#not super sure about all of the new camera angles in the reunion scene but

[oathkeeper-of-tarth]

Turns out it's not just the romanceable companions who got shiny new kiss animations in the update.

[hannah-writes]

Malex Kiss (Pilot) - A Cinematographic Breakdown - Part of The Semiotics of Roswell Meta

So first things first, we see the camera slowly pan up to reveal Alex's prosthetic. He's had to step away to adjust it which gives us an insight into his character; private, may be concerned about appearances. Knowing what we know now, with the benefit of hindsight, there's an even more striking comparison at this moment. As the camera pans up and we see Alex looking at a picture of himself, the music played over this section says "you can run but you won't make it far / you can't hide from who you are". He's looking up at a younger, skateboarding image of himself that we know from episode six with the flashbacks was someone who was Out in every sense other than screaming that he was gay to the world. Every beating from his father made him dig his heels in; another piercing, more eyeliner, another way of shouting fuck you to the world. The line "you can't hide" is repeated again as there's an over-the-shoulder shot of Alex's photo on the wall and we're sharing in Alex's pain and nostalgia here.

What's telling in the next cut though is it moves to a wide shot, when "from who you are" is played over the image as Michael's standing in the doorway. They're sharing the middle of the screen here, true, but they're still each on a defined side; Alex on the right and Michael on the left.

When Michael says "nostalgia's a bitch, huh?" the camera cuts to Michael, a soft-focus mid-shot (soft focus images are typically romantic in nature, which is in sharp contrast to how they were shot earlier - close up almost claustrophobic shots during the 'did it get old for you?'). Michael's on the left-hand side of the screen.

We intersect to shots of people dancing, having fun, Isobel and Max etc. This is in sharp focus again which offers another direct contrast when we return to the blue swamped (because outside the lighting is more neutral with hints of blue, but it's nothing like the blue swamped scene of Male here).

When we return to Malex, Alex is on the left, we're back in soft focus (which means that all those ribbons are blurred). It's a mid-shot, focused on Alex's face which gives us a visual insight into the fact that these two are closer than we anticipated, closer than we might have thought at first. Suddenly, the angles are mirroring the ones used for Liz and Max, though Malex has already claimed their sides of the screen: whatever page they're on, it's closer to being the same one than the ones Liz and Max are operating on.

When we cut to Michael, with the "is that what you want?" the camera's pulled back. We can see the macho cowboy swagger dropping, he's unsure and uncertain and the camera's angled in a way that makes him look small. He shrugs, his hands look like they're in his pockets and it's the textbook body language of someone who's expecting a 'yes' to a question that they really want the answer to be 'no' to.

Though Alex doesn't say no, and the camera stays close again on the two of them, cutting right back into Michael and Alex as they both move towards each other, towards the centre of the frame (where they'll meet each other). The camera is still, and steady, it doesn't wobble or swing, it's focused solely on tracking their movements, keeping close-cropped to their faces which allows us to see and feel how they're feeling in the moment.

(Can I just take a moment to talk about how Tyler swallows RIGHT before he says 'what I want doesn't matter'? Because the answer to Michael's question is 'No', it's always been no. Alex wants Michael, he always has done and he confirms it in that moment.)

ANYWAY. With Alex saying 'what I want doesn't matter' which is a screaming way of Alex saying that he still wants Michael, that he's glad Michael hadn't left (something that's mirrored and repeated when Michael talks about moving to Tennessee and Alex is like wait what you're leaving?!) and it sets up a paradigm of the two of them almost saying what they mean but never actually saying the words. "What I want doesn't matter" -  I want you. "I never look away, not really" - I love you. "It was late, I was tired" - I stayed because this is safe for me, you are home. That kind of thing, you know?

The way they keep the tight angles in the shots (the Michael looking Alex up and down like he's a snack, and Alex's expression - ten years of longing all cultivated in a single look), helps increase the tension. The switching of POVs is actually quite slow; we get a good three seconds on Michael's face, then Alex's as they wind up getting close to kissing. And then. Then it happens (1:07 in the video).

