Chris Ayoub

An adult take on the superhero genre. There's enough violence to have me squinting through my fingers at times and the dialogue is not the monosyllabic PG 13 fare. The plot twists and turns are sometimes jerky, but when it works it's brilliant. It should be noted that in any fantasy / sci-fi / superhero franchises, the actors have to do a lot of heavy lifting to get us to suspend reality and come along for the ride. The actors playing the Umbrella Academy team are all good, but it should be noted the actors playing Five and Klaus are fantastic.

A batch of attractive young people. Rich people. Ice skating. Racism. Class-ism. A love triangle. It all makes for a pretty average soap opera. And then the show unveils that two of these attractive people are suffering from mental health issues, and that's when the show elevates itself from the average soap to something special.

I'm half way into the first episode, and I can't help but feel that this is a crossover of Batman and Starwars. The Mandalorian character is seriously giving me Batman in Space vibes. Edit: After watching the entire episode, I still feel that the Mandalorian character could be Batman in Space. The Star Wars world is well represented. Any Star Wars fan is going to squeal over many of the background details and costuming. Is it great storytelling? I'm not too sure yet. Lucasfilm gave us a brief series of flashbacks and one line of dialogue to establish that the main character suffered as a child and was apparently orphaned. Overall, if we stripped them of their space tech and put them on horseback, this could have been the beginning of a Spaghetti Western. Summary: I'm giving a thumbs up for the setting, costuming, and Star Wars theme. I'm hopeful that future episodes give us a solid (and memorable) Star Wars story.