The Umbrella Academy Season 3 Review: Twice the Siblings and Half the Drama

The Umbrella Academy comes back after a two-year hiatus with an interesting but predictable premise. 

The Umbrella Academy Season 3 picks up exactly where Season 2 left off with the six Hargreeves siblings coming back to 2019 and finding that their home is not as they left it. 

Plot Over Siblings

The introduction of The Sparrow Academy is a curious premise considering that there were more children who were born on October 1, 2019, and it would be interesting to see where they ended up.

However, previous seasons of The Umbrella Academy struck a balance between the plot and the sibling relationships. The Umbrella Academy Season 3 doubles the numbers of “siblings” in this equation, and as a result, it has a difficult time finding its footing. 

While the season does touch on some sibling dynamics, it largely forgoes the emotional gravity of The Umbrella Academy Season 2 in favor of the plot with The Sparrows and the kugelblitz. 

Looking at it objectively, The Umbrella Academy Season 3 could be the transition that leads to these siblings all having a full life outside of their apocolypse-stopping fold.

Prior to The Umbrella Academy Season 1, the only character who really had a life outside of her siblings was Allison, but as we see Luthor develop ties with Sloane, Diego and Lila start a family, and Klaus embrace his gifts and explore his roots it’s easy to entertain the possibility of new storylines coming from those new connections. 

Yet, it doesn’t change the fact that this season feels like it’s missing something. 

The Sparrows Aren’t Strong Enough

It isn’t hard to put together that Sir Reginald Hargreeves would have adopted different siblings after a disastrous meeting in Season 2. However, it doesn’t feel like The Sparrows live up to their potential beyond some fight scenes, a dance battle, and a couple of meetings with the Umbrellas.

Marcus, Jayme, and Alfonso are quickly killed within the first three episodes and the rest are picked off quickly in the second save Ben and Sloane who seem to be the only two characters who serve a function. 

As Reginald points out, The Umbrellas have saved the world twice, so there’s no reason for us to be invested in these new characters. 

Sure, they provide some interesting insight into how the families function, and how different things could have been if Reginald had acted differently with The Umbrellas, but for the most part, they feel like filler. 

Additionally, when Sloane starts talking about wanting to leave the Sparrows it’s hard not to immediately think, “this could end badly.” While her relationship with Luthor is cute, and it’s nice to see Luthor let loose, it is hard to root for them when it’s so clear that this relationship is doomed.

It’s just got a Romeo and Juliet vibe to it, and those stories never end well. 

Viktor, Harlan, and Allison

First, The Umbrella Academy Season 3 handles Viktor’s transition well. Using Sissy and her conversations with Viktor from Season 2 as the turning point feels natural for the character. The way that Viktor’s siblings embrace him when he tells them his new name is very sweet. We need to see more families that are accepting of their family members as they figure out who they are.

Viktor’s transition isn’t the only storyline his character has on this season. The reveal that while Sissy may have passed, her son is alive and well and connected to The Umbrellas provides an interesting segway into a relationship from years past. The fact that Harlan was also responsible for the paradox that has caused the death of the Umbrella’s moms is also an interesting detail.

However, much like The Sparrows, it feels like filler in the end. Viktor and Harlan have some of the emotional gravity that we’ve missed from this Season, but shortly after Viktor is able to take back Harlan’s powers, Allison kills him.

While it’s not hard to empathize with Allison losing her daughter, and then Ray, Harlan’s death is needless. Killing him does nothing to stop the paradox and just widens a rift between Allison and Viktor that seemed to be healing during The Umbrella Academy Season 2. 

In the end, Harlan feels like the sacrificial lamb that is meant to propel Allison into darkness. The grief that Allison is feeling is enormous, but she’s not alone in this and her actions throughout the season are very self-centered until the final episode. Even then, the jury is still out.