As their lips collide (and god, Michael surges into Alex like he's the oxygen needed to breathe, the way he clings to him and their bodies just crash together (A CRASH LANDING)... find yourself someone who kisses you like Michael kisses Alex after ten years, you deserve it), you'll notice that the camera swings to the side slightly, the shot stays the same, mid/close as we're not meant to be looking at anything else but their faces (and Alex is still on the right and Michael is on the left, we're slightly closer to Alex's side than we are in the middle) before it stabilises and that's something that happens with most of Malex's kisses. That first contact the camera swings to chase them and I read that like Michael and Alex's worlds rock each time, the turbulence of their minds and their lives culminating and then... the camera goes still and the only movement is them, with each other. The camera's still because they're at peace.

The audio over this section is "you can't run from a smoking gun", which narratively tells us that whatever this is, since we've not been introduced to their epicness fully yet, is hot, it's fresh, it's burning and alive and it's inescapable. Alex can't hide from who he is - though it's obvious now that he's been trying - and Michael can't escape how he feels from Alex. They can't run from each other. It sets up a fantastic overall narrative that we don't even see for Echo, yet.

We cut from an almost side on shot to an almost over-the-shoulder, which brings another element into the Malex kisses which I haven't seen many people talk about and that's the way that the camera is almost voyeuristic at points with them. We're experiencing the kiss, sure, but we're also watching it as a third party (the angles are never immediately side on they're always slightly off, and the museum kiss is shot from a distance, like someone's hidden and the toolshed reflection in the mirror, it's all done to amp up the tension, of course, because we know Alex is afraid of being seen, of being caught (again), of something happening because they weren't careful enough).

This is then interspersed with Jesse Manes telling Kyle that the aliens are incapable of compassion and love.

THIS IS SUPER IMPORTANT.

"They despise freedom, love"

This line is said DIRECTLY OVER A MALEX SCENE. I cannot stress this enough. We were all hurt by the finale, and so many of us feel betrayed but from the very beginning, they have been set up as equal, if not more solidly signposted, to the primary romantic storyline (Echo). The image of Michael and Alex with their foreheads touching is iconic, not just because of the fact that it's Malex and you can see their Peace here, you can see the line of Michael's shoulders drop, the way that he just breathes Alex in, how Alex's hands have slid down his chest (probably to hook around his lower back the same way it did when they were kids, he kisses like he's a teenager again because that's how Michael makes him feel). The fact that we can't see Alex's hands here is also probably telling; Michael grips him like he's afraid he'll disappear, like he's the port in Michael's storm. And they're still slightly further to the right than they are in the middle: Michael's all in, he's crowding Alex into his side of the screen, they're almost on the same page but not quite and Michael is moving *to Alex*. Alex isn't giving ground here but Michael's conceding and stepping into Alex's space.

They stand together, and you can see them swaying a little, the camera rocks with them: what we've just witnessed is the reconnection of something epic. Dare I say cosmic?

The other thing I touched on briefly was the colour blue. This is used to signify a lot of things, but primarily blue is a soothing colour. It's comforting, calming. It's used to signify contentment, loyalty, fulfilment, peace, security and tranquillity. It's a colour that washes the screen when Malex has their reunion and it emphasises how Michael is seeking something to change his entropy, something to shift him back to calm and order and it's Alex he finds that in. The way this scene is washed out blue compared to the other parts of the party - which presumably have the same kind of lighting as Isobel is half-cast in blue - which are more neutrally lit is a directorial choice to highlight the moment. It's also one of the Colours Of Outer Space. Malex's love story, as we know, is cosmic and honestly, the colour choice helps solidify that. Nothing else in the pilot is colour-washed quite so much as Malex is and that's been done for a reason.

Male is set up here, just from this kiss alone, as being something that is literally out of this world. The way they're framed and shot, the way the camera focuses on their kiss after rocking and stilling (which, if you compare to the M&M kiss in the final episode the camera's at a lower angle and swings wildly from left to right like it can't work out where to go, Michael can't find his stillness and his calm, it's not the same and there's no stability though he's trying) all signify that we're watching an epic, long-term love story continue to unfold. We're introduced to it for the first time here, for sure, but this is not a new story and the shooting confirms that.

[rumandtimes]

The Friends Reunion on HBO Didn’t Work

Jens Weingardt

Senior Streaming Contributor

The addendum to an old sitcom in cheap self-justification for an uninspired corporate acquisition.

