try and get on now.

Josh [29:51] So, thought on the episode? What was your, how, what would you give it out of 10?

Mia [29:56] I don’t know. I don’t have any future episodes to compare it to yet. In terms of my enjoyment, my excitement level’s pushed up by it being a fun new show that I’m really excited about as well. I think it was really well done, well cast, love the style and aesthetic of it all. Love the music. Some of it, I guess, you know, a lot of the expositional stuff was maybe like a little bit heavy handed but it kind of has to be, because the nature of it and also, you know, it’s based on a comic. Also another note about the comics is, God, I found them so confu- you know, it’s only when you get to the end of a volume are you like, “I get it!”

Josh [30:32] Almost every Gerard Way comic I’ve read, I, it- I’m always like I don’t know what’s happening. You have to just knuckle down and let it just Yeah, you have to just let it kind of happen and then you get to the end of it and it suddenly all ties together and you look back and go, “oh, of course, and now that makes sense now, and this and that”

Mia [30:38] I always think I’ve missed something “What a wonderful piece of art! I get it!” Yeah

Josh [30:49] Which I love. I guess the final note is what would you say your favourite, one of your favourite lines is from the, from the episode?

Mia [30:57] “Rapists can climb.”

Josh [30:58] Yeah

Mia [30:59] Would be uh, one of mine.

Josh [31:00] Which was…

Mia [31:01] Just a weird, weird line.

Josh [31:02] But it’s great though, right? Because he’s like, what is it she says, it’s something like

Mia [31:07] She’s, it’s because he’s like, “Oh, you you need a lock on your windows.” And she’s like, “I live on the-

Josh [31:12] first floor.

Mia [31:13] Yeah, like whatever it is.

Josh [31:15] He’s like, "rapists can climb!”

Mia [31:16] Which is just so weird, especially coming from the mouth of a 13 year old.

Josh [31:20] Yeah, which is great. Okay, so

Mia [31:23] What would you, what would - I didn’t give it an out of 10 rating

Josh [31:26] Ah, I don’t think we need one. I think out of 10 ratings don’t give you enough. I feel like this entire podcast is an out of 10 rating.

Mia [31:32] Ha, okay.

Josh [31:34] So with that in mind, we’re going to go watch Episode Two.

Mia [31:36] Yeah, baby. Can’t wait. Thanks for listening. If you got through to the end, maybe you skipped some of it. I don’t know. But I mean, thanks, I hope that it was enjoyable. Let us know what you think.

Josh [31:48] Byeee

Mia [31:48] Byeeee!

[nerdylittleshit]

So, I spent the most part of the last week watching The Umbrella Academy, which I loved a lot and I have a lot of feelings and thoughts about, so here is my rambling.

I will put some posts in my queue, a lot of them containing spoilers, so please blacklist The Umbrella Academy if you don’t want to get spoilered.

(Some general stuff at first, spoiler stuff under the cut)

On October 1, 1989, 43 women around the world give birth simultaneously, despite none of them showing any sign of pregnancy until labor began. Seven of the children are adopted by eccentric billionaire Sir Reginald Hargreeves, and turned into a superhero team through what he calls "The Umbrella Academy". Hargreeves gives the children numbers rather than names, but they eventually come to be known as Klaus, Luther, Diego, Allison, Ben, and Vanya. Number Five is never named.While putting six of his children to work fighting crime, Reginald keeps Vanya apart from her siblings' activities, as she seemingly has no powers of her own.

In the present day, Luther is an astronaut, Allison is a famous actress, Vanya is a violinist, Klaus is a party animal with a drug addiction, Ben is a ghost only able to converse with Klaus, and Diego has become a vigilante with a penchant for trouble. The estranged siblings learn that Reginald has died and gather for his funeral. Number Five returns from the future, revealing that a global apocalypse is imminent. Meanwhile, the reunited siblings try to uncover the secret of their dysfunctional family while beginning to come apart due to their divergent personalities and abilities.

Source

So, one of the few times (Ok, the only time) that I actually read the comic this is based on. Because back in the old days I loved My Chemical Romance a lot (I still do), so naturally I would buy a comic written by Gerard Way (and illustrated by Gabrial Ba), and then never actually read it until Netflix released a show based on said comic. Ahem. I liked the look of the comic and the overall weirdness factor of the story, but I liked the show more, because they take more time to develop those characters (and make them more diverse in the progress).