Allison’s coping mechanisms aren’t healthy either, and the way she’s using her power on herself and Luthor brings in so many questions of consent. Allison is going through a lot, and she needs the support of her family, but they aren’t giving her that. It’s lonely and tiring and while I can see why she acts the way she does, I think the writers need to give her a better plot and examine what makes her tick. 

They gave it a shot with Diego this season, but it’s clear that Allison needs someone who understands her and what she’s going through. Ironically, the person who could have done that is Viktor, but you can see how that went down the tube quickly.  

Getting to Know Sir Reginald

One of the relationships that we do get to explore more is Klaus and Reginald Hargreeves.

The Umbrellas’ adoptive father has been an elusive and cold figure ever since the first episode. While their reunion following his death wasn’t cheerful, the glimpses we got of him always showed us just enough until the Umbrellas met him in 1963.  

Seeing his reaction to them in Season 2 gave a glimpse into what he’s like, but now we get to see more of him through the lens of Klaus. If they were going to pick a child to have a relationship with Reginald, it would be Klaus. Klaus is charismatic and hungry for a connection with his past. 

Reginald training him and helping him hone his gifts when he finds out about the kugelblitz seems like a very sweet thing to do, but at the end of the day, it affirms that he can’t be trusted.

Reginald holds the answers and as an audience, knowing that, we have to watch these characters walk into certain doom based on his word and hope they make it out of there alive. 

We have to remember as an audience that Reginald has lived through numerous timelines and the destruction of many worlds. It makes sense that we should take him at his word to some degree. Yet, you would think he would have more answers than he seems to at any given point. 

In the end, The Umbrella Academy Season 3 is a mix of cute moments, a predictable plot, and some laughs. It’s an enjoyable watch, but easy to see the building blocks of the story and ultimately, feels like it falls flat. 

The final reveal that all the Umbrellas survived, plus Sparrow Ben is the happen ending we’d want for the season. The new complication: the missing powers, is also curious since the second they have another apocalypse they are going to need to get those back. 

In many ways, Season 3 feels like it could end there with everyone going off and living their lives, but it also raises more questions.

Are all the Umbrellas in the same universe now? Is Allison living her best life with Claire and Ray now? What the heck happened to Sloane? Why did Luthor have to protect Abigail Hargreeves on the moon if the universe could be rebooted with dead and lost people?

In the end, we need answers to these questions and that is what will keep viewers watching. In that regard, The Umbrella Academy Season 3 has done its job, but it certainly feels like a crowded plot with no room for the characters to breathe. 

Stray Thoughts:

• I have to wonder how any of the cast members kept a straight face while saying any line with kugelblitz in it. 
• Can we all agree that Five deserves a vacation? The rest of his siblings would be dead without him, but he also deserves to take a break on a beach somewhere after stopping three apocalypses in such a short amount of time. 
• Why, on earth, was the pug the first thing the kugelblitz took? I used to have a pug mix, and that just broke me. I get needing to ease into the kugelblitz, but that was cruel. 
• We never get an explanation as to why Jayme’s power makes Diego hallucinate a dance battle to “Footloose” in the first episode. In fact, we only see her use her power a few times before she gets killed so I honestly don’t see how that’s scary.  That alone probably explains why she was Number Six. 
• I didn’t touch on Diego and Lila much, but the whole con with Stanley was another predictable aspect of the season. The more that they shared the stage the more it was clear that they would be perfect parents to a kid like Stanley, and I am kind of excited to see what they’re gonna be like as parents.
• Speaking of which, we came to like Stanley, then he got kugelblitzed, are we supposed to just let it go and assume that he’s back with Trudy? 
• So, we just never find out why Christopher is in a box? That feels like something that they should have touched on. As I said in the first section of the review, the fact that we had no emotional attachment to The Sparrows drastically reduced the emotional gravity of so many moments.  

What did you think of this season of The Umbrella Academy? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

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The Umbrella Academy Season 3 is now streaming on Netflix.

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