The other day I was watching a strange medley of content. The Friends Reunion on HBO Max was one of the places it started. “The Friends Reunion,” well known as shite, should be hated for a number of reasons. Partially that it is overproduced and unwanted corporate garbage where an HBO exec pushed a $45 Million obligation onto the contracts of the “Friends” cast. The cast could not have had more of a enormous contempt for the entire process — not wanting to be there and not enjoying the event of their exploitation.

The in-house HBO celebration of buying Friends off of Netflix, or more accurately the delusional self-justification of HBO bosses, did not put the content of the show Friends on display as the product, but used the show as a pretence, a pretence to sell the actors.

The show was two hours of corporate bullshit, steeped atop the usual pile of shit that represents the shows syndication. Two hours of overproduced, uninspired, pre-planned anecdotes that still managed to come off as boring and unpractised fillers of time.

The Lady-Gaga-avec-gospel-choir remix of a stupid, three-line cat song; The five-minute-long asides about support beams blocking camera angles; The potato costume full of Justin Bieber; The fake audience; James Corden: A cavalcade of shit, that some asshole at HBO thought would constitute showmanship.

The absolute worst part of the slapdash arrangements were the ending. The beginning and the end were meant to look spontaneous and unrehearsed like a kind of documentary, but was peppered by the actors of the main cast commiserating with each other about how much they didn’t want to be there. The ‘surprise’ ending of the “Friends Reunion” was that David Schwimmer and Jennifer Aniston actually wanted to have sex with each other twenty-seven years ago and would fool around behind the scenes on set, but they never actually had sex because she was dating Tate Donovan and he was dating Natalie Imbruglia.

There are many things apparent to all of the actors which they never bring up: controversies on the show that go unsaid. Like the fact that Tate Donovan got a job on Friends as Jennifer Aniston’s boyfriend almost immediately after they had broken up in real life. Like the fact that Mathew Perry’s career imploded through a combination of drug abuse, near sexual assaults, bankruptcy, and being a generally unlikable person (they do mention he fell out of contact with the rest of the cast, and he also disappears from later parts of the taping).

The myth that HBO floats at the end that two of the main cast wanted to have sex but didn’t is not only dubious, completely ordinary and a damp squid, and pitiful as hell, but it is also super creepy and exploitative. Here two people are pushed up onto stage front and forced to talk about a crush they had thirty years ago that they never acted on. Even more sad given the real life undercurrent of David Schwimmer being a divorced single dad from a woman half his age, to Jennifer Aniston being a thrice-divorced, barren cat lady who used to be famous for skin cream commercials and playing sluts on TV.

Half the time is given up to loser cameos and interviewing the creators, and a cringeworthy scene about how the show Friends, airing on NBC in the nineties, was somehow empowering to Ghanese women. A show where literally over half the cast is men, and two of the main male leads are notorious for being unchallenged misogynists that are horrible to women (“How you doin’?”). A show that aired on NBC, one of the most racist and dishonest companies in American media, the same company that was actually caught numerous times lying to peoples faces on so-called “news” programs, the same company that hired Megyn Kelly as a breakfast anchor, the same company that was sued by Gabrielle Union for racist discrimination, the same company that is repeatedly called out for racism and lack of representation, from late night, to broadcast anchors, to — notably — the show “Friends” itself.

More unstated controversy in a dishonest and trashy get-together on HBO. Not to mention that it is revealed that the original concept for the show was based on the real life experiences of a cliche of under-30’s Jewish television wonks in New York City in the 1970’s, a fact that besides the casting of David Schwimmer and Maggie Wheeler was completely scrubbed from the final product contribute only more so to the problem of racism on Friends. Those three or four women in Ghana might claim that the show Friends made them feel empowered, but in reality they would never have had the possibility to be on that show in a thousand years, except maybe as one of David Schwimmer’s tragic and ill-treated girlfriends.

ANYWAY!, the Friends Reunion had nothing to offer, was creepy, and stank of the heavy hand of a fat corporate shit patting himself on the back for buying the rights to an old syndicated television series that ended almost 30 years ago, in a personal escape from the fact that television media is dying and HBO is desperately trying to remain relevant as an ad-based streaming platform by bringing on the likes of John Oliver, Conan Tepenius O’Briain, and Matthew Perry.

