There are good shows that get bad and bad shows that get better, and then there’s The Umbrella Academy. The Netflix series about a family of dysfunctional superheroes has varied wildly in quality throughout its four-season run, delivering phenomenal storylines, so-so story arcs punctuated by memorably great moments, and — in the case of the almost wholly unforgivable third season – total stinkers. Its uniquely inconsistent history means that the show enters its final stretch of episodes equally as likely to impress as disappoint. Luckily, it does a lot more of the latter.
The Umbrella Academy also enters its fourth season without much of a rulebook. Originally based on the award-winning comic series by Gerard Way and Gabriel Bá (both of whom co-executive produce the show), the series largely stopped pulling from its source material after its second and best season, and with its final batch of episodes, it officially outnumbers Way’s three volumes. Without a well to pull from, the series’ writers go back to what the fictional Hargreeve family by now knows best: the end of the world.
After averting a third apocalypse last season, the Hargreeves found themselves back in a version of the world in which they had no superpowers but did have two living (albeit probably evil) parents. The revived Mrs. Hargreeves (Liisa Repo-Martell) plays a surprisingly small role in the final season’s drama, but the group’s powerlessness turns out to be central to the final six episodes, which briefly establish a new normal for siblings Viktor (Elliot Page), Luther (Tom Hopper), Klaus (Robert Sheehan), Allison (Emmy Raver-Lampman), Five (Aidan Gallagher), Ben (Justin H. Min), and Diego (David Castañeda) before pulling the rug out from under them yet again. This time around, the destabilizing forces have to do with a stranger named Jennifer, a shadowy part of their childhood, and a mysterious group called The Keepers, which is one part Qanon, one part those Mandela Effect enthusiasts from How To With John Wilson.
The Keepers are headed up by genial Midwestern weirdos Gene (Nick Offerman) and Jean (Megan Mullally). Umbrella Academy hasn’t always made the best use of its guest stars, but real-life married couple Mullally and Offerman bring their A-game to these eccentric roles, playing “Jean with a J” and “Gene with a G” with a level of small-town quirkiness and vague menace usually reserved for the latest Fargo villain. They’re not the only actors putting in good work this season: Gallagher, the youngest castmate with one of the trickiest roles (Five is an old man trapped in a teen body, after all), carries some of the season’s more emotional moments beautifully, while writers smartly give Ritu Arya, who plays Diego’s superpowered yet underappreciated wife Lila, much more to do this season.
While not every writing choice in season 4 will likely hit with audiences — if this show were a boat, the plot holes would have sunk it by now — The Umbrella Academy also works hard to right some past wrongs. Allison’s painfully out-of-character season 3 plot was hard to watch when it aired, but it became even more distressing when Rolling Stone recently reported on alleged workplace misconduct in the show’s writers’ room, including an incident related to her character. Thankfully, the final episodes give Allison the redemption she deserves, specifically in two satisfying final episodes that focus on righting wrongs on every level.
Before it gets great, though, the show’s fourth season starts off obnoxiously stupid. With only six episodes to wrap up years’ worth of storytelling, you’d think the series would make every moment of its abbreviated screen time count, but it wastes large chunks of its first few episodes with lots of unpleasant infighting, character choices that clearly exist only to drive the plot forward, and ostensibly comedic bits that are just plain dumb. Around the time that the superhero team starts chain-reaction vomiting in a cramped van that keeps playing the same childrens’ song on repeat, you might be tempted to tap out of the show altogether. Fortunately, though, himbo Luther and an increasingly chauvinistic Klaus seem to be ground zero for the show’s more boring, mind-numbing writing choices, and things swiftly get better once they’re finally cordoned off on their own side quest.
The Umbrella Academy has always been inconsistent, and its final season is no exception. Yet it includes more indelible, well-crafted moments than fans could expect or ask for from a series that’s made a habit of obliterating fans’ goodwill. This six-episode swan song features plenty of the series’ trademark moves, from stylish needle drops to powerful passage of time montages to cinematic action sequences, yet it manages to keep each spotlighted signature from feeling obligatory. In fact, season 4 includes some of the show’s most striking visuals to date, from Cronenberg-like body horror to impressionistic shots of an isolating new set.
The show also ends with an elegant, emotional gut punch that’s as bold and strange as anything it’s ever done. “I'd encourage your smiles, I'll expect you won't cry,” Way sings in My Chemical Romance’s “The End,” the song chosen to underscore the season’s final trailer. But that might not be the right song choice for the occasion: when The Umbrella Academy takes its last bow, sticking its big-hearted, appropriately bizarre landing despite every shaky spot that came before, you’d have to have the heart of Reginald Hargreeves not to cry.