Because it is basically a story with six main characters the plot takes some time to move on, but I didn’t actually mind that much because I loved the characters and their relationship to each other too much. They fortunately kept all of the weird ideas the comic presents. The casting is great (Ellen Page, Robert Sheehan and Aidan Gallagher who is way too talented for a 15-year-old dude). The look is great. And the soundtrack as well (lots of old songs, which I love). The show isn’t like most superhero stories, because the children are raised to become heroes, so you don’t get the typically origin story. And at its core it is about family, a highly dysfunctional family. Which I loved. Because as much as I love the concept of found family, I liked the different approach they took, the concept of family as a bunch of strangers really, who are so very different, but also united in their shared trauma and the unique way they were raised.

Some more thoughts under the cut.

SPOILERS AHEAD! DON’T READ THIS IF YOU HAVEN’T SEEN THE SHOW YET!

- First of all I loved Klaus. I loved Robert Sheeran back in “Misfits” and I think the role was perfect for him. Something that irritated me was the way his siblings treated Klaus. Apart from the fact that nobody noticed he was kidnapped they constantly look down on him because he is a drug addict. They know he can’t communicate with the dead when he is on drugs, and yet it seems they fail to see that it is because of that that he started doing drugs. That the entire experience is traumatic for him. They are probably unaware of the incident where their father locked Klaus up in a Mausoleum, but still. We see a glimpse of the experience during the time Hazel and Cha Cha kidnap Klaus and he sees all the mutilated bodies of their victims. Imagine seeing this all the time (also we don’t see an obvious wound on Ben, which makes his death even more mysterious). I would love to see him use more of his advanced powers though. He was able to channel Ben to extend his own power. When Ben hit Klaus it was because Klaus was angry at himself. Ben saved Diego because Klaus wanted to save him but couldn’t reach him. He used Ben’s power in order to help his siblings etc.

- The relationship between Klaus and Ben. Of course they are stuck with each other, because Ben can’t talk to anybody else. But Ben is also very supportive of Klaus and always there for him (and Klaus can even see him when he is on drugs). And that moment in the final episode when Klaus used Ben’s powers? that was the first time the other siblings saw Ben since he passed away. I hope we see more of Ben in season 2.

- Also loved Allison. She is the most empathic character, especially in the way she reaches out to Vanya and never blames her and forgives her and tries to support her and protect her. She obviously has her own issues die to her power and it was interesting to see that she lost her power at the end, because it could really mean a new beginning for her. Also, what I found interesting is that Vanya took away Allison’s voice, but not her life as she feared. She wanted Allison to shut up, to prevent her using her powers on her (again) but she only cut her vocal chord.

- Speaking of Vanya, she really is a victim, not a villian. I can get why Sir Reginald thought her powers were too dangerous, considering she killed several of her nannies (and really he should have built Grace after the first murder and not repeat the experiment several times). But to lock her up? To surpress her emotions, causing in return depression and anxiety? To abuse Allison and her powers? To isolate her constatly from her siblings, her family? Especially the last part was in no way neccessary.

- Diego is really the one who loves his family the most. He is protective of Klaus and Grace and everyone really. His beef with Vanya is based on the book she wrote and has nothing to do with her lack of powers. He is very soft.

- Number 5. Praise again to Adain Gallagher for playing an old man trapped in the body of a boy. Loved his sass. Also 5 sees the bigger picture, so when it seems at times as though he doesn’t care it is really because they literary have bigger problems to solve. There seemed to be a connection between 5 and Vanya (he visited her first, she made sandwhiches for when he would return etc) and in the end he is the one who says they are going to save her. Also loved that nobody cared about his relationship with Dolores.

- Villians: the real villian of course is Sir Reginald, as he fucked up both his children and Harold/Leonard. And still the Umbrella kids didn’t start mudering people because they had a hard childhood (I mean Klaus becomes an assasin but for different reasons). The trope of an abused child becoming a psycho-killer is over-used.

- Looking forward to season 2. Will the Umbrella children remain actually children? At what time will they travel? What about the other children born that day? Do they all have special powers? Is this a world full of superheroes? How come Sir Reginald knew the apocalypse would happen? And why do mobile phones and computers not exist in this world?

Hope to get some answers soon.

[winteredfall]

Did anyone else catch Gabriel Ba on Periscope just now? He was inking a doggie logo for a publishing house :D Fabio was filming (I'm pretty sure it was him??) and relaying the questions. I asked how the drawing was divided on Daytripper because how is that book even drawn by two people, it's too consistent??? I've always wondered about that and never really found an answer online. Anyway, he said they came up with the story together and Fabio drew most of it, with Gabriel doing the covers +small parts where Bras is dreaming.

[the-final-sentence]

… And admit that you don’t need me anymore.

Gabrial Ba and Fabio Moon, from Daytripper

[the-ablest-navigators]

“It doesn't matter where you're from - or how you feel... There's always peace in a strong cup of coffee.” ― Gabriel Bá, Daytripper (Enrico's Coffee House; 1961)