But what do the cast of Friends think about they show? “I wasn’t sure how tonight would go.” “This will never happen again.” “What I have to say probably isn’t interesting.” “It was a long time ago.” “I’m not similar to my character because at my age you have to grow up sometime.” “I was miserable every night.” If you listen to the statements of the cast main six, there is really nothing in the way of enthusiasm or high praise they have to proffer. Other than a few tears and creepy reveals the Friends Reunion was a bore.

I’ve watched many sitcoms, and “Friends” is an extraordinary situation comedy. That is, it flows well enough, as a cast of recurring characters crack superficial jokes while locked in the small reality of a living room. “Friends,” however, is not anything more than that. It is not a TV show. It is not a serial. It is not a drama. It has no narrative. It has no moral. It is utterly pointless and inconsistent, as many sitcoms are. It was leagues above its competitors ages ago, but it should not be celebrated. The world (specifically the corporate world, and the third-world nations they now conspicuously market the old goods to) should follow the main casts lead be a bit more apathetic to the franchise as a whole.

HBO’s “Friends: The Reunion” has nothing to do with the content of that series, possessing no acting whatsoever beside some indifferent table readings by the aging cast.

[kirbydevpostarchive]

HAL Laboratory

イシダ HAL_Laboratory

09/07/2016 1:50 PM

Kirby: Planet Robobot Ask-a-thon - Round 3 

Satoshi Ishida from HAL Laboratory here. It's time to begin round 3 of the Kirby: Planet Robobot Ask-a-thon! Mr Kumazaki, please take it away!

クマザキ

09/07/2016 1:52 PM

Thank you, it's nice to be back again. I think today will be the last of our Q&A sessions. And we'll be discussing some topics for the die-hard fans this time!

イシダ

09/07/2016 1:53 PM

OK, here's question number one: Some copy abilities from the previous game aren't present in the new one. How did you decide which abilities would make it into the game?

クマザキ

09/07/2016 1:55 PM

In the past 5 or 6 years, we've gained over 10 new abilities so we're always struggling to balance out the old and new ones. We were also restricted by development time and hardware limitations. But even from the perspective of game balance, once you go over 25 copy abilities, you start to see an effect on the frequency of each ability per stage and on the balancing for the new Robobot elements. Even with the limited number of abilities that made the cut, the command inputs make up for it with a wide variety of actions so it isn't such a problem.

イシダ

09/07/2016 1:57 PM

You'd think having more copy abilities would be more fun, but it actually seems like a lot of hard work. Now then, I wonder if you could tell us about these track names that people have been wondering so much about!

クマザキ

09/07/2016 2:05 PM

Alright, let me address them in order of their numbers in the Jukebox. [Literal translations of the Japanese titles follow:] 

006　Venturing into the Mechanized World  021　Bountiful Star 029　VS. The Wicked Company 033　Dried-up Sea 

 Most of the questions are concerned with the first half. 029 is a personal favorite of mine! Next, here are the tracks that really heat things up as you approach the climax of the story. [Again, these are literal translations of the Japanese titles.]

083　L86 086　Crazy Rolling in Money 091　VS. Star Dream 092　 Fatal Error 093　Intermezzo Without a Leader 094　First Cry of a Newborn Star 095　Vagrant Counting Song of Retrospection 

I put a lot of effort into these particular final boss themes. Here's a small piece of trivia for you: for track 094, I wanted a voice that sounded like a baby's cry, but somewhat different and inhuman. What you're actually hearing are the meows of my pet cat. The sound of the weathervane during battle in track 095 comes from chickens that a member of the sound team keeps at home.

イシダ

09/07/2016 2:07 PM

That came from chickens?! That's quite a source of inspiration. Alright, the next question is related to previous titles: Kabula and Landia both feature in Planet Robobot, but Heavy Lobster doesn't show up, even though it's a machine. Why is that?

クマザキ

09/07/2016 2:08 PM

We got a lot of questions about Heavy Lobster. It's nice to add some flavor from Kirby Super Star (Kirby's Fun Pak in Europe) but we always have to think about which enemies from the previous games we want to include while considering the game balance. In this case, we settled on using Kabula because it fits the shooting sequences well and because it's a mechanical boss. As for Landia, a 4-player co-op medieval-style RPG minigame wouldn't be the same without a dragon now, would it?

イシダ

09/07/2016 2:10 PM

While we're on the topic of character appearance, King Dedede hardly featured at all this time. The Dedede Clones did make an appearance, though. Why did you decide upon using clones and not a modified version of the character like Mecha Knight?

