I heard a rumor that the superhero/comic book genre is absurdly over saturated in media these days. The success of the Marvel films and shows like The Walking Dead have all but guaranteed that the next decade won't leave any comic series without a film or television/streaming treatment, no matter how obscure or niche. Fortunately for me although I'm not a fan of comic books I am a fan of scifi/fantasy, particularly if it has a decent central theme it's exploring and not just a 'look how cool it is to have superpowers' kind of thing.

The Umbrella Academy qualifies as having a point of view, I think. It explores the love/hate nature of family as well as touching on concepts visited by Watchmen having to do with the real world cost of actually having powers above those of the average person, although I consider it more like Watchmen lite since it shields its main characters from much of the societal blow back to focus instead on how the powers complicate interpersonal relationships. It also explores the idea of coming to grips with how the realities of our adult lives clash with our childhood ideas of who we are and what we would become, and the importance of not rejecting growth in the pursuit of those early fantasies.

Forward momentum of events in the show is driven by a vaguely defined villainous organization and their shadowy goals, although things work better if you don't examine them too closely because it involves time travel, which introduces a vast number of plot holes that would quickly unravel the storylines. As is typical for time travel plots, you just kind of have to accept that it works the way they say it does and don't ask too many questions of the 'why didn't they just do X' variety. Also, like many movies and shows before it, Umbrella Academy uses time travel to deliver big emotional moments without the long term cost by simply undoing them later with a new time jump.

The show has a fairly large cast, which means not every character gets fleshed out very well, but the actors are all pretty charismatic and enjoyable to watch which compensates well enough. The show relies heavily on character archetypes, like the former golden child whose life has stagnated or the shy girl who feels like an outsider compared to her glamorous siblings, to connect with the audience in the absence of deeper development. The catch is that you can often guess with decent accuracy what will happen to those characters later because the archetypes have common arcs the show doesn't struggle to break out of, but of course that doesn't mean they can't be fun to watch anyway.

The bottom line is that while Umbrella Academy doesn't break much new ground, what it does do it does well. Each episode moves at a good pace and characters are fun enough that you root for them. The lack of permanent consequences is definitely not new to comic book stories and may become an issue down the road, but it doesn't detract from the first season. Worth a watch, even if it's not a must see.