Critical Condition: The Umbrella Academy

The Umbrella Academy | Netflix, from Friday

☆☆☆☆ “Just as DC Universe drops the premiere of its wild, weird Doom Patrol, Netflix presents The Umbrella Academy, an adaptation of an award-winning Dark Horse Comics title about another family of heroes. But this series is This is Us A Million Little Brothers & Sisters with a dash of the ‘Arrowverse’ action and a style and humour all its own. It delivers a terrific cast toplined by Ellen Page (X-Men: Days of Future Past) and Tom Hopper (Black Sails, Game of Thrones), who dig into the psyches of their flawed super-powered protagonists.” — Boston Herald.

☆☆☆☆ “The pilot radiates Deadpool mature-content swagger, but this is another hard-candy-shell drama; all grim posing shading toward the sentimental superheroism of ‘come on gang we gotta save the world!’ … This show comes down to earth fast.” — Entertainment Weekly.

☆☆☆☆ “The show achieves a great balance of surreal chaos and character depth. The style is bonkers, with La La Land-ish musical sequences, a full-cast bop to Tiffany’s ‘I Think We’re Alone Now’ and a pair of assassins (Mary J Blige and Cameron Britton) who fight wearing giant cartoon heads for no good reason. But the characters have meat. It’s really a show about the damage done by a messed up childhood.” — NME.

☆☆☆☆ “The Umbrella Academy treats itself as an inferior addendum to big-screen superhero stories, so there should be no surprise when it feels like one. It’s safe, like Superheroes Lite — it’s not as focused and fun as the Marvel movies, and it doesn’t have the ambition that sparks anger in DC fans.” — IndieWire.

☆☆☆☆ “These aren’t regular superheroes — they’re cool superheroes, with oddball talents and edgy attitudes and a talking chimp butler! … And when they get in physical fights, it’s soundtracked by ‘ironic’ peppy pop music, the clearest sign a show is more interested in maintaining a pose than in showing us something we haven’t seen before.” — Variety.