(Warning: This article contains heavy spoilers for The Umbrella Academy towards the end. Another warning lies below when potential spoilers begin. Regardless, you have been forewarned!)
Welcome to Weekend Watch, a recurring feature where we highlight some of the best geek-related videos around the web. Whether it’s short films, behind-the-scenes videos, video essays, or top 10 countdowns, the only requirement is that they are about our favorite geeky topics!
This week, we’re exploring The Umbrella Academy, which based on the comic of the same name. We’re starting in spoiler-free territory, we have a video that explains the premise of the show. Following this is a series of featurettes, and a top 10 countdown. After that, a video asks an interesting question: what if The Umbrella Academy actually happened?
Moving into spoiler territory, we’ll move into a deeper look into the premise of the series. Additionally, there are a pair of videos that explore the comic origins of both Number Six and Seven.
What Is The Umbrella Academy?
GameSpot Universe does a good job of summarizing what The Umbrella Academy is all about. While the video avoids spoilers, it also provides a nice refresher on each character’s abilities. It also gives some insight into the familial dynamics that remain the heart of the story. It also quickly covers the sequels to the first comic, and how they might play into the new series.
Umbrella Academy Featurettes
The first of three featurettes from Netflix takes a look into the premise of the series by asking, who is The Umbrella Academy? If you’re unfamiliar with the source material, this featurette does a good job of framing not only the plot of the show, but also the tone that it quickly establishes. Aside from this, we also get some insight into the character interactions and motivations throughout.
The second video comes from Netflix UK & Ireland. It features Robert Sheehan and Tom Hopper reading “thirsty tweets” that come from some of their admirers. Although there’s nothing of real significance here, it offers a good look at the chemistry between the actors off set. As it turns out both are fairly amusing in this video, but it’s also interesting to note how much Sheehan resembles the traits of Klaus in the show itself.
Finally, we have a sweet video from Netflix that takes a look into a recent The Umbrella Academy-themed wedding that was put on for two super-fans of the comic. Naturally, there’s nothing about the show itself here. But it’s always nice to see when comics and fandom are able to bring people together.
Top 10 Reasons To Watch Umbrella Academy
In this spoiler-free Top 10 countdown from WatchMojo, we explore some of the reasons why The Umbrella Academy is worth checking out. Although the video is pretty light and fluffy overall, there are some good tidbits of information strewn throughout.
What If Umbrella Academy Actually Happened?
In this video, also from WatchMojo, we explore an interesting idea – what if the events of the show actually happened? As the video astutely points out, the premise itself would defy knowledge of science in general, forcing what would surely create a media firestorm. The video also examines how this so-called Immaculate Conception would affect politics, religion and pop culture in general. There’s also the psychological toll that these children would have to deal with, along with how the prospect of facing real-life superheroes might change our outlook on the world.
(Final Warning: Spoilers for The Umbrella Academy moving forward!)
The Umbrella Academy Explained
Jumping into Spoiler Territory we have a longer, spoiler-filled video from Nerdwire that summarizes everything you need to know about The Umbrella Academy. Although this video focuses on volume 1 of the source material – Apocalypse Suite. It also covers some of the subsequent volumes as well.
Number 6, Ben Hargreeves, The Horror Explained
In another video from Key Issues, we take a quick look at what we know about Ben Hargreeves, a.k.a. Number six, or The Horror. Ben is easily the most mysterious character in The Umbrella Academy, mostly due to the fact that the circumstances surrounding his death have yet to be revealed. Despite this, Ben remains a crucial figure, with most of the family seemingly blaming Luther (number one) for his death. Ben’s abilities are also explored, but it’s Way’s quote about all of the characters feeling responsible in some way that makes that particular mystery intriguing moving forward in season two.
Number 7, Vanya Hargreeves Explained
In this video from Key Issues, we take a deep dive into Vanya Hargreeves, a.k.a. The White Violin. While Vanya is certainly the most powerful character in the show, this video does an excellent job of recapping both the origin and evolution of the character in the comics. Aside from this, we also get some insight on Vanya’s motivations, along with how the character’s untapped power works within the confines of the story.
As always, let us know your thoughts on The Umbrella Academy in the comment section below. Make sure to check back next week as we dig into the wild ending of season one!
