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DiscussionAnyone else just shocked at season 4 of Umbrella Academy
Posted August 12, 2024 by ToNorth in Television

On the previous post about this I commented that I would just watch clips and summaries but WOW, wow, WOOOOOW. Wtf was that lmfao???

Holy hell I gave up on this show in season 3 and the writing for that was already shit to me. But what in the world was this.... Are showrunners just incapable of finishing a show in a decent way anymore?? Why does it always end in a fantastically cartoonishly bad manner nowadays.

I found a lot happened behind the scenes that led to this, mainly the Netflix problem. They barely wanted to greenlight season 4 and cut down the 10 episodes to 6 as well as the budget but damn. I think a lot of people walked into this show hoping for fantastical messed up family dynamics and shenanigans. And it just kept refusing to give us that. Like any time the siblings got close they were torn apart again, for nothing.

Some of the plot points whew boy, so basically as soon as Fives actor hit legal age, they put him together with Lila's actor(and they had VIBES from season 3, when he was still a minor, intentionally apparently). Like I get narrative but this was straight weird on the showrunners part.

And then them all turning into marigolds....literal marigolds, like the flower. That's the ending.For what. So at the end the conclusion to family trauma and trauma in general is kill yourselves? World is better off without you?? Lol. Thank god I haven't been emotionally invested in this show for yrs. Like woop the people are def upset about this one, as they should be, but most of us saw the writing on the wall at the end of season 2.

This was some crazy shit ngl, I can't believe they really put this out there.

20 comments

GenevieveAugust 12, 2024

I don't know what you're talking about. Umbrella Academy only has 2 seasons. ONLY TWO.

ToNorth [OP]August 13, 2024(Edited August 13, 2024)

There is no Umbrella Academy season 3 and 4 in Ba Sing Se.

GenevieveAugust 13, 2024

Yip yip!

immersangAugust 17, 2024

💯 That's also my reality I've chosen to live in.

proudcatladyAugust 12, 2024

I stopped watching once I heard they were transing Vanya. I knew it would be shit. There were already so few female characters and they freaking erased the one WLW one. No thank you

pennygadgetAugust 12, 2024

Okay. But you didn't answer the most important question. Does Vanya/Victor's marigold have a gender-affirming flower dick? Because Vanya/Victor's dysphoria might be triggered by turning into something girly like a flower. 🤣

pennygadgetAugust 12, 2024

Wow. They just killed the whole cast? And not even in a clever or thought-provoking way? They're just literally pushing up daisies?

Perhaps its the writers making an analogy about how Ellen Page's personal problems killed the show? That would be hilarious if it was the real reason. 🤣

ToNorth [OP]August 12, 2024

And apparently the entire world was happier without them, them having powers and existing at all was what was causing the apocalypse...not you know the evil organization ensuring it happens across everytime like as established by previous seasons. Not their abusive evil dad who set this all up to resurrect his wife...just them living and breathing. I'm genuinely astonished that this is what they came up with, especially since they decided to adapt the Jennifer problem(which reveals exactly how Ben died) in a rushed pointless way.

GenevieveAugust 12, 2024

OK, seriously though, what a shitshow. It was pretty bad. I couldn't even focus on it. I was on my phone or laptop the entire time. I watched it out of way felt like obligation since I was so invested after seasons 1 and 2. Then Vanya became Viktor and no one batted an eye.

Allison became a villain in S3, but that was just brushed off. Klaus overcame his addiction once he learned to control the ghosts, but upon becoming mortal he became anxiety ridden (actually completely understandably- his father also traumatized him with so many deaths and torture), but once he got his powers back he relapsed and was comic relief. Diego and Lila being dysfunctional made sense, but her parents being in that universe didn't. Luther was so dumbed-down it was ridiculous! He was the group leader for sobbing out loud! And Sloan just... vanished and was never spoken of again. They brought back all the OG Umbrellas but didn't resurrect their Ben?? They kept the Sparrow instead??? Five was my favorite character and they ruined him. The smartest of the bunch didn't know he was working for the enemy? He betrayed his brother over a woman?? Jennifer added very little. Why did we get an after credit in S3 with Ben on a train, back in time??? OMG. The show left us with more questions than answers, but I could've gotten past all of that if they had given us a sibling dance scene. Unforgivable! The most ridiculous thing, in a show where I'm already suspending relief, is Viktor being a ladies man. And he's apparently the manliest man in town, "running through" the ladies...

Sorry. TL;DR They just ruined everything they built up and assassinated every character.

immersangAugust 17, 2024

Five was my favorite character and they ruined him.

That makes me even more glad that I decided not to keep watching once they decided to trans Vanya. Because Five was my favorite as well.

ToNorth [OP]August 13, 2024(Edited August 13, 2024)

Omg right??! Like they didn't really address anything. Genuinely things were going to shit when the Viktor thing happened but nobody wanted to acknowledge it, and now they're shocked it turned into what it did.

I have to say, what happened with Allison in season 3 always felt like they did it to make her unlikable. So that Page would come across more sympathetic, despite her continuously causing the apocalypse being the core problem up to that point. They just made her strange, especially with the character arc she had at the end of season 2. So them walking that back and ignoring it makes sense, they just keep doing shit forgetting their own previous writing.

