Every Umbrella Academy Episode Ranked Worst To Best

They're all great, but which are exceptional?

By Scott Banner /

In a world in which the film and TV industry is so saturated with comic book adaptations, it takes something special to truly stand out from the rest. With The Umbrella Academy, Netflix have found this kind of property, and then some.

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First created in 2007 by My Chemical Romance frontman Gerard Way, The Umbrella Academy introduced the world to the titular school of super powered children, ready to reunite years later to save the world. Adapted for TV 12 years later, the show was able to capture the same magic as the source material that inspired it.

With season one debuting in 2019, The Umbrella Academy instantly became one of the most binge-worthy shows on TV, and was rewarded just two months later with the confirmation of a second season. In July 2020, we were treated to ten more episodes, continuing the show's stellar record.

The combination of a compelling story, a handful of wonderful characters, and an excellent cast to bring them to life has allowed for 20 great episodes of The Umbrella Academy. However, some are certainly better than others, with some standing out as truly special.

20. We Only See Each Other At Weddings And Funerals (S1E1)

The very first episode of the Umbrella Academy had an incredibly tough job. Not only did it have to set up the premise of the Academy itself and the main story points, it had to introduce the seven main characters, plus Sir Reginald and Pogo.

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With so many people, this episode could have suffered in the same way the opening of Suicide Squad did back in 2016, but instead managed to introduce not only all of the Hargreeves children, but develop them, their key relationships, and the family dynamics. It may have seemed like there was a lot of exposition in this episode, possibly slightly too much, but it was necessary to open the series in the best possible way.

It was a slow, deliberate outing, but ended with an absolute bang with Number 5's fight scene in the donut shop. If viewers weren't grabbed by the beginning and middle of the episode, they certainly were by the end.

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