Stream It Or Skip It: ‘The Umbrella Academy’ Season 3 on Netflix, Where The Super Sibs Return For A Third Season And More Alt Timeline Hijinx

The Umbrella Academy was an immediate streaming hit for Netflix when it premiered in 2019, and it built up plenty of steam with a wild and wooly second season full of time travel and apocalypse scenarios. As the ten-episode third season drops, and U/A star Elliot Page’s Vanya is transitioning to Viktor, their super siblings are in for a super shock: in the timeline to which they’ve returned, Sir Reginald Hargreeves has a whole different Academy going on.

THE UMBRELLA ACADEMY: SEASON 3: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: A subway tunnel, and the train rushing down the track from the operator’s point of view. Pipes snake off in different directions, and the walls are scarred with graffiti. It’s October 1, 1989, and we’re in Seoul, Korea.

The Gist: “Dad, who the hell are these assholes?” a very much alive Ben Hargreeves (Justin H. Min) asked an equally ambulatory Sir Reggie in the season two finale of The Umbrella Academy, and that’s exactly where season three kicks off. It’s April 2, 2019, the day after what would have been the apocalypse, and Page’s Vanya (who is still Vanya for now), Luther (Tom Hopper), Diego (David Castaneda), Allison (Emmy Raver-Lampman), Klaus (Robert Sheehan), and Five (Aidan Gallgher) are trying and failing to get their bearings as they return from 1963 to a suddenly shifted timeline. The Umbrella Academy? Try again. This is the Sparrow Academy, and its super Hargreeves siblings are squaring up for a fight. There’s the powerfully-built Marcus (Justin Cornwell), their leader; Fei (Britne Oldford), who sees through the eyes of an unkindness of ravens; Sloane (Genesis Rodriguez), in control of energy; Jayme (Cazzie David), strong and sarcastic; Alphonso (Jake Epstein), who absorbs powers; Ben, with his pair of spindly magical tentacles; and “Christopher,” whose physical form is a sentient glowing cube. The rival academies exchange words, then they exchange blows. But not before Diego hallucinates a dance-off.

The Umbrella Academy has always felt free to get crazy with its own Cheez-Whiz, and season three doesn’t waste any time returning to that same M.O. When the Sparrows knock the shit out of them (“I’ve never had my ass handed to me like that before,” a surprised Luther says), the Umbrellas repair to the eccentric Hotel Obsidian to lick their wounds and consider this new alternate timeline. Five lost track of The Commission’s briefcase, so a simple time loop fixer is out of the question. If Hargreeves adopted the Sparrow sibs instead of them, then do their doppelgangers exist elsewhere in this world? And how is it that Diego suddenly has a son? That’s right, please welcome Javon Walton, aka Ashtray from Euphoria, to the Academy as Stan.

There’s even more tantalizing weirdness lingering at the outset of U/A season three, and some agonizing details to the imperfect nature of timeline tinkering, as Allison discovers to her horror. But what’s perhaps most concerning for everybody is the ball of pulsing destruction that has formed in the bowels of the Hargreeves building. It has Grace (Jordan Claire Robbins) mesmerized and scrawling runes on the cellar floor, and it seems to have plans for everyone else.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? The Magicians, which wrapped up its five-season run on Syfy in 2020, exchanged spells for superpowers. But it had its share of alternate timelines, too, not to mention a similarly snarky vibe. And the larger forces of no less than heaven and hell are aligned in their search for one woman in Warrior Nun, the Netflix fantasy drama based on an American manga comic book.

Our Take: Gloriously weird, refreshingly progressive, and happily pulling out every stop on the way to the alternate timeline plot generator, The Umbrella Academy is its own damn animal, and indifferent to any gripes from those unwilling to climb aboard. Start talking about time travel, and obviously, the limitations are few. Anything can be true if changes in the past beget new versions of the present, and in this case, that’s created an entire new gang of characters. But what’s great about Academy is how those characters are brought to life. The banter between the Umbrella siblings is funny, fresh, and endearing, particularly in a pair of quieter scenes as the brothers and sisters split up into separate hotel rooms. And that chemistry is matched on the other side of town, as we start to learn about the intra-sibling dynamics of the Sparrow gang. Marcus doesn’t have final say like he thinks he does, especially where Ben and Fei are concerned, and the strong sense that Sloane and Luther seem made for each other is sure to have its own set of ramifications. Page, Raver-Lampman, Hopper, and Sheehan are all doing fine work here, and Min is a standout as a version of Ben that’s cunning, scheming, and full of bad vibes. All of the actors in The Umbrella Academy are able to make their characters believable, relatable. And that makes all of the machinations over time travel and timelines manageable, because at the end of the day it’s just fun.

Sex and Skin: Nothing in the first episode.

Parting Shot: Five, Luther, and Diego are enjoying a few adult beverages in the Hotel Obsidian’s lounge. “The point is, we did it,” Five tells them. “We saved the world. We stopped the apocalypse and made it home safe in time for dinner. So whatever Dad changed, whatever timeline we’re in now, we can handle it. We won.” Five might not be so confident if he could see what the pulsating energy ball in the Academy’s cellar is up to.

Sleeper Star: Cazzie David might low-key be the coolest of the Sparrow Academy siblings. As Jayme, aka #6, Larry David’s daughter has a sly smile, super asskicking strength, and the ability to hock an ink loogie that makes anyone it lands on hallucinate wildly.

Most Pilot-y Line: Timeline problems. The U/A’s got ‘em. Five tries to explain the notion of doppelgangers to his brothers, and what to do if they appear. “If you ever see your other self” – “Kill them?” Diego suggests; “Sleep with them?” offers Klaus – “Avoid them.” Replaced by the S/A, dismissed by their dad, and planning contingencies for close encounters of the personal kind? Timeline problems, man. They’re a bear.

Our Call: STREAM IT. The Umbrella Academy never met a time traveling wrinkle it didn’t like, and for season three, there’s a lot of fallout to sort through. But with strong characters both old and new, there’s plenty of reason to see it through.

Johnny Loftus is an independent writer and editor living at large in Chicagoland. His work has appeared in The Village Voice, All Music Guide, Pitchfork Media, and Nicki Swift. Follow him on Twitter: @glennganges