Though l liked the first season of "Umbrella Academy" I felt that it had some issues with pacing that meant it repeated the story beats more often than it really needed to. This second season, as well as keeping all the parts that I enjoyed about that first run, manages to fix that problem too.
Leaping away from the apocalypse, Number Five (Aidan Gallagher) deposits his family in the same back alley in Dallas in the early 1960's, although unfortunately, not all in the same year. So a couple of years have passed for some of them, before they are able to come back together. Vanya (Ellen Page) is living with a family on a farm. Luther (Tom Hopper) is bare knuckle fighting for Jack Ruby. Diego (David Castaneda) has been committed for ranting about the impending death of JFK. Allison (Emmy Raver-Lampman) has married and is part of the civil rights movement and Klaus (Robert Sheehan), still with Ben (Justin H. Min) haunting him, has started a cult. Unfortunately, though away from the 2019 apocalypse for a while, they appear to have brought a new one with them.
Though again all the family have their own stories, the main thrust of the plot of this one is sensibly in the hands of the shows best character, or best performance anyway. Aidan Gallagher is strikingly good as number five, whose season is about desperately trying to corral his wayward family to safety, whilst staying a step ahead of The Handler (a returning Kate Walsh, who is also revelatory whenever she's on screen). The show is much better plotted this time around with a focused story about trying to avoid another apocalypse whilst investigating whether there father played a part in the Kennedy assassination. I was a little sad to lose the other worldly out-of-time aspect that the first season has, despite being set in 2019. Instead its 100% sixties period this time, though I would say is also well done.
A show that improves as it runs, there's a rarity. Let's see how they do with Season Three.