クマザキ

09/07/2016 2:11 PM

We wanted a lot of characters to feature, and I think that main characters like King Dedede and Meta Knight are finally starting to gain some recognition. We felt that for players who've played several games in the series, reusing King Dedede in the same way was becoming a little bland, so we worked in the clone angle to work alongside new characters like Susie and Taranza and fit in with the direction the series is going.

イシダ

09/07/2016 2:14 PM

Now for a question about the main character Meta Knight - specifically, about the color of his eyes. In the moment that Mecha Knight+'s mask cracks, the player gets a glimpse of Meta Knight's eyes, which appear to be yellow. Were they always this way? I was sure they were white before...

クマザキ

09/07/2016 2:16 PM

That's quite a thing to spot. In Kirby's Adventure on the Famicom (NES), Meta Knight's eyes are indeed white. At that time, there was a limit to the number of colors you could use, so I think that white was chosen because it stood out more.  They were also white in Kirby Super Star (EU: Kirby's Fun Pak), but when we created the 3D model for this game, giving him white eyes somehow didn't feel right. And besides, his eyes have always shone with a yellow glow from behind his mask. We were worried about how old-school fans might react to this, but for the purposes of the design, we settled on yellow eyes.

イシダ

09/07/2016 2:18 PM

I'd like to group the next three questions together. No. 1: Did you increase the overall difficulty level for this game? No. 2: There seem to be a lot more cinematic effects this time. Was this deliberate? No. 3: The opening movie sequence was a lot shorter this time round. Why is that?

クマザキ

09/07/2016 2:20 PM

All right, I'll explain. Regarding the difficulty, I think that you should still be able to complete the main game with relative ease (easy enough for a developer's 4-year-old daughter to defeat the bosses in levels 1-3). But for the modes that are unlocked after completing Story Mode, we cranked the difficulty right up and challenged players to try and give it their best shot. Next, we used movie-like camera angles to reinforce the sci-fi theme. And during boss fights, we utilized pauses and moments of foreboding to give players with less experience in the action genre more time to orient themselves. And as for the opening movie, the reason why it's so short is because last time we depicted key items and daily life in great detail. We decided to forego that this time because players are already familiar with those kinds of stage-setting scenes from the rest of the series. We instead chose to leap straight into the moment of the disaster.

イシダ

09/07/2016 2:22 PM

And now for the final question, which concerns Kirby's partners, the Robobots. A Robobot weeps tears at the end - can we take this to mean that it has become sentient? And will Kirby ever meet one again?

クマザキ

09/07/2016 2:23 PM

What you saw was coolant leaking from the Robobot's eyes. This scene, depicting a tender-hearted Robobot, stands in direct contrast to Star Dream, who wanted to erase the hearts of the people trying to control it. Each Robobot that Kirby controlled was different from the last, but whenever Kirby was registered as a pilot in one, the memory data would be linked and carried over, and that continued till the very end. As for whether they'll meet again, I'll leave that up to how passionate the fans are for such a reunion.

イシダ

09/07/2016 2:25 PM

What exactly happened to the Robobot after that? I'm curious to know myself. But now, after three rounds of questions, our Kirby: Planet Robobot Ask-a-thon draws to a close. Many thanks to everyone who stuck with us this far!

クマザキ

09/07/2016 2:26 PM

A big thank you from me as well, and I do hope we'll meet again some time!

[aion-rsa]

The Umbrella Academy Review (Spoiler Free)

http://bit.ly/2UGi03k

Netflix's The Umbrella Academy is an admirable attempt to bring the comic to the small screen that ultimately misses the mark.

Books

This Umbrella Academy review does not contain spoilers.

Gerard Way and Gabriel Ba's The Umbrella Academy, which opens with the spontaneous birth of 43 superpowered babies right at the moment a wrestler elbow drops a giant space squid in the ring, might be unadaptable. Despite its best efforts to capture the delightful weirdness of the comic as well as expand on some of the storylines only hinted at in the book, the new Netflix series is ultimately too grounded and sluggish to really keep us invested. The series never quite finds its rhythm until the very end and is surprisingly dull throughout, especially in the first few exposition-heavy episodes. 