The Lila bracelet thing lol?? She doesn't like bracelets? They made that a literal point in her's and Diego's romance. But apparently they wanted her to get with Five in season 2, Aiden was underage so they obviously couldn't do it. That's why it came out of nowhere, they've had this in their mind since her character intro and decided to hell with it, let's do it.

Why did Lila and Diego even have kids for one, out of fucking nowhere. Why is he a mailman? None of that crap made sense for these people. Diego and Lila worked when they were Diego and Lila, not some dysfunctional suburban marriage crap. Of course Lila was unhappy, this isn't her. If she had kids at all, it certainly wouldn't be that. "I take out the trash" jfc wtf are they making this man say and why would Lila of all people put up with it.

I'm so annoyed by Jennifer, especially since we get the reveal that Ben was MURDERED by their abusive father. This show can't have a moment if genuine seriousness between these siblings ever, there is laughing off and making light of your trauma to cope and then there's this shit. Just unreal.

Genuinely the Luther flanderization started in season 2, because they made him such an ass in season 1. They had to turn him into a lovable goofball instead of you know, just making a good character working on himself. And they just kept pushing, like oh we haven't reached peak stupid yet.

And wtf!! Did they seriously have Klaus being pimped out this season?? That is what happened right. What in the toxic fanfic ass shit was that.

DimetrodonAugust 12, 2024

Yeah, the reveal that they have to sacrifice themselves because, apparently, their very existence causes the apocalypse, kind of makes the show feel meaningless.

I thought the whole point was that the Hargreeves are dysfunctional because of their childhood, and their dysfunction is what leads to the apocalypse. Reginald mistreats Vanya, Vanya grows up to be emotionally troubled, Vanya loses control of her powers and ends the world. But at the very last moment they make all that irrelevant.

The Five and Lila age gap is weird, and that plotline is just a useless distraction from the main conflict. And then they seriously have Five and Diego fighting each other, in front of the massive monster about to destroy the world? It feels silly.

FeminismIs4WomenAugust 12, 2024

Yes!

It would have been a better ending if killing Hargreeves had prevented the end of the world. Destroying the man who traumatized them and doomed earth out of his own selfishness would have been poetic justice.

dust_cloud86August 14, 2024(Edited August 14, 2024)

Or if they went back to Vanya's concert, and instead of attacking her, they just listen and support her in a way of showing they finally understand where they went wrong and are promising to be better siblings.

Personally, I feel like that scene was Vanya rightfully fighting back after decades of abuse to avoid them locking her away forever, and I hate how afterwords they just force the siblings together again like nothing happened and make her feel bad about it.

ToNorth [OP]August 13, 2024

But why did he get to be happy and the kids he destroyed died. Like what even was that, made me sick ngl. I always felt the way this show was trash for how they brushed over how evil Hargreaves was. The messaging was disturbing.

DurableBookAugust 12, 2024

Yeah, the reveal that they have to sacrifice themselves because, apparently, their very existence causes the apocalypse, kind of makes the show feel meaningless.

I thought the whole point was that the Hargreeves are dysfunctional because of their childhood, and their dysfunction is what leads to the apocalypse. Reginald mistreats Vanya, Vanya grows up to be emotionally troubled, Vanya loses control of her powers and ends the world. But at the very last moment they make all that irrelevant.

God I'm glad I stopped watching after S2, because yeah, you are correct about what the point was supposed to be. At least based on what I read of the comics.

Funnily enough, I'm pretty sure s3 of the show is when it starts moving ahead of the comics; last I heard, volume 4 of the comics was supposedly going to be the plot line of s3 of the show, but vol 4 still hasn't been released.

ToNorth [OP]August 12, 2024

Anything of actual substance was done away with. The show became very much looks over story, the siblings never got to really have moments that didn't immediately end as a joke or become worthless. It's what I'll never understand about this show, family dysfunction is a great way to tell a story but they always seemed afraid of actually having some heart past season 1.

Omg the Diego fighting Five when the literal world was ending. No emotions on Ben dying yet again, no fear for each other, just slap stick bullshit. If the show doesn't care for its characters why should we.

DimetrodonAugust 13, 2024(Edited August 13, 2024)

Yeah, the show doesn't seem to have many scenes with emotional weight anymore. The show has always been quirky, but in S1 and S2 there were moments that were allowed to just be serious.

Diego's heartbreak over Lila cheating on him was treated like a joke (with the siblings reacting to it like a soap opera). Luther was made into a stripper and that was treated like a joke. Klaus was forced into prostitution, which was already a questionable writing choice, but then that was treated like a joke too.

Also, the way they dumbed down Diego and especially Luther, was quite disappointing. Luther could have had depth but they made him into a big golden retriever.

ToNorth [OP]August 13, 2024(Edited August 13, 2024)

Seriously, the show actively acts like you shouldn't give AF about a single thing that happens. That nothing they tell you matters. So what do they expect at the end of it? This show was riding on a lot of fandom goodwill and general fanon discourse and fanfics. But after the ending even that is a poisoned well(was poisoned by Viktor/Vanya shit to me).

PeppermintAugust 12, 2024

That sounds crazy. I've never seen it but from your description sounds like I should make a hard pass. Thanks for letting us know.