Vanessa Clark

For the most part I was intrigued and enjoyed Umbrella Academy. The cast is stellar, it looks/feels like a movie instead of a TV series, the soundtrack is great, and the premise of it all is fantastic. I think its biggest flaw and downfall though is that it drags. Each episode is an hour but feels like HOURS. It's painfully slow. Way too many scenes of the characters sitting in a dark room and talking to each other. When more finally actually happens, it felt predictable, anti-climactic, and underwhelming, and of course it took FOREVER for it to happen in the first place, for reasons I just didn't get considering how obvious everything was, as to why the pacing only got slower and slower and more difficult as the show went on. While I liked that it was more like a drama than a typical superhero movie full of non-stop action, at times it was a little too angst-y, and so dark and gloomy to the point where it was semi-pretentious which totally killed all areas where it was trying to be funny and entertaining. Also way too many plot-holes and way too many subplots that added absolutely nothing to the story. I also didn't understand why they downplayed the striking origin story and glossed over some of its most interesting, vulnerable, and intriguing characters as if none of it was a big deal in favor of two assassins that felt like they were in an entirely different show all together, a creepy romance between the siblings, and a random apocalypse, and all with no agency or urgency (because again, for so much going on, why the super slow pacing?!). It felt like they forgot that a story has to have a beginning, middle, and end. It was all beginning, and more beginning, and *wait for it* MORE beginning - for the whole 10 hours, even to the end, it was all beginning. None of the characters actually evolved, and none of the conflicts, plots, and subplots got resolved. It was just a constant ramble with no end in sight, making it all borderline pointless. Just way too many, oh so many lost opportunities. This doesn't make the show bad or anything, per se, just uneven and convoluted, which is a shame, because it's definitely worth watching! I just wished it lived up to its potential. It had so much great stuff going on and yet mostly it felt overly busy, frustrating, and all in all, just exhausting.

It's been quite some time since a Netflix show gave me the butterflies. I LOVED it. But this show isn't perfect. Sex Education has SO MUCH going on, with so many characters and sub-plots that are as easy to follow as at times it is all pretty convoluted and unfocused. It's ahead of its time in some ways, like the relationship dynamics between mother/son, father/gay son, two moms/straight son, etc. were a lovely surprise and so well-done, and yet at the same time, the show relies too heavily on tropes and overall, it's all pretty predictable as well, which does such a disservice to it as a whole when it already has so much going for it. I wanted more from it. Atm it's all pretty surface level. I hope that season 2 will delve DEEPER. It's a fairly complex show that for some reason keeps falling back on the same tired stereotypes, tropes, etc. that we all know and love, when it can really be so much more. But as it is, I really did love this show. So much potential here, and then-some!

This is pretty much one of my favorite shows on Netflix. It's pretty much perfect. I would love it even more though if they didn't have Olivia because 1) the actress is pretty bland/lacks personality/is just not a good actress and 2) I get that she's a love interest and creates a rift and brings on the drama (that's basically the only reason why she exists in this show really, she serves no other purpose), but with such strong leads that overshadow her, it was a shame and got old real fast that Olivia took up SO MUCH screen time for being a character that just isn't THAT important or even that interesting. She was way too overutilized while I think the star of the show, Jasmine, was way underutilized. I hope with S2 they will give us less Olivia and more Jasmine! Amazing show, it's a breath of fresh air.