The Umbrella Academy is the story of the Hargreeves orphans, a super-powered group of kids mysteriously born at the exact same time in different parts of the world, who are trained by their cold and manipulative adoptive father, Sir Reginald Hargreeves, to save the world. Originally a famous superhero team of seven -- Luther, Diego, Allison, Klaus, Number Five, Ben, and Vanya -- the family slowly begins to decay as the years go by. One sibling dies during a mission while Number Five capriciously travels far into the future against his father's wishes, never to be seen again. Most of the others eventually pack up and leave the Academy when they're old enough.

When the series begins, it's been 12 years since the team was together. But when Sir Reginald suddenly dies -- seemingly of natural causes, although Luther (Tom Hopper), the loyal leader of the team, is not so sure -- his adult children are forced into a nightmarish family reunion and back into old habits. As you would expect, things do not go well. 

It should be said up front that viewers expecting an action-packed superhero romp or something akin to Netflix's Marvel lineup will be sorely disappointed. The Umbrella Academy is not that kind of show, trading in the action sequences (of which there are very few) for slightly long-winded family drama. Of course, this won't surprise fans of the Eisner-winning series, itself a deconstruction of iconic superhero teams such as the Fantastic Four, the X-Men, and most importantly, DC's Doom Patrol, one of the comic's major influences. While the Netflix series does an admirable job of trying to captivate its audience with this particularly dysfunctional family of super-weirdos, it does so at the expense of its pacing. The Umbrella Academy is incredibly slow. 

The show's biggest problem is that it tries to stretch the book's six-issue first volume, "Apocalypse Suite," into 10 50-minute episodes, with bits and pieces of the second arc, "Dallas," thrown in. It's clear two or three episodes in that the show doesn't have enough material to keep things moving to the end, so showrunner Steve Blackman (Altered Carbon) and writer Jeremy Slater (Fantastic Four) crafted new storylines and expanded others while also remixing a few of the comic's character arcs. Unfortunately, these "bonus" scenes and new subplots rarely work. At times, they're actually detrimental to the characters. 

Further Reading: Gerard Way on Umbrella Academy: Hotel Oblivion

This is largely the case for protagonist Vanya Hargreeves (Ellen Page), who is inexplicably thrust into an unnecessary romantic subplot. In the comics, Vanya is an outcast, neglected by the emotionally abusive Sir Reginald and sidelined by her narcissistic siblings. When her father dies, she's lonely and without a support system, harboring a quiet animosity towards her brothers and sisters, who are too busy dealing with their own drama to notice her. They've never let her in, even with her father removed from the equation. So when Vanya makes the choice to leave the family behind and go her own way, it's not really all that surprising.

The show, on the other hand, puts Vanya in an awkward relationship in order to flesh out another major player from the comics. The problem might be that the show never fully commits to the relationship, spoiling a big twist before we're ever really even invested in Vanya's love life. In the end, Vanya's story feels diluted by the additional subplot.

It's all in service of getting this show, which could have easily been two or three episodes shorter, to the finish line. Other annoying additions include a murder mystery surrounding Diego (David Castaneda), the family's robotic caretaker Mom (Jordan Claire Robbins), and their super-intelligent chimpanzee friend Pogo (Adam Godley); and an extended look at time-traveling assassins Cha-Cha (Mary J. Blige) and Hazel (Cameron Britton), who also falls victim to a strange romantic storyline. In the case of the murder mystery, the family members search for Sir Reginald's missing monocle -- which might provide evidence of foul play in connection to his death -- but it never really goes anywhere. To make matters worse, the show basically gives up on the yarn in the third act, giving the audience the answer with a few lines of exposition.

Meanwhile, troubled, drug-addicted Klaus (Robert Sheehan) gets much more screentime than comic fans might expect, and Sheehan is excellent in the role as if it were written for him. But too often, perhaps inspired by Sheehan's outrageous performance as Nathan Young in Misfits, the character is played for laughs. The result is a joke that begins to feel repetitive. Klaus is nowhere near this dim-witted in the comics. One thing that does work in Klaus' favor is his ability to communicate with the dead, which adds a horror element to the show. When Klaus learns to finally use this power to his advantage in the climactic battle, I absolutely cheered.

