Dark Horse Comics is the big exception of the graphic novel world. Instead of creating their books with exploitation in mind from the gitgo like Marvel and DC, each series is an auteur experience. I'm not crazy about their "Umbrella Academy"; I admire its style, but both art and narrative are too frenzied and self conscious for me. And now a live-action version of a comic I would have thought too artificial and zany even for Adult Swim animation turns out to be engaging, exciting, film drama.

It's still beyond zany in conception and narrative: a band of youthful superbeings trained by a sadistic scientist with a chimpanzee Igor to prevent (I can barely keep my eyes open here) a world-engulfing apocalypse devised by time-traveling bureaucrat hit-men. Stop! Wait! Despite this mulch of clichés, a remarkable cast and gorgeous production values bring the thing to life. A lot of reviews of this first 10-episode season say the pace is slack; but the same critics end up giving the show 9 and 10 stars. The leisured pace is what allow the ensemble to meld and charm us.

There will be no spoilers here: only an appeal to watch the first episode and discover that Ellen Page is one of the finest actresses alive, even playing an emotionally repressed mouse of a violin player. Her special effects come from inside her. When the blue-screen gang go to work on her, you want to scream "stop already! She's flying without your help!"