Further Reading: The Umbrella Academy Cast on Creating a New Kind of Superhero Show

While all that's going on, knife-wielding Diego, the rogue of the family, also gets a love interest, and it's by far the least interesting love story of all. Why Blackman and Slater felt that the only way to explore many of these characters was through romance is beyond me. In Way and Ba's comic, introspection doesn't come from the romantic, but through the familial ties that bind. For example, in the comic, Diego has to figure out a way to work with Luther, an altruistic hero who is sort of incompetent at being the team's leader, and while at first Diego despises his brother, they end up growing together. In the third arc of the comic, it's Diego, a loner by nature, who has to convince a depressed Luther to get the team back together. 

It's clear that everyone involved with this adaptation has real love for the comic, from the way it accurately recreates the young Umbrella Academy's costumes to the camera angles that recall the work of film auteur Wes Anderson, who is a clear influence on both the book and the show (you could almost imagine this as Anderson's very own take on the superhero genre, with all of the beautiful shots and retro zaniness). Blackman and his crew really took the time to make the show look and sound great -- one particular shot of helicopters flying over Vietnam comes to mind -- but it also feels like they don't fully understand what makes Way and Ba's fast-paced, minimalist, vignette-heavy family drama so effective. 

Despite my complaints about Vanya's extended storyline, I'm happy to say that Page's performance as the timid and anxious main character of this family tragedy is top notch. She makes the best of every scene she's in, even when her romantic counterpart isn't quite up to the task. Page is subtle in scenes with her over-the-top siblings, layering in claustrophobic loneliness over her deep-seated anger at being the sister everyone always ignores. I loved watching Vanya absolutely lose her shit later in the season, and Page has already given us so much by that point that it's impossible not to sympathize with her character, even as she takes a dark turn that she may not be able to return from.

Number Five, played by Aidan Gallagher, who's spent most of his career on Nickelodeon kids shows, is also a highlight. Gallagher is well-cast and is able to convey the wisdom beyond his years necessary for the role of a 60-year-old hitman trapped inside the body of a 10-year-old (although he's slightly older than that on the show). He rarely cracks a smile as the self-serious Number Five, or partake in his family's childish shenanigans, but when he does let loose, it's entertaining and very funny.

Further Reading: Everything You Need to Know About Avengers: Endgame

This trigger-happy hero-turned-assassin is also one of the few characters who benefit from an expanded storyline. The show dives much deeper into Number Five's backstory, giving us colorful pieces of his backstory the comic never has. Along the way, we learn much more about the secret organization Number Five worked for before rejoining his family in the present day. His interactions with this faction of time-jumping assassins are among the best in the entire series. Here, the show doesn't rely on romance to flesh out a character and it's really refreshing. 

Surprisingly, Luther and Allison (Emmy Raver-Lampman) get the least to do. While at the forefront of the comic, Luther takes a backseat to the characters the people behind the show are really enamored with, like Vanya, Klaus, Number Five, and Diego. On the show, Luther is a bit more bumbling and I had a hard time believing that any of these characters would actually follow him into battle, but there are some high points for him, too. His story is one of self-discovery, as he steps out from under his father's shadow for the first time (this is a man who's never had a drink or done a drug or rebelled against his dad), and it's in Luther's search for clarity as an independent adult for basically the first time that this character shines.

Allison is in the middle of losing a family, even as she regains another. "Hotel Oblivion," the current comic's third arc, begins to explore why Allison, who can alter reality at will by telling lies, has become alienated from her husband and daughter. The show expands on that, showing what created the rift, and it perfectly fits the character. 

As the credits roll on an enjoyable final episode, it's hard to call Netflix's The Umbrella Academy a success, but like its troubled family of freaks, it's not a lost cause. There are parts of the series I really liked -- the latter half of Klaus' arc when he's given a bit more depth, a hilarious showdown involving an ice cream truck, and a character's complete infatuation with the torso of a mannequin -- that hint at a freshness that could set it apart from other superhero TV and movies. The Umbrella Academy is at its strongest when it commits to the weirder elements of its story and world, such as the aforementioned talking chimpanzee, and does itself a disservice by trying to ground its characters in needless romance and the menial. Like Vanya herself, there's potential here, the show just needs to go off the deep end first.

John Saavedra is an associate editor at Den of Geek. Read more of his work here. Follow him on Twitter @johnsjr9. 

2.5/5

Netflix

The Umbrella Academy

Gerard Way

Review John Saavedra

Feb 4, 